In the Shadow of the Banyan: A Novel

We used to look to kings, queens, princes, and princesses as semi-divine figures and exceptional beings. Unfortunately for them, due to their wielding of absolute power and amassing wealth and landownership to the detriment of their subjects, their place in the world had been diminished. Similarly, Cambodia (bastardization of Kambuja), with great leaders, used to rule and dominate Southeast Asia; but tragically, she has become a small country whose citizens are easily provoked and prone to adapt bad habits and absorb, like a sponge, the seven major negativities that are destructive to our lives and everyone around: fear, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy, revenge, and superstition. We have lost our ways since 1431, when we were divided and conquered. No other period put Cambodia on a darker path than that of the Khmer Rouge era, where intellectuals and everything associated with beauty and modernity were turned into ashes. Thirty-nine years have passed since then. Some of us understand our downfall and are changing our ways to inch toward greatness again, and when it comes to literature, Princess Vaddey Sisowath Ratner stands at the forefront of this paradigm shift.Sure, there should be more to the Khmer story than Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge, the Killing Fields, and the nation of Democratic Kampuchea. Certain Cambodians—especially young ones—have expressed their fatigue of anything relating to this period of our history. Though Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan touches on the communist era, her story is more than that; it’s about, in her words, “the human experience—our struggle to hang onto life, our desire to live, even in the most awful circumstances. In telling this story, it isn’t my own life I wished others to take note of. I have survived, and the gift of survival, I feel, is honor enough already. My purpose is to honor the lives lost, and I wanted to do so by endeavoring to transform suffering into art.” And how! Ratner’s superior artistic merit has done great justice to what the Khmer people went through. No other literature of this dark period has shown such great depth and captured the history, the mood, the Khmer essence like In the Shadow of the Banyan. No! As much as she had lost and endured, you will not find inaccuracies, manipulative narrative, vindictiveness, salaciousness, rage, or bitterness here. Instead, you will find a calm voice—a divine voice—recounting the causes of human suffering with grace, dignity, and empathy.The cloud passed and the moon seemed bigger and brighter, more like a full-lip pout now. Tousana, Papa had called it, I remembered now, from the Pali word dassana, meaning “insight.” When something seemed both familiar and new all in the same moment. We’d been talking about storytelling, how there could be many versions of the same story, many ways of telling it, and how each version was a kind of manifestation, as if the story itself was a living, evolving entity, a god capable of many guises (103).Ratner has a way with words. Her well-paced, lyrical prose mellifluously moves through the pages. Granted, In the Shadow of the Banyan is fictionalized, telling a heartbreaking story of a seven-year-old princess, Raami, who suffers polio, whose father gives up his life to the dark force of the Angkar (Organization), so that she and her extended family could live; but with any period piece, inaccurate historical background can turn off readers who lived during that time, or other knowledgeable readers. Writing from a child’s perspective is hard, but Ratner does a great job by telling the story in the past tense, almost like an adult recounting the story of her younger self with the wisdom and knowledge of a learned adult. As a Khmer princess, knowledgeable of her own history and with a major in Southeast Asian studies, Ratner has the authority to tell the story and is a trustworthy storyteller at that. People write what they know, and Ratner knows a lot about Khmer people, our language, our history, our religion, our folklore, and our way of life.Examples of Ratner’s compassion and empathy can be shown in the characters of Raami (the seven-year-old protagonist), Ayuravann (Raami’s father), and Aana (Raami’s mother). Raami is of royalty. She lives a sheltered and a luxurious life with a nanny, maids, cooks, and servants; yet, when she is thrown into the mix of the Revolutionary soldiers, the Kamaphibal (top official), the Moulithan (old or base people), and other ordinary Cambodians, she doesn’t cringe or curl her mouth in disgust at the raggedy clothes they wear, their oily hair, the dirt under their fingernails, or their destitute nature. As a Khmer daughter, she understands the formal and informal way of speaking. She knows the difference between the peasant vernacular and that of royalty and religious figures. Like the river, Raami bends with the people and environment. She questions her parents and other adults about why things are as they seem, but she does not judge. She takes in the answers. She analyzes. This is the nature of her parents, too. They raise her with love and understanding. She receives extra love and attention due to her polio. Also, it is through poetry and folklore instilled by her parents that Raami finds her connection with other people and nature.It’s so refreshing to read an entire novel without having to cringe at the misinterpretation of Khmer words, history, religion and folklore. Without feeling incensed at the manipulation of the meanings of words and events by the author to paint others as dark, evil, and bad people, while boasting of oneself and one’s own family as the light and goodness in the vortex of darkness. Put your trust in Princess Vaddey Sisowath Ratner. If writing gives you wings, then her novel In the Shadow of the Banyan soars high, and all you have to do is sit, read and enjoy her storytelling talent. It’s art in its highest form. How wonderful it is to admire a princess once again.

In the Shadow of the Banyan was a book that I stupidly chose to read in fairly public places - on planes, trains, and buses. This was not a great decision because it's very difficult to read this book with dry eyes. It's also very hard not to continue reading this book once you've started, and so I just tried to sniffle very quietly and discreetly into my tissues and everyone around me politely pretended not to notice.In the Shadow of the Banyan, by Vaddey Ratner, is set during the Cambodian civil war of the 1970s. We first meet our narrator, Raami, living a charmed life as a royal princess on an idyllic estate in Phnon Penh. But very quickly, revolution comes and Raami's family must leave their home to go become workers in the country. This is especially difficult for Raami as she suffered from polio as a baby and has difficulty walking. It's also difficult for her royal father, who believes in the ideals of the revolution but must hide his identity for his family's safety. He makes a sacrifice that most can't understand and that his family finds it difficult to forget. As Raami is shuffled from one place to another, connecting with some people and completely dissociating herself from others, working long, hard hours and slowly starving, we see the Cambodian civil war in all its terrible reality, and learn the power that stories can have to lift us away from our lives.I cannot believe that this is Ratner's first novel, and in her second language, no less. The writing was absolutely stunning. Imagery fills every page, imagery of flight and heroes and sacrifice and love. There are beautiful poems to break through the drudgery and pain of everyday living. And so many amazing characters. There is Raami herself, of course, introspective and lonely for most of the book as she sees society fall apart around her. And her mother, one of the strongest and most resourceful women I've read about in some time, who works tirelessly for her daughter. And Raami's father, the poet prince, who stands for everything that is lost in the revolution - culture and beauty and happy times. And so many others who exemplify generosity and kindness of spirit, or hopelessness and despair.Obviously, any book about civil war and revolution and genocide is not easy to read. And this book is about all those things. But it's also about the bonds that can grow and strengthen between people, about the different kinds of sacrifice that parents and lovers choose to make for the people who matter most to them, and about all of the ways that humans have of surviving hardship and making the most of what they have, all of the stories we tell ourselves about the heroes that came before and the beauty that they saw in our flawed, imperfect world. Absolutely beautiful - I hope you give it a try.

This is not a memoir but it is a novel based on the author's memories of 4 years under the Khmer Rouge as a young girl. But the memories have been distilled into fictional form.It's a remarkable book which bring alive very vividly the natural world of Cambodia, the nature of life in a royal family before the Khmer Rouge, the author's father and her immediate family members, and the hardships they suffer, mostly in the countryside, under the new regime, as possessions are torn away and communalised, all clothes are died drab colour then black, there are continuing purges and re-education, and families are torn apart as a matter of policy.It's a harrowing read, but I do not regret any of the time I have spent with this book.

I admit I didn't research this book properly before I read it so I wasn't expecting such a heartrending shocking story.It reads like a memoir. I kept checking to see that it was really fiction. When I say it reads like a memoir I mean the feelings come across as authentic. At the end of the book, there was a page about the author and as it turns out the feelings are real. She based the child in the book on herself. So although the account is fictionalized with characters and factors changed or added, the feelings are real and the events are real.

Having spent a month in Cambodia and knowing the country's past I thought I would give this a go. It is a good read and more so, gives you an understanding of how the people are today. The brutality and suppression of emotion still has an effect on the people who I found were very pleasant. It is hard to believe of what they had to endure during those oppressive years.

This is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. Despite the subject matter it is a very uplifting story of how the human spirit can overcome unthinkable attrocities and experiences. Very few books actually move me to tears but this one did and had a very profound effect on me. It is beautifully and eloquently written in a way that belies the horrors of the underlying story whilst still giving the reader a real sense of what it was like to live life under the awful Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Everyone should read this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed In The Shadow Of The Banyan. It is beautifully written and heart wrenching through out. The fact that it is loosely based on the author's own experience makes it even more emotional! I'd definitely recommend this book.