Incident at Badamya

by Dorothy Gilman

1950 Burma: Gen Ferris, 16, must flee after her missionary father commits suicide. Her knapsack holds $100 US, a slingshot, a magical Burmese puppet, and the New York City, USA address of an unknown aunt. Imprisoned with six other lost travelers by Red Chinese, she vows to escape; never dreaming who will come to her aid.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Adventure, Suspense, Asia, Historical Fiction, Adult

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Dorothy Edith Gilman started writing when she was 9 and knew early on she was to be a writer. At 11, she competed against 10 to 16-year-olds in a story contest and won first place. She attended Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and briefly the University of Pennsylvania. She planned to write and illustrate children's books. She married Edgar A. Butters Jr, in 1945, this ended in divorce in 1965. Dorothy worked as an art teacher & telephone operator before becoming an author. She wrote children’s stories for more than ten years under the name Dorothy Gilman Butters and then began writing adult novels about Mrs. Pollifax–a retired grandmother who becomes a CIA agent. The Mrs. Pollifax series made Dorothy famous. While her stories nourish people’s thirst for adventure and mystery, Dorothy knew about nourishing the body as well. On her farm in Nova Scotia, she grew medicinal herbs and used this knowledge of herbs in many of her stories, including A Nun in the Closet. She travelled extensively, and used these experiences in her novels as well. Many of Dorothy’s books, feature strong women having adventures around the world. In 2010 Gilman was awarded the annual Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Dorothy spent much of her life in Connecticut, New Mexico, and Maine. She died at age 88 of complications of Alzheimer's disease. She is survived by two sons, Christopher Butters and Jonathan Butters; and two grandchildren.

Series:
* Mrs. Pollifax

Reviews

[Luann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend this to all Dorothy Gilman fans - who, of course, should read everything she's ever written. This isn't her typical mystery or spy thriller - if that's how you think of the Mrs. Pollifax books. This does have the exotic setting and an unlikely hero with great survival skills. It also has a touch of mysticism and a great supporting cast of interesting characters.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my regular re-reads - I was surprised it hadn't already been added because I read it 3 or 4 times per year. Its a great story about a young American girl, raised in Burma during WWII, and who is now an orphan, trying to leave. I have no idea how accurate it is about Burma, but I don't think that accuracy is important to me - it is plausible and I love it because it is full of magic, discovery, and reminds me that God has not abandoned me simply because my life feels out of my control.

[Kyrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my absolute favorite Dorothy Gilman. A 16 year old girl's father kills himself in Thailand and now she has to get herself out of the country and to her American aunt (who she's never met). She's captured by the Red Chinese, along with other tourists, and how they survive and eventually escape is just great fiction, with a bit of paranormal wonder thrown in. Like most of my favorite books, I'm not doing the story justice. It's really good, though.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took this for a short plane trip read. Pleasant read, a nice change from the author's cozy Mrs. Pollifax series. This short novel is set in Burma, 1950 and has a touch of native magic sprinkled about. She mines the trope of disparate characters trapped together coming to terms with each other's strengths and weaknesses and in doing so find a pearl or two of life's lessons.

Some quotes:
"I think when time moves very slowlyit leaves spaces in between moments for more things to happen." -Gen

"Why is this man recalling to me all the hatreds, angers, and revenges I've nursed in life? I grow old and and wounds mount but how many wounds have I given as well?" -Lady Waring

"She wishes to hide, she wishes to throw away the rest of her life because of her past. Me, I don't like waste. It is possible that she will find.. redemption....but it is more likely that she will feel lonely and alien, and every passion in her will be killed." -Mr. Baharian

" I had stopped being a memsahib and a stranger, and we had become fellow human beings alive in the universe at the same moment. Something flowed between us, a warmth, a recognition-from holding hands and being together ion this long walk at night in the bush. I wasn't frightened-because what I felt was an incredible awareness of the moment and the sharingness between us." -Mrs. Caswell

"tragedies don't interest me, tragedies and heartbreaks are all alike, what matters is how a person meets them, how they survive them. Given the inevitability of lossess and disappointments in life, that's where the challenge is..." Mrs. Caswell

"In the East, in much of the world, as you no doubt realize, it is believed that we live many lives, returning to this earth again and again, bringing consequences and responsibilities with us from past lives to meet again and work through. Earth is a learning ground, that's all." -U Ba Sein

"we in the East see life as a long, long struggle toward perfect knowledge, a procession of souls given flesh to love, hate, kill, victimize, forgive, sow, reap, create and destroy, be sinners or saints until at last we break through our shells to the God inside us." -U Ba Sein

"There are people who insist that we're made of bone and flesh and muscle but I say instead that we're made of memories. Cherish them but don't live in them, Gen, or they'll destroy the bridges to your future." -Lady Waring

[Carrie Brownell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothy Gilman, I feel, is a underestimated and largely unrecognized name in the book world -- something that needs correcting. It's been a few years since I've picked up one of her books but I stumbled across this one recently and it seemed like a fun summer read.

Gilman is an extremely intelligent and knowledgeable writer who captures her readers with tales of mystery and suspense. You'll miss half of the meaning in the book, most likely, simply for not having a healthy understanding of history and philosophy. However this will not prevent you from enjoying the read all the same! Just be prepared to learn as you go! With this quick read, Gilman provides plenty of opportunity to escape the day-to-day and lose yourself in a strong story. If I were to compare her to other writers, I'd say she has the ability to churn out mysteries like Christie but with the intelligence of Sayers. She's all around good fun and I'm glad she was a part of my summer.

[Maryanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was beautifully well written, filled with intrigue, mystery and a cast of characters thrown together as kidnapped victims of Burmese rebels. Dorothy Gilman never fails to disappoint with an unlikely and wise heroine, 16 year old orphaned Genevieve Ferris, with incredible survival skills. As always, the heroine has an uncanny ability to make friends, together they overcome insurmountable odds to escape from their prison. There are wonderful descriptions of the Burmese country, culture and customs, including mystical and magical elements of Burmese puppetry. The story has a delightful ending, as Gen gets ready to leave on her new journey to New York… “She carried with her a battered felt hat, a pearl necklace, certain memories to cherish, the puppet Zawgwi and an awareness of many new genevieves to be learned and explored."

[Sheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was in the mood for a mystery and it was not a mystery (nor did I think it would be), but it was quite satisfying because it gave me a similar feeling of closure -- which some of Dorothy Gilman's non-Pollifax mysteries don't always accomplish, actually, so rather unexpected.

I generally enjoy Gilman's books and this one was no exception. I don't share Gilman's view of reality or theological opinions, but I share her mood somehow and so am comfortable in her world. Nothing in her books is ever surprising, but they're predictable in the sense that a mystery or a romance is predictable, where the predictability is part of the pleasure. Classic comfort reads.

[Diane Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful story. A seemingly disparate group of travelers come together at a remote temple on the Irrawaddy River in Burma. It's 1950 and they aren't there because they want to be. Very well done!

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit clunky, and essentially a "lesson" book, but it feels like Gilman, so it's excellent for fans of her work to just get a little more | For most of the book little happens, aside from each character revealing, one at a time, the private hidden parts of themselves and learning from each other the ways they have been intolerant, close-minded, and hide-bound. Each person takes it in turns to become a better person, and by so doing teach the reader a lesson. But the lessons are familiar Gilman lessons, the voices are familiar Gilman voices, and I find her work generous and comforting, so I'm pleased. Also a little tidbit: at one point the plot of a fictional in-world novel is discussed, and a character in that novel is named Charmian. I know the name goes back to Cleopatra, but I became familiar with it as a child reading Gilman's The Maze in the Heart of the Castle, so it was like a little wave.

[Karen GoatKeeper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gen Ferris has lived in Thailand for most of her life. Her parents were missionaries. First illness kills her mother. Then her father commits suicide leaving her a note to go first to Rangoon and then to an aunt she has never met living in the U.S.
Gen sets off trying to catch up with the first steamer boat on the Irrawaddy River in many months. The country is torn by civil war with various factions moving throughout the area. She is captured by the Red Army and imprisoned with six others in an old Buddhist temple. If the government does not ransom them, the group will be killed. Unless they escape.
This book is a fast paced, but relaxed easy read. Everyone in the group has secrets. Some of the guards have secrets too. Time is limited. It is tempting to continue reading to the last word in one sitting.

[June · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I'd never read this book before, but I kept bumping into familiar echoes. Whether it's because I've read the book before, or because I have read so much Gilman and her terrain is like home country, I do not know.

Either way, I enjoyed every moment of it.

Brighter Winter: Read a book set in Asia

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so love Dorothy Gilman, what a gift her writing is to me and so many others. This is not a Mrs. Polifax book, but takes a similar tone of discovery and appreciation of non-Western cultures--this time, Burma.

[Lizzytish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming and captivating story of a young teenager raised in Burma. She has become an orphan and is making her way to America when she becomes kidnapped along with a group of passengers from a ship. The story centers on her escape and how a group of people open up and learn how to accept one another while realizing their own shortcomings.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

At least. for me. a little gem. And an example of the old adage that if you show a slingshot in the first act, you'd better use it by the end of the second.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Gilman’s group-of-people-learn-to-accept-themselves-and-overcome-together books. Although I prefer Caravan, this is a comforting, kind novel, with a bit of spirituality wafting through.

[Jef Sneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet little novel I swiped from my wife's pile of books. Not my usual fare, but very engaging and enjoyable. A summer read?

[L. Soper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first discovered the brilliant storytelling of Dorothy Gilman when I read The Tightrope Walker in high school, and I've been a huge fan of her writing ever since.

Incident at Badamya was a new book to me, discovered while perusing the wonderful Book Alley of Pasadena, CA (if you're looking for old books in excellent condition, support this bookshop please at bookalley.com).

A really captivating story of a young American woman who grew up living among the Burmese who finds herself orphaned at 16 and in desperate need to return to America.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best Dorothy Gilman book I've read so far. It's not a Mrs. Pollifax mystery. It's an exotic adventure story set in Burma in the early 50s. A young 16 year old American girl who has known only Burma suddenly finds herself orphaned and must make her way to the United States to live with an aunt. She is captured by the Chinese who are infiltrating Burma. She has six fellow captives who had been on a boat on their way to Rangoon. Together these captives learn about each other and seek to escape.

[Teri-K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to describe. It is, indeed, a story set in the 1950's of a 16 year-old American girl, born and raised in Burma, who must make her way to American after her father dies. And she is captured and held, along with others, in the Burmese countryside. But it's also the story of each of her fellow captives, and how the time they spend together reveals and changes them.

Probably most readers of this book will be fans of the author's Mrs. Pollifax series, and they should understand this isn't a Mrs. Pollifax novel with a younger heroine. But it contains the same respect for people of diverse cultures and religions, as well as that sense of humanity that the Mrs. P. books have. There's also the strong sense of place that Gilman always offers her readers. All in all a story I genuinely enjoyed.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful story... sticks in the corners of your mind and heart.

Dorothy Gilman is especially known for her Mrs. Pollifax novels. When she broke out into other stories, she was a wonderful writer. I love her international outlook on life.

[Em7ar7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my most favorite books!

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and unexpected ending. I enjoyed learning a bit more about Burma. I liked how the characters developed through the book.

[Story · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so enthralling that I wish I was just starting it. I will be reading this again.

[Zodama Bug · Rating 5 out of 5]

unique storyline and excellent assortment of characters

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

INCIDENT AT BADMYA by Dorothy Gilman
I was so sad to have reached the end of the Mrs. Pollifax series, that a friend suggested finding other works, and this one has it all, danger, helpful friends, unexpected lessons . . .
Gen, orphaned in Burma in 1950, is captured and held for ransom along with passengers left behind by the river boat. Insurgents have set a deadline for ransom or . . . execution.
Gen is serious, introspective, and open-minded enough to find the real people under their masks, anger masking fear, loneliness hiding behind aloofness, and like Mrs. Pollifax, is loyal to and received loyalty from the friends she finds along the way.
A few insights:
“Unleashing Lady Waring upon the insurgents would not be without benefit.”
“It’s anger that keeps people going.” “what matters is how a person meets (tragedy)”
Lady W’s cane a prop and weapon, “I can walk.”
Miss Thorald “I wonder if we can ever know a person until we know them under stress.”
U Ba Sein, puppet master (recognized at first glimpse on boat) tells Gen she is a visitor from star. I’m glad she came . . .

[Mona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book seemed very different from the Pollifax series. In 1950, Gen Ferris, 16 year old child of a missionary in Burma, loses her father (her mother deceased several years before). She decides she will need to leave the Burmese village where she lives and somehow make her way to American where an aunt lives. Gen is uniquely bicultural. As she is leaving the village she encounters an American who does not hide the fact that he is a spy and is also trying to reach America from an intelligence-gathering trip to China. They become separated and she falls in with 5 English and American people, as well as a Burmese puppeteer who have been captured by communist insurgents. They are all held captive in an old temple. Initially everyone is fairly hostile toward each other, but gradually their true stories come out and they bond. When they appear threatened by imminent death, they attempt an escape, aided by a dacoit friend of Gen’s. There is a certain mystical quality to the story that I found very enjoyable. Gen is a pleasant mixture of innocent 16 year old girl and wise woman.

[Susanna Natti · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable read. The setting is Burma in 1950 and Dorothy Gilman demonstrates a convincing knowledge of Burma: its multiple warring ethnic factions, Burmese customs, language and its rich tradition of puppetry. She offers, as well, very thoughtful insights from the characters that set up tensions between the Western and Eastern way of viewing life.

Seven travelers are thrown together when they are kidnapped as political pawns; they reveal themselves to each other as time goes on. The main character, Gen Ferris, a sixteen year old American who has been raised in Burma and has been suddenly orphaned by her father's suicide, is elfin and wise at the same time, a magical heroine.

Their escape is improbable, but plausible. As I followed Gen in her efforts to reach safety, it felt very much to me like traditional tales where a hero (or heroine) is given a few items whose powers are not known at first, but become essential. Gen's knowledge of Burma prove invaluable. The ending is satisfying.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entertaining, easy-to-read story is set in Burma in 1950. The story is of young teenage girl and a group of Americans and Brits who are taken captive by a rebel group. Winding it's way through the lives of these people, the focus is on how all of us are far more than what we first appear to others to be. We all have 'masks' we often use when interacting with others. It is a pleasant story that leaves you content and wondering.............
In regards to the setting - Burma, Mao being successful in China, Chiang Kai-shek going to Taiwan, the land and villages, etc. I can attest to this being an accurate portrayal of the time period and people. I was very near the border of Burma (in Thailand) many years ago. It was still commonplace for the Chinese villagers living in Thailand - who had fled China when Mao took over - to be carrying rifles and always on alert to invasion. They still ate rice for breakfast and dinner, lived near a stream to get water, slept on a mat on the floor, etc.
This book brought back many memories and I am so glad I read the story.

[Gwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about hope, the spirit (or, the spirits), and how strangers can become closer than family. A quick (re-)read, this was welcome respite after a long, tough novel. In 1950, Gen Ferris decides to heed her father's final message to her after he commits suicide: to leave Burma and go to the US. An American citizen, Gen's entire life of 16 years' memory has been in Burma as the daughter of missionaries. Her attempt to leave is thwarted, or perhaps stymied, by the ongoing civil war. Captured as she attempted to catch a boat, she joins five others (American, British and Burman). As they each discover over their time of imprisonment and attempt to flee, people are much more than they seem. A beautiful woman can be a murderer, a puppetmaster may have much bigger strings to pull -- but all reveal their true selves and emerge from the ordeal transformed, to their better selves.