Two reviews of my novella--The Rider of Crocodiles by KM Kaung--copied and pasted from Amazon--

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A very engrossing book

By MW on June 15, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition

Ms. Kaung's new novella "The Rider of Crocodiles" is a very engrossing book following in the footsteps of her previous novellas, "Black Rice " and " The Lovers". It is a true story based upon actual events and people. I highly recommend it to readers who are interested in the history of Siam and Burma.

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It sounds like a Believe-It-or-Not for us

By Khin Pwint Oo on April 27, 2015

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

My Review on K M Kaung’s Novela “Rider of Crocodiles”

I remember the fictitious story, I must say, which our kyee kyee (my father’s elder sister) relates to us. It sounds like a Believe-It-or-Not for us, (as we were quite young to comprehend), on hearing that they descended from Zinme, Yodaya or Siam in those long-gone days [now known to many as Chaingmai, in Thailand]. We know where Siam is [we learned in school days].

Kyee Kyee seemed to be conceited saying that their great-great grandfather was once from a Royal Palace (he was brought to Burma as POW and said to be relocated in one part of Pakkoku). Later, he was married to a “tain taja kjaun: ama kji:” literally, it means - a well wisher/benefactor of a monastery built on/with a hundred pillars; and finally settled in Pakkoku [not remember the name of the village], Burma and so the story ended there.

Anyway, I love so much to listen to her stories, whether it looks fictitious or not, and also on this story…which really is a nice story to find out about compassion between the father and the son; and the days of yore in Old Siam.

When I grew up, I become knowledgeable about the POWs. I came to understand the situation of suffering…when King Manuha, in his incarceration, had lived on exile till his last moment. I had been to his Stupa in Myingaba in Bagan, sad to see the reclining Buddha statue, lying in extremely tight position…depicting the suffocation ‘mun: kja’chin:’ as of oral history I was told.

I find many things which take me along with the story on ‘Rider of Crocodiles’… where the author gives the feature of Commoners and Royal Family – the “Lords of Head and Hair” in her words – or - the’ u:-hsan-pain shin bajin mja: (the absolute monarch); her sharing to the readers…. the love and affection - as a father [crocodiles eggs collector] towards his son, the boy who only has a father and not his mother… on how he brought him up, the concerns he has for his son’s future career; and a good knowledge of the father, bestowed to his son on handling crocodiles.

The story was said to have no intention on any political motive, but she - as the author - has given the readers - a taste of imperialism; a disgraceful experience of war, the circumstance of those ‘Conquerors’ and the ‘Conquered’; and to me I can sense the fretfulness as being a POW; the emotional feeling it can have as a living being, on the lost of a life of one’s attached family member – here, Saman towards his ever companion Nga-yeik, for instance; and his country of origin where he grew up and live a happy life with his own people.

So the whole story strikes a chord on me of the ‘Nature’s Law’, which I remembered what “Anantathuriya”, a tutor to the King Naratheinkha, about the time of his death spake four stanzas “lin ga”.

Khun Oo

Yangon, Myanmar

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