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The Road to Wanting Paperback – January 1, 2010

by Wendy LAW-YONE (Author)

31

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Some call it China's Wild West - a boom town on the border with Burma. In the new Chinese economy of the late 1980's, the frontier at Wanting is a magnet for outcasts and opportunists. Or the desperate - like Na Ga. To Na Ga, the town of Wanting represents not the beginning of a new life, but the end of the road. Will, her American lover, has thrown her out - as she always expected he would - leaving her with painful memories, a dollar bank account and a one-way ticket back to Burma.Burma, however, holds no appeal for Na Ga. She may have been born in its hills, but she has left them far, far behind. Yet, caught in a cycle of yearning and betrayal, she finds herself inevitably on a home-bound path.Taking the reader on a journey from the remote tribal villages of northern Burma, to ex-pat life in Rangoon under a grim military regime, and then, in shocking scenes, to the brothels of Thailand and the hedonism of Bangkok, The Road to Wanting traces the life of a young woman whose fate is always in the hands of others, be they well-meaning Americans or provincial pimps. Full of the glare and shadows of the East, this haunting journey opens up places often hidden to Western eyes, revealing ancient cruelties, as well as the redemptive power in facing - and forgiving - the truth.

Print length

263 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Chatto & Windus
Publication date

January 1, 2010
Dimensions

5.39 x 0.75 x 8.46 inches
ISBN-10

0701184086
ISBN-13

978-0701184087
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chatto & Windus; First Edition (January 1, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 263 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0701184086
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0701184087
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.39 x 0.75 x 8.46 inches

Customer Reviews:
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Wendy Law-Yone
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Wendy Law-Yone
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Wendy Law-Yone is the author of A Daughter's Memoir of Burma (Columbia University Press, 2014), Golden Parasol (Chatto & Windus 2013), The Road to Wanting (Chatto & Windus, 2010), Irrawaddy Tango (Knopf, 1994), and The Coffin Tree (Knopf, 1983). Her short stories have appeared in Grand Street and literary anthologies, and her book reviews and articles in The TLS, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and Architectural Digest.
Wendy's novels have been on the curriculum of literature, history and Asian Studies courses in universities throughout the United States. Irrawaddy Tango was nominated for the 1994 Irish Times International Fiction Prize. The Road to Wanting was longlisted for the 2011 Orange Prize. Awards for her writing include a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Award for Creative Writing, a Harvard Foundation Award for International Literary Arts and Intercultural Relations, and a David T.K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship from the University of East Anglia.
Born in Mandalay, Burma, Wendy grew up in Rangoon. Her father, E.M. Law-Yone, was founder and publisher of The Nation, the leading English language daily in post-war Burma. A political prisoner under the military dictatorship of General Ne Win, Law-Yone spent the last years of his life in exile, first as a revolutionary in Thailand, then as occasional lecturer and columnist in the United States.
After leaving Burma at the age of 20, Wendy spent several years in Southeast Asia before moving to the United States in the mid-1970's. She studied comparative literature and modern languages at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg Florida, then won a Carnegie Endowment fellowship in Washington, DC, where she settled for the next three decades.
Although still an American citizen, Wendy is now a permanent resident of the United Kingdom, living in central London and East Sussex.
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pilgrim

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2015

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Good book about life for a Burmese woman

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2012

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A really interesting and well written read. I couldn't help thinking that the title was, indeed, a play on words for the main character.

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Dulene C.

Confused by the main character

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2016

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It was my first time to read something by a writer from Myanmar, but it felt like she was heavily influenced by western expectations for imagery-driven description... I don't know... I always have considered Asian writers abstract and somewhat subtle (the real message being hidden under many layers), but there is no subtlety in this book. Its negativity and exposure of the grosser aspects of human nature just were too explicit. It was a little like reading the criticisms Americans make toward things on internet chat/comment forums. I felt that, true to the title, the character needed to find her own identity and it wasn't until she obtained that identity that she could finally know what she wanted out of life... Nevertheless, despite the protagonist's lack of clarity about herself, she was overly explicit with descriptions and criticisms of others. I was just confused how someone who has such a vague sense of her own identity and moral fiber has no problem portraying and describing other people's identities and morality with such clarity. There seemed to be a contradiction of characterization.

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Ripple

Beautiful, sad and uplifting

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2010

Na Ga finds herself in Wanting, on the China / Burma border where her former American boyfriend has arranged for her to cross the border to her native Burma. Exposing aspects of Southeast Asia that are not normally seen by Westerners, encompassing rural Burma, Rangoon, northern China, the brothels of northern Thailand and Bangkok, the book relates her difficult life and is ultimately about acceptance and forgiveness. It's beautiful, sad and uplifting all at the same time.

We first meet Na Ga in her hotel room in Wanting, on the Chinese side of the border with Na Ga's native Burma (or Myanmar for the more geographically pedantic, although Burma is used throughout this book). She is attempting to commit suicide, but is interrupted by news from the hotel receptionist who tells her that her guide across the border, Mr Jiang, has just committed suicide himself. You might by now have the impression that this is not a cheery kind of book, and you'd be right up to a point, although it's certainly not without its light touches. In fact it's often quite beautiful, which makes the exposure of the seedier side so much more shocking.

Na Ga is in Wanting because her American lover has left her to return to the US, but he has arranged for her to be accompanied back `home'. But Na Ga doesn't want to go home - wherever that might be. And this is typical of her life. She doesn't like choice and has her life tends to be determined by others' wishes and actions. And what a life it has been. Law-Yone writes vividly about village life in Burma, an ex-pat life in Rangoon, as well as stints in a Thai brothel and the hedonism of Bangkok with her American lover, as Na Ga recalls what has happened to her since she was sold from her home village.

Born in Mandalay, raised in Rangoon, a US citizen now living in the UK, Burmese writer Wendy Law-Yone is the author of the critically acclaimed novels, The Coffin Tree and Irrawaddy Tango. Her themes tend to be about displacement, cultural issues of colonialism, migration, and political upheaval. Law-Yone's fiction sheds light not only on the Southeast Asian experience, but on issues of immigration and acculturation, often casting light on the darker side of the stories. The Road to Wanting is in much the same vein as her two previous novels and, I would suggest, deserves to receive similar critical praise.

We know from the cover blurb that at some point poor Na Ga, who is a charmingly written character, will end up in the seedier side of Thailand, but such is the naive charm and beauty of her character told in flashback, that I cannot ever remember being more affected by the brutality and cruelty of the sex slave industry. Of course, we all know it's wrong, but when you have become engrossed in the character of such a sweet person as Na Ga for a hundred or so pages, the shock is palpable. And a word of warning, there are some fairly explicit passages.

Although relatively short, The Road to Wanting is one of those books that you look back on and wonder how so much has happened in such a few pages. I think the last book that made me want to reach into its pages and rescue the main character to quite this extent was Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Although Na Ga might be too passive for some, it's her ability to forgive that is so powerful. She's a character that will stay with me for a long time.

Does she decide to get out of Wanting and cross the border in the end? Well, you'll just have to read it to find out.

5 people found this helpful

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Jenny Sutton

Good writing, weak plot

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2012

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If only there was a better story line - the writers way with words was not enough to rescue the weak plot.

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sally tarbox

So glad to reach the last page!

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2014

I thought this would be a gripping read given the subject matter: young girl from the 'Wild Lu' tribe of Burma is sold to cruel village headman and thence to living with a nice Western family before ending up enslaved in the brothels of Thailand.Then she meets the enigmatic Will...
Could have made for a thrilling read, but was a struggle to finish it. The heroine, Na Ga, didn't resonate with me at all - I felt I should care about her, but I just didn't. And Will seemed such a worthless, unemotional character (who was never explained - why did he want Na Ga to live with him?) that it seemed a good thing when their liaison came to an end.
Not a recommended read!

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Rowena

Recommended reading for any Burma visitor to get a flavour ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2017

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Simple but moving story of one young girl in S.E.Asia. Recommended reading for any Burma visitor to get a flavour of the country and its traditions without reading a guide book.

Chelidona

Ein gemischtes Buch/ A mixed bag

Reviewed in Germany on May 3, 2015

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Die Geschichte folgt einer spannenden Prämisse. Die Protagonistin, Na Ga, stammt aus einer sehr kleinen Minderheit in Nord-Ost Burma, den Lu. Die Kultur der Lu ist, von uns aus gesehen, etwa auf der Höhe der Jungsteinzeit in Na Ga's Kindheit, wobei sich das ändert nachdem Na Ga ihr Umfeld verlässt. Zu Beginn des Buches finden wir sie jedoch in Wanting, eine kleine Stadt in China an der Grenze zu China wo sie darauf wartet über die Grenze gebracht zu werden, nachdem ihr amerikanischer Freund in Thailand offensichtlich mit ihr Schluss gemacht hat.
Vielleicht gerade aus westlicher Sicht lässt Na Ga als Heldin sehr zu wünschen übrig.Sie wird selten selber aktiv (und wenn dann trifft sie üblicherweise die falsche Entscheidung), extrem bindungsscheu (ausser zu Will) und wenig empathisch. Diese Charaktereigenschaften ergeben sich allerdings ziemlich logisch aus ihrer Lebensgeschichte. Ihre Motivationen bleiben etwas unverständlich, auch wenn sie die Ich-Erzählerin ist. Die Motivation der anderen Charaktere ist häufig noch viel mysteriöser.
Dennoch ist das Buch sehr gut geschrieben (sollte aber für jeden der bei Englisch B2 erreicht hat zu schaffen sein) und gibt einen Einblick in eine uns eher unbekannte Welt. Im Grossen und Ganzen habe ich die Lektüre genossen.

In English:
The premise of the story is intriguing: The protagonist, Na Ga, comes from a tiny minority in North-East Burma, the Lu, a world that is alien even to those in Central Burma. The Lu are, from our point of view, a neolithic culture, at least in Na Ga's childhood. At the beginning of the book, however, we find her in Wanting, a small bordertown in China, where she is waiting to travel on back to Burma, after her boyfriend Will apparently broke up with her in Bangkok.
Perhaps this is a very Western point of view, but as a heroine Na Ga is lacking. She is very passive (and if she becomes active, she usually makes the worst possible decision), she seems very afraid of commitment (the only person she ever appears close to is Will, she pushes away everyone else) and seriously lacks empathy. Those character traits stem quite logically from the story of her life. Her motivations are often obscure, even though she is the I-Narrator. The motivations of most other characters are even more mysterious.
However, the novel is very well-written and gives us a glimpse into a world that is very foreign to us. I certainly didn't regret reading it.

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Kate Hopkins

Not Your Typical Book about Burma

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2017

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'The Road to Wanting' is the story of Na Ga, a young woman from the (invented) 'Wild Lu' tribe of Burma. Separated from her parents and tribe for reasons we only gradually learn, Na Ga spends much of her childhood catching eels for her domineering mistress - until she is rescued by a kindly visitor to the village who takes her to Rangoon, where she is working as a servant to an American family. For a while the family shower attention on Na Ga, treating her as a second daughter. But as the political situation in Burma worsens, they leave - without Na Ga, who is forced to return with her foster-mother to her village. Bored with manual work, Na Ga accepts an offer to travel to Thailand where - surprise, surprise - she is forced into prostitution. From that, she is eventually saved by Will, an American who seems to spend his time drinking and doing occasional stints of journalism and charity work. For a decade, Will allows Na Ga to live with him as his servant/girlfriend - but at last he decides that the time has come to marry his long term US parter, and Na Ga must go back to Burma...

I bought this book as part of my drive to read most of the Orange/Baileys long-listed books of the last decade or so. I have to confess that it was a book that I admired more than straightforwardly liked, largely because I felt that the voice of Na Ga didn't quite ring true. She both seemed strangely passive (refusing to accept Will's offer to train her for a profession, for example) and in terms of her narrative voice oddly sophisticated for a girl from a remote Burmese village - even if she had spent time with an American family. I also felt that the ending was very abrupt, and left many questions unanswered - though maybe for this sort of book that was the point. And I wasn't clear how Na Ga had managed to avoid meeting Will's long term girlfriend over the course of ten years - surely she'd have visited Will in Rangoon at some point during that time? I also found the title - 'wanting' is a place and also what Na Ga has learnt to experience - a bit heavy-handed.

But, at the same time I would wholeheartedly recommend the book for its perceptive look at Burmese society and what life in the country, and the countries surrounding it, has been like following the military junta. There are superb depictions of both village and expat life, and though the 'Wild Lu' are an invented tribe, they feel very real. Na Ga's confusion about returning home - she realizes that the Burma she left is not the same as the country she will go back to - was very well depicted, as was her growing friendship with Minzu, and her reaction to the suicide of fellow-Burmese Mr Jiang. Law Yone exposes some of the more frightening sides of Burmese and Far Eastern culture - the exploitation in the brothels, the trading of children just to help them survive, the brutality of the military - and it is very good that she does: this is certainly an effective anecdote to all those soppy stories in which Burmese sages sit around praying to Buddha and meditating in the lotus position or experiencing mystical love affairs (as in Jan Philip Sendker's 'The Art of Hearing Heartbeats'.

For me this was in the end more interesting as a political book than as a narrative about an individual. But I was still very glad to read it, and would read more by this author.

Helen T

A story about Burma

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2014

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I wanted to find out a bit more about Burma , the story line was interesting but a bit disjointed.

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