Irrawaddy Tango

by Wendy Law-Yone, Amitav Ghosh (Foreword)

A novel of love, vengeance and political unrest in South East Asia

Irrawaddy Tango, a pepper-tongued, tango-dancing Asian beauty rises from a village girlhood to become the wife of her country's dictator and then a leader of the rebel forces arrayed against him. Tango captures the attention of an ambitious colonel --the self-proclaimed Supremo--while dancing at a talent contest. Once married, she is forced to endure the cruelties of a ruthless and foolish husband, is kidnapped by rebel forces, recaptured and brutally punished by her husband's military clique, and eventually exiled to America. Her return to the fictional Republic of Daya (clearly Burma) brings about the destruction of her husband and his dictatorship. Irrawaddy Tango tells the unsettling tale of powerful men and powerless women. It evokes as well the harshness of exile, revealing the misunderstandings between East and West and by doing so captures the intensity of living between the two.

Genres: Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 1994

About the author

Wendy Law-Yone (born 1947) is a critically acclaimed Burmese American author of novels and short stories.

The daughter of notable Burmese newspaper publisher, editor and politician Edward Michael Law-Yone, Law-Yone was born in Mandalay but grew up in Rangoon. Law-Yone has indicated that her father's imprisonment under the military regime limited her options in the country. She was barred from university, but not allowed to leave the country. In 1967, an attempt to escape to Thailand failed and she was imprisoned, but managed to leave Burma as a stateless person. She relocated to the United States in 1973, settling in Washington D.C. after attending college in Florida. In 1987, she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Award for Creative Writing.[8] In 2002, she received a David T.K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship from the University of East Anglia.

Her novels, The Coffin Tree (1983) and Irrawaddy Tango (1993), were critically well received, with the latter nominated in 1995 for the Irish Times Literary Prize. Her third novel, "The Road to Wanting," (2010) is set in Burma, China and Thailand and was long-listed for the Orange Prize 2011.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit rambling and disconnected in the last third, but not a bad read.

[Riley Neither · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book offered a compelling exploration of dictatorship, trauma, Burmese history, and movement between Southeast Asia and the West. I wouldn't recommend it for someone who's looking to be introduced to those topics, but for an audience that already has some of that background, this is definitely a worthwhile read. Slow at times but rich, invitingly readable, and very deliberate about what it shows, what it tells, and what it discusses.

There were some things I had mixed feelings about. For one, there's a chapter toward the end of the book that talks about torture and frames it as a Third World problem. The main character was living in America at this point in the story, so it seemed like a glaring and questionable oversight to pretend that America (and other Western/First World powers) has never used torture itself or backed torturous regimes elsewhere. But this was published in 1994, and (since I was a tiny child then) I don't know how much public awareness there was then of America's torture, and anyway, the book's not really about America. Aside from framing it as a Third World issue, I thought the exploration of torture was well-handled and insightful in a way I'm not sure I've seen in fiction before.

I also had mixed feelings about the ending. I don't love the suggestion that vengeance (killing Supremo) would be the key to the main character's ability to finally heal. There's enough ambiguity in the ending that you could come to different conclusions about whether it would actually have that effect, but the way I read it, that was the one good thing she was sure of about her future, that it would finally be possible to heal. Interestingly, though, the narrative seems to make the opposite point about the country's future: that the country's healing, its path to democracy, would be dependent on not celebrating her or her act of vengeance, but prosecuting her for it (in striking contrast to the last regime change, where the military leaders of the independence movement were celebrated and rose up in power to create the dictatorship). So there's a lot to chew on in the ending, and some bits sit better than other bits.

Finally, a smaller note--there are a few very brief instances of fatphobia and misgendering. Of the latter, there's a minor (presumably Thai) character who says, "I look like girl, but inside, I feel like boy," and the narration consistently refers to this character with feminine pronouns (for the two pages they're present).

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first reaction to this book was to shake my head over the positive reviews on the cover. Then, looking back, after reading more and more about Burma, I decided this novel is probably based on a lot of what really went on during the junta. The author is certainly one who is in a position to know. If you decide to read this book, do check out her others including a memoir. She is a talented Burmese author

[Shelley Alongi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s really hard to say what I think of this book because in some instances there were more occurrences of Tell rather than show but in some cases the towel is just right. I didn’t quite understand for the end of the book the rabbit trail she took talking about torture. There were some places that I understood in terms of history although this book takes place in the very fictional setting. I think if I had to sit down and read this book rather than listen to it I probably would’ve put it down along time ago because it just went very slowly. It’s definitely something that I wanted to try not only because of the interesting title but because it was very different from what I have read recently. I always try to give different styles a chance because I might end up liking something. I don’t think based on this book that I would read anymore of her writings however I do have to say that the slow movement of this book is refreshing in some cases because I get tired of reading books that are written with a specific formula in mind. For a modern novel this reads pretty well if you want to take the time and there are people who like taking time to read. I would read a book in the style on a different subject. At least I gave it a try. I did find the ending surprise and that’s always good. :-)

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was unlike any book I've ever read. It looks thin and sleek, but every page contains so much subtext and meaning. It truly modeled the dance itself.

All of the TWs. I stopped and cried and processed some of my own trauma at multiple points in this story.

I honestly can't put it better than The New Yorker's review from the front cover "As stylish, restrained, violent, and full of thrilling juxtapositions and reversals as that dance."

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an eerie, atmospheric tale. It is a small book, but dense and hard to read in places. I'm having a hard time describing it.