The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, Peter Popham, Rider, £8.99
When Aung San Suu Kyi was in Dublin this year to accept an Amnesty Ambassador of Conscience Award, one Burmese resident of Ireland described her as his country’s “last great hope”. In this comprehensive biography of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Peter Popham evokes the hope that she has inspired among her people for more than two decades, defying the brutal Burmese military junta through non-violent means. A mother and Oxford housewife, she seemed an unlikely crusader for democracy, yet she was committed to the memory of her father, an independence hero who recognised “the birthright of the Burmese to be their own masters”. When hope felt lost in tyranny, she remained steadfast in the face of electoral corruption, violence, slander, assassination attempts and protracted periods of detention. Although Popham’s meticulously researched biography often needlessly delves into minutiae, it is a timely and important account of this global exemplar of moral courage.
Sarah McMonagle
Black Bazaar
Alain Mabanckou
Serpent’s Tail, £8.99
Our hero, the author’s alter ego, is from the little Congo. His only name is “Buttologist”, connoisseur of the derrieres of women. He sips Pelforts in Jip’s, a real Afro-Cuban bar in the Les Halles area of Paris. His friend is Paul, from the other Congo, the big one across the river. Alain Mabanckou’s narrator lacks self-awareness and the novel’s tone is one of mockery. Along with many cultural and historical references, there’s a bit of a story: our Congolese dandy’s curvaceous girlfriend runs off with a midget tom-tom drummer. Undaunted, our main man scribbles down his befuddled ideas, befriends a poet from Haiti and ends up happier than before. Sometimes the sheer brio of the comic writing sustains the book; at other times the rants are tedious, as when two eccentric neighbours spout racist lunacy. Such self-indulgence mars a lively, original work.
Tom Moriarty
Neutral Shores: Ireland and the Battle of the Atlantic
Mark McShane
Mercier Press, €19.99
The Battle of the Atlantic, “the longest uninterrupted campaign” of the second World War, was the German U-boat attempt to sink merchant shipping and thereby stop supplies getting into Britain. Mark McShane records the stories of survivors who made it ashore to Ireland from wrecked ships. Much of his material is archival but he has also tracked down some of the 2,330 survivors. Of these, only six died after coming ashore, “testament to the care” afforded them. The Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society and the Irish Red Cross were the chief organisers of that care, but ordinary people were the providers. The story of sinkings and rescues is told chronologically, from the liner Athenia, sunk in September 1939, with 449 survivors, to Monmouth Coast, sunk in April 1945, with only one survivor. This is a well-researched, readable book that gives a fascinating insight into a little-known aspect of Ireland’s war involvement.
Brian Maye
