Irrawaddy Tango

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A novel of love, vengeance and political unrest in South East Asia
Irrawaddy Tango, a pepper-tongued, tango-dancing Asian beauty rises from a village girlhood to become the wife of her country's dictator and then a leader of the rebel forces arrayed against him. Tango captures the attention of an ambitious colonel --the self-proclaimed Supremo--while dancing at a talent contest. Once married, she is forced to endure the cruelties of a ruthless and foolish husband, is kidnapped ...
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More About This Book

Overview

A novel of love, vengeance and political unrest in South East Asia
Irrawaddy Tango, a pepper-tongued, tango-dancing Asian beauty rises from a village girlhood to become the wife of her country's dictator and then a leader of the rebel forces arrayed against him. Tango captures the attention of an ambitious colonel --the self-proclaimed Supremo--while dancing at a talent contest. Once married, she is forced to endure the cruelties of a ruthless and foolish husband, is kidnapped by rebel forces, recaptured and brutally punished by her husband's military clique, and eventually exiled to America. Her return to the fictional Republic of Daya (clearly Burma) brings about the destruction of her husband and his dictatorship. Irrawaddy Tango tells the unsettling tale of powerful men and powerless women. It evokes as well the harshness of exile, revealing the misunderstandings between East and West and by doing so captures the intensity of living between the two.
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Tango, the picaresque and sassy heroine of Law-Yone's second novel (after The Coffin Tree ), rides her flair for dancing from obscurity in the backwater village of Irrawaddy to the highest position available to a woman in the fictional Asian nation of Daway: wife of its sadistic, stupid dictator. She later becomes a political prisoner, an exile and, finally, a murderer, caught up in a whirlwind of events that leaves her alienated, rootless and reduced to an existential stupor. Relentlessly wisecracking and notably lacking in insight, Tango's first-person narration quickly wears thin; the first three quarters of the text completely fail to prepare the reader for her striking transformation into a world-weary matron at the novel's close. Although later chapters have greater focus and narrative tension, an excessive reliance on literary allusion rings false, since nothing in Tango's background suggests she would have such knowledge. Law-Yone tackles a worthy theme--the inevitable, destructive alienation felt by thoughtful Third World exiles both abroad and at home--and the novel's final section is gripping, but the bulk of it reads like a first draft. (Jan.)
From The Critics
"Law-Yone's prose...is delightful and witty, and Tango is a lively, smart wisecracker who...keeps us laughing."--Booklist
Library Journal
In her second novel, Law-Yone has created another Asian female protagonist ravaged by the inhumanity of a cruel and crazy world dominated by impotent old men. The titular heroine grows up in the small, insular town of Irrawaddy and dreams of one day making it in the big wide world. Her only claim to fame is her knack for the Tango, which gets her the attention of the then-incubating strongman of the country, the Supremo. Her marriage and her life are irrevocably lost when she is kidnapped by an ethnic guerrilla group fighting for independence and the Supremo refuses to bail her out. Even though the novel is set in an imaginary country called Daya, the almost surreal mixture of East and West, the totalitarian tendencies, the ethnic strife, and the general lack of sense in daily life aptly suggest a number of South Asian countries. While Law-Yone's superb use of language is worthy of the highest praise, this reviewer has strong reservations about her seeming infatuation with detailing sexual torture and mutilation. Recommended for large literature collections.-- Cherry W. Li, Santa Monica Coll. Lib., Cal.
David Cline
Until she was 11, the young girl growing up in the Irrawaddy region of the fictional Asian country of Daya was known as Mew, because she was as distant and selfish as a cat. Then a village boy, Carlos, returns from studying in Argentina and teaches her the tango. Tango, as she is now known, and Carlos dance their way into the finals of a talent contest in the capital, where Tango catches the eye of a young colonel. Quickly they marry, and even more quickly her new husband engineers a coup and gains control of the country. He becomes a dictator/monster in the style of Idi Amin; he even takes his nickname, Supremo--given to him because of his fondness for Supremo Ice Cream--and makes it his official title. After several subservient years in marriage, Tango is kidnapped by rebel forces, beginning a spiral that will move her through the jungles of Daya, into prison, out to America, and then, years later, back to Daya. Law-Yone's prose, while developing a frighteningly familiar scenario, is delightful and witty, and Tango is a lively, smart wisecracker who, despite the gravity of her world, keeps us laughing.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780679421924
  • Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 1/18/1994
  • Edition description: 1st ed
  • Pages: 289

Meet the Author

Wendy Law-Yone was born in Mandalay, Burma, and raised in Rangoon. She is currently the David T. K. Wong Fellow at the University of East Anglia.
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