Category Archives: Southeast Asian literature

The Female Ward by Debalina Haldar

Southeast Asian literature 2 Comments

Synopsis: Dishari is an engineering student in a university with a well-entrenched hazing system, but when one of her roommates attempts suicide, Dishari finds herself in prison, charged in a well-publicized crackdown on “ragging.” Review: The Female Ward had a really interesting premise–the way hazing transforms and undermines normal human relationships–and mostly succeeded in keeping me interested in Dishari’s plight. I did wish I had gotten more of an explanation of how the Indian legal system worked, because it seemed to me that Dishari was…

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Another Kind of Paradise by Trevor Carolan, Ed.

Chinese Literature, Japanese Literature, Southeast Asian literature

Synopsis: Short Stories from the New Asia-Pacific. Review: Another Kind of Paradise is a collection of stories from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, and more. My favorite was “Their Son” by Hong Ying from China, which takes expectations about parents and children and totally upends them. It was sad, sweet, funny, and provocative. “Third Meeting” by Mi-na Choi from Korea had a narrator that really grabbed me, even though the story was heartbreaking beyond words.

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