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Quill & Quire
Great love stories are inseparable from tragedy. Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina, Romeo and Juliet: for the iconic lovers in literature, things always end badly. Kim Echlin ups the ante in her third novel by placing her lovers against the backdrop of Pol Pot’s genocidal massacre in Cambodia. Anne Greves is a teenager in Montreal when she first encounters Serey, a Cambodian exile five years her senior, who has lost touch with his family since the borders of his native country were closed. Drawn together by a shared love of the blues, and over the objections of the girl’s father, Anne and Serey begin an affair. When the Vietnamese invade Cambodia and the borders are thrown open, Serey returns home to search for his family and vanishes, prompting Anne to embark on a dangerous journey to Phnom Penh to find him. Echlin’s project in The Disappeared is undeniably ambitious: she attempts to portray the twin currents of memory and desire while at the same time dramatizing the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, whose operative principle was “Better to kill an innocent person than to leave an enemy alive.” And she attempts to do all this in under 200 pages. It is perhaps inevitable that the novel’s execution fails to live up to its ambition. Finding a language to describe the vicissitudes of the heart is notoriously difficult. Any novelist who addresses the subject of romantic longing risks devolving into mawkishness, and Echlin frequently succumbs to this temptation. In some cases, the language is merely clichéd (“I was drowning in you”); in others, it employs overheated metaphor to communicate ineffable desire (“You were my crucifixion, my torture and rebirth”). When the lovers are reunited in Cambodia, the writing becomes even more overwrought: Anne opens herself to Serey as if she “could be unzippered front and back,” the lovers embrace as though “giving agonized birth to each other,” and are likened to “cannibals swallowing flesh and breathing prayers.” Echlin’s inability to adequately capture the lovers’ longing also infects the political aspects of the story, as when a pregnant Anne witnesses a Cambodian troubadour “singing his anguish to the sky,” which is juxtaposed with an image of “babies tossed and shot in the air.” The sequence should be horrific, but the overwritten comparison denudes it of much of its impact. The Disappeared is ultimately a love story, which means that things don’t turn out well. Anne returns to Montreal where she is implored “for love’s sake” to tell her story “before there’s nothing left.” This sequence, shot through with heartache and loss, should serve as the cathartic apotheosis of the book. Sadly, it is betrayed by the sentimentality of what has gone before.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
"Spellbinding . . . There is something of Marguerite Duras in these pages, something of the lust between the young Western girl and the Asian man that drove novels like "The Lover" and "The North China Lover." But while Duras focuses mostly on desire, Echlin focuses on absolute love--physical desire coupled with the need to know everything about the beloved, to follow him even to the grave and beyond. . . . Echlin captures the beauty and horror of Cambodia in equal measure . . . [and] love and death pulsate through [her] pages, interlaced. . . . Exquisite . . . [Echlin] creates alchemy. She permits what has been unsaid to be said, and what has been nameless to be named at last."--"The New York Times Book Review " (Editors' Choice)
""The Disappeared" is a contemplation of horror, and a ferocious look at love. While all the 'nameless missing' of the Cambodian genocide gather around the characters like ghosts, the story also thrums with life, love, sensuality, tenderness and brutal --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
""The Disappeared" is a contemplation of horror, and a ferocious look at love. While all the 'nameless missing' of the Cambodian genocide gather around the characters like ghosts, the story also thrums with life, love, sensuality, tenderness and brutal --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Still on the Fence...,
By A. Reader (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Disappeared (Hardcover)
"The Disappeared" is a different kind of book than what I would normally select for myself. Now that I am finished reading the story, I'm uncertain if I'm pleased or disappointed for stepping out of my comfort zone. Set during the Cambodian genocide in the 1970's, "The Disappeared" follows the lives of two lovers-- Anne, a Canadian, and Serey, a Cambodian student.There are a few things that I found off-putting about the novel. First of all, the author writes in a series of first person recollections. I found the flow of thoughts to read in a disjointed and sometimes incoherent manner. I think this writing mechanism was supposed to represent the fragmentation of memories (and it did), but it also seemed melodramatic. Second of all, some phrases and conversations occured partially in untranslated French, and because of this I felt like I might be missing details in the story. But really, what bothered me the most was the portrayal of Anne and Serey's "love." I found myself wondering if what they had together could truly be defined as love. There was never a sense of the characters drawing strength or courage from each other. It seemed like their "love" made them secretive, anguished, reckless and even a bit self destructive. That is certainly not the kind of love that I aspire to. Regardless, "The Disappeared" is a lovely story of survival, loss, sorrow and friendship. It paints a stark and honest picture of Cambodia and the struggles of its people. The secondary characters are intriguing and in many cases, more interesting than the primary characters. I thought "The Disappeared" was a good book, and a worthwhile read. However, if there is another book you are considering reading (and can't decide), I'd go with the other title first!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lyrical love poem written from within a genocide,
By
This review is from: The Disappeared (Hardcover)
Kim Echlin's "Disappeared" sticks with you like an echo long after you have turned the last page. The author is a fine word-smith who can turn a phrase into such beauty that you have to pause just to let it soak in. Similarly, with the description of the horror and unspeakable depravity of the Khmer Rouge genocide. Banality at its worst and Kim manages to write about with the dispassion and objectivity of a news reporter. It's a clever technique because the horror just sneaks up before it hammers on you.Kim's protagonist, Anne Greves, reflects from a distance of thirty years but her poignant love story is recounted with an ache that is as raw as the day her Serey became separated from her. The anguish, longing and endless love serves as a stark counterpoint to the circumstances in which it germinated. Like Gil Courtemanche's "Sunday By the Pool in Kigali", Kim's story imbues the indefatigable power of the human spirit trumping the depravities of mankind simply because it survives them. Kim Echlin is a gifted writer who has given a wonderful novel of new first love, it's blossom and demise crafted with exquisite language and phrase.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Haunting Novel!!,
By
This review is from: The Disappeared (Paperback)
This was a beautiful story of the power of love, the grief and indecency of loss, and the strength and potency of the human spirit to keep going amid dangerous and perilous conditions.Anne Greves is a sixteen-year-old living in Montreal, Canada when she meets Serey, a Cambodian who is 5 years older than she is and a musician. Immediately they begin a passionate, sexual relationship. One day Serey decides to return to Cambodia to find his family whom he hasn't heard from in over a year. A daring decision on Serey's part as Cambodia was suffering in the aftermath of Pol Pot's savage revolution. Ten years pass by and Anne has never heard from Serey and decides to go to Cambodia herself to find him. Unbelievably, Anne finds him and their reunion is as passionate as it was ten years ago. Anne stays in Cambodia with Serey, becomes pregnant with his child and is excited and anxious waiting for the birth of their child. One day Anne is overcome with fever and rashes and is admitted to a local hospital. The doctor examines her and finds out she has dengue fever. What about their baby? Suddenly Serey disappears and Anne hires a taxi driver she has come to know, Mau, to drive her to another city named Ang Tasom where she suspects Serey to be. What does Anne discover? A haunting novel that will stay with you long after the last page has been turned.
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