tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1246220242273461143.post3396391796749790082..comments2024-03-15T12:14:33.129+00:00Comments on Biblibio: In the Shadow of the BanyanMeytal Radzinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15805413335735169073noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1246220242273461143.post-2730825141838659052014-10-02T16:57:29.925+01:002014-10-02T16:57:29.925+01:00Monique - I completely agree. Ratner did a great j...Monique - I completely agree. Ratner did a great job portraying Cambodia in this time period. I don't know what this other crackpot is onAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00223416518408743518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1246220242273461143.post-48926202965393763902014-09-30T22:04:17.865+01:002014-09-30T22:04:17.865+01:00This is a well written review but I don't thin...This is a well written review but I don't think I completely agree with most of your points. For your first argument, you have to keep in mind that when Raami saw the paint (or blood) on the wall of the school, she had already seen lots of death and blood (think about the chapter when they were escaping Phnom Penh - the doctor with blood on his hands, the old man getting shot in the head) so it would be easy for her to assume that it was blood on the wall. Also, she grew up with a poet for a father. She says in the book that she often saw the world through her father's words, proving that she was fairly advanced for her age when it came to imagination and vocabulary and reading.<br />If you read the book closely enough, you would recognize that butterflies and jasmine aren't just boring, mindless descriptions to fill pages - they are recurring symbols for greater things like peace and beauty.<br />The reason Raami is basically the only character is because the only people who she really ever knew in her life (having been kept inside tall walls of a palace her whole life) have died (or she has been removed from them, as in the case of Pok and Mae).<br />Being that this is semi-autobiograhpical, Ratner couldn't stray too far from the true story and add too many aspects or characters that didn't really exist.<br />You must also keep in mind that this book is written in the past tense, and it is never revealed how old Raami is when narrating this.<br /><br />That said, everyone likes different things and my tastes are obviously just different from yours. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09626604536258547400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1246220242273461143.post-25397988629782603252012-10-30T22:27:00.224+00:002012-10-30T22:27:00.224+00:00Ah, it really is good to go with your instincts so...Ah, it really is good to go with your instincts sometimes - this clearly was not for you! But I can see why you were interested in trying it, sounds like the story behind the story was the best part.bookspersonallyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05776600422633283514noreply@blogger.com