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The Coffin Tree
Wendy Law-Yone opens her first novel with the phrase of a survivor, "Living things prefer to go on living." A young woman and her older half-brother are expelled from their home in Burma by a savage political coup. Sent to elusive safety in America, the motherless siblings find themselves engulfed by the indifference, hypocrisy, and cruelty of an American society unable to deal with difference. Her brother's death drives the unnamed narrator into the seclusion of a mental hospital, where memories of her childhood and the strength it ingrained in her are enough to heal her heart and return her to the outside world.
208 pages, Paperback
First published March 12, 1983
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About the author
Wendy Law-Yone
11 books25 followersWendy 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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May 8, 2020"Living things prefer to go on living."
From THE COFFIN TREE by Wendy Law-Yone, 1983.
Law-Yone opens her 1983 debut novel with the death of the protagonist's grandmother, who then goes on to 'prowl the house' as a specter for months after her death. Broad brushstrokes of a a childhood in northern Burma, an itinerant father with another family, whimsical twin aunts, and the monsoons that mark time.
The past is diaphanous, not fully formed. It only truly comes into precision as our main character and her half-brother are whisked out of the Burma during the 1962 coup d'état, quickly forced to start a new life with very little in a different country.
The book was a challenge. Just when I felt I was getting into the story, there was a dramatic shift of scene of point-of-view. Part One was great - the childhood, the relationship with her brother who has a mental illness... I was there for it and invested. Part Two was where it started to lose me. I often appreciate a novel that throws me into the deep end, but this one gave no life line, no shimmer in the distance, and seemed so discordant from what was established in Part One earlier.
Still, I'm interested in what Law-Yone has to say, and many of her later books have been well-received. My plan is to read her memoir next - GOLDEN PARASOL: A Daughter's Memoir of Burma.
Will a nonfiction account shed light on the fiction? We'll see.
From THE COFFIN TREE by Wendy Law-Yone, 1983.
Law-Yone opens her 1983 debut novel with the death of the protagonist's grandmother, who then goes on to 'prowl the house' as a specter for months after her death. Broad brushstrokes of a a childhood in northern Burma, an itinerant father with another family, whimsical twin aunts, and the monsoons that mark time.
The past is diaphanous, not fully formed. It only truly comes into precision as our main character and her half-brother are whisked out of the Burma during the 1962 coup d'état, quickly forced to start a new life with very little in a different country.
The book was a challenge. Just when I felt I was getting into the story, there was a dramatic shift of scene of point-of-view. Part One was great - the childhood, the relationship with her brother who has a mental illness... I was there for it and invested. Part Two was where it started to lose me. I often appreciate a novel that throws me into the deep end, but this one gave no life line, no shimmer in the distance, and seemed so discordant from what was established in Part One earlier.
Still, I'm interested in what Law-Yone has to say, and many of her later books have been well-received. My plan is to read her memoir next - GOLDEN PARASOL: A Daughter's Memoir of Burma.
Will a nonfiction account shed light on the fiction? We'll see.
February 14, 2010
It's unfair of me to have expectations of an author or the time that they're writing about - but I was really amped up for a story about the takeover of Burma and the events leading up to the storyline in her other novel "Irrawaddy Tango".
I was okay with the turn of events that took place once she and her brother ended up in the US - but what happened in the last bit of the book? I really have no clue.
I was okay with the turn of events that took place once she and her brother ended up in the US - but what happened in the last bit of the book? I really have no clue.
August 11, 2013
I'm loving this book. I'm so glad that I gave it a second chance. Quite marvelous writing that pulled me right into the lives of narrator and everyone she is involved with. The author has a new book out. Just ordered it. Highly recommended.
June 16, 2010
I didn't even finish it.
March 28, 2013
I tried but couldn't get past first few pages....
December 31, 2014
Written in beautiful prose, and many passages about death and suicide made me want to scream YES, but overall the book seemed to lack focus.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews