Smile As They Bow

September 1, 2008
Myanmar novelist Yi, in her first work translated into English, gives a fascinating glimpse into the life of a gay, transvestite spirit medium caught up in a midlife crisis amid the currents of an annual summer Buddhist festival. A full array of pilgrims, along with their attendant pickpockets, musicians and peddlers, gather in the Burmese village of Taungbyon, eager to throw money at the various shrine natkadaws-mediums, mostly transvestites, who channel spirits known as nats. The narrative offers the stream-of-consciousness voices of several of these travel-worn festival visitors, but mainly dwells on the shrill sadness of one natkadaw in his fifties, Daisy Bond, weary of the obsequious wheedling that his job requires and terrified that Min Min, his bonded assistant of seven years, is going to leave him. A 16-year-old peasant when Daisy bought him from his mother, Min Min has become indispensable as Daisy's factotum, dresser, gofer and lover, but he's met a young street girl musician and is resolved to marry her. Yi convincingly portrays the bathos of Daisy's ludicrous gender-bending charade, though his mercenary quest for love is fully fleshed and affectingly portrayed.

August 18, 2008
Myanmar novelist Yi, in her first work translated into English, gives a fascinating glimpse into the life of a gay, transvestite spirit medium caught up in a midlife crisis amid the currents of an annual summer Buddhist festival. A full array of pilgrims, along with their attendant pickpockets, musicians and peddlers, gather in the Burmese village of Taungbyon, eager to throw money at the various shrine natkadaws-mediums, mostly transvestites, who channel spirits known as nats. The narrative offers the stream-of-consciousness voices of several of these travel-worn festival visitors, but mainly dwells on the shrill sadness of one natkadaw in his fifties, Daisy Bond, weary of the obsequious wheedling that his job requires and terrified that Min Min, his bonded assistant of seven years, is going to leave him. A 16-year-old peasant when Daisy bought him from his mother, Min Min has become indispensable as Daisy's factotum, dresser, gofer and lover, but he's met a young street girl musician and is resolved to marry her. Yi convincingly portrays the bathos of Daisy's ludicrous gender-bending charade, though his mercenary quest for love is fully fleshed and affectingly portrayed.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2008
Nu Nu Yi is one of Burmas most acclaimed authors, and this novel, banned for12 years by her government, is her American debut. Set during the Taungbyon Festival days, this mesmerizing tale moves seamlessly among severalcolorful characters. At center stage is Daisy Bond, the gay transvestite nakadaw who channels spirits for festival attendees, and Min Min, the object of his stifling affection. When Min Min falls in love with a beggar girl, their life is disrupted. Daisy Bond, ever the drama queen, throws deliciously bawdy spectacles while he chases Min Min all over festival territory on aging feet, but through the escapades, professionalism remains tantamount, and Daisy Bond must perform for the undulating masses, collecting kyat notes, placating the nats (spirits), despite how cranky he becomes with these love games. Full of mischief, the sheer life force of Nu Nu Yisprose bubbles off the page. This remarkably elegant translation by Alfred Birnbaum and Thi Thi Aye brings to life a story that is as universal as it is uniquely Burmese.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)