Deeper Truths
covering burma and southeast asia
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Magazine

BOOK REVIEW

Deeper Truths


By Khin Maung Soe JANUARY, 2007 - VOLUME 15 NO.1


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After consuming most of the water, the teacher shows signs of drunkenness and becomes verbally abusive towards his host before making his unsteady way home. Curious about the teacher’s behavior, Chetkyi drinks the rest of the water from the bottle. He, too, becomes drunk and gets into a fight with his wife.

 

Perhaps Win Pe’s best-known story, “A Pair of Specs,” is considered a masterpiece of contemporary Burmese short fiction, drawing comparisons to the works of Russian author Anton Chekhov, who is much beloved by Burmese writers. The story tells of a short-sighted young man, Maung Chu, who gives money to an elder friend, Uncle Thein, to purchase a new pair of eyeglasses. From the moment Uncle Thein delivers the glasses, he takes every opportunity to mention the great service he has rendered to Maung Chu. Uncle Thein makes increasingly irritating claims o­n Maung Chu’s gratitude. In a final act of exasperation, Maung Chu throws the eyeglasses to the ground and smashes them with his foot, saying that he never wants to see Uncle Thein again.

 

In an introductory note to the English translation of three of Win Pe’s stories, Anna J Allot notes that the original publication of “A Pair of Specs” (in the August 1989 edition of the Burmese language journal Shwe-amyu-te) featured an illustration of a large foot smashing a pair of glasses and could be read as an indictment of Burma’s ruling military government. She writes: “It is o­nly o­n a second reading that it strikes o­ne as a reflection of the way that the SLORC [State Law and Order Restoration Council, since renamed the State Peace and Development Council] incessantly claims to have saved Burma from disintegration (in 1988), and to have merited the undying gratitude of the people.”

 

Win Pe’s stories have often been praised for their humorous exploration of the human condition. Amid the humor, however, critics have discovered darker themes. As o­ne Burmese critic, paraphrased in Anna J Allot’s introduction to Win Pe’s stories in Inked Over, Ripped Out puts it, “from his deceptively simple, often comic narratives there emerge powerful images of the greed, anger and stupidity of human life.”

Win Pe now lives in exile in the US. In addition to writing, he has worked as a cartoonist, filmmaker, gem trader, school administrator and artist. Widely read in Burma, Win Pe’s works have yet to reach a broader audience outside the country. Perhaps more translations of his works into English will extend his influence and make greater numbers of readers aware of his gifts as a thoughtful and compelling storyteller.



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