Irrawaddy Tango

by Wendy Law-Yone

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679421920
• ISBN13: 9780679421924
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 289 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

An Important Book

Irrawaddy Tango is a great read -- not only a rollicking ride but also, at times, shockingly brutal and necessarily honest. As a view into late 20th century Southeast Asia from the eyes of a female exile/refugee, it's a important look into relationships between men and women and those between cultures. For those interested in Burma, Southeast Asia, women's studies, human rights, or postcolonial/transnational literature, Irrawaddy Tango is not to be missed.

Not a dance but a person ...

... "Irrawaddy Tango" is the nickname of a girl -- "Irrawaddy" from her township, "Tango" from her favorite dance -- who lives the history of a Southeast Asian country called "Daya". Daya is quite clearly Burma, renamed so that Law-Yone can invent Irrawaddy Tango as the wife of "Supremo" (himself quite clearly General Ne Win); then a prisoner and ultimately leader of ethnic rebels; an exile in America; and ultimately return her to an ambiguous fate in Daya.The book is brutal, explicit and bitter; Tango herself is not entirely likeable, particularly in her patronizing and dismissive attitude towards fellow refugee Dayans in Washington. But there is a lot of brutality and bitterness in the scenes Law-Yone describes & no doubt they are not far from life.