- Hardcover: 528 pages
- Publisher: Random House Canada; 1st Edition edition (Sep 27 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679310223
- ISBN-13: 978-0679310228
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 16.6 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 862 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #426,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Connelly won the Governor General's Award for Nonfiction with Dream of a Thousand Lives: A Sojourn in Thailand, and her debut novel revisits Southeast Asia to soulful effect. Imprisoned in a mid-'90s Rangoon gulag, dissident singer/songwriter Teza stalks and eats the acrobatic lizards that venture across his cell's ceiling at sundown. Senior jailer Nyunt Wai Oo angles for a promotion by scheming to plant contraband writing materials inside the celebrated Teza's cage. The plot backfires when Teza inadvertently passes the proscribed ballpoint to the illiterate, resourceful serving boy, Nyi Lay, who hoards the pen for dear life. As the entire prison is shaken down and Teza and Nyi Lay are tortured nearly to death, a bond of brotherhood develops between the lowly Nyi Lay and Teza. The gangster inmate on the ward, Tan-see Tiger, who oversees an in-house smuggling operation, completes the triangle; he and Teza realize that the only measure of liberation left to them lies in making sure Nyi Lay leaves the prison camp alive. A brutal exposé with harrowing descriptions of prison life and heavily spiritual overtones, Connelly's novel combines a thrillerlike pace with finely etched portraits that show how each character takes control of his own freedom. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Review
“A brutal exposé with harrowing descriptions of prison life and heavily spiritual overtones, Connelly's novel combines a thriller-like pace with finely etched portraits that show how each character takes control of his own freedom.”
–Publisher’s Weekly
“Connelly demonstrates the considerable gifts that won her the Governor General's Award in 1993 for Touch the Dragon: A Thai Journal, and which set the stage for her emergence as one of Canada's most clear-eyed poets and travel writers. . . . [She] reminds me of Latin American writers and poets like Pablo Neruda, who wrote so eloquently about the ills of their homelands. Like these writers, too, Connelly finds beauty and kindness and the potential for redemption in the most unexpected places.”
–The Globe and Mail
“The Lizard Cage is ridiculously and beautifully cinematic…. Connelly is an exacting writer. She burrows into scenes and surroundings and returns with startling imagery. There are great moments in the book, strung together like honed passages in a collection of poetry.”
–Quill & Quire
“Connelly’s writing is fluid and well-paced, and her fictive prison world, set in the actual political hellhole that is present-day Burma, is as affecting as any UN statistical report about the conditions of life in that ruined country.”
–Edmonton Journal
Praise for Karen Connelly:
"Karen Connelly has an enviable, somewhat disquieting ability to possess the spirit of a place. . . The unknown, the faraway, the endlessly strange spring to life in her work."
—Books in Canada
"Hers is an authentic voice, the voice of a born poet intoxicated by language."
—Atlantic Books Today
". . . a genius for framing the texture of daily life — the feel, the shape, the inner longing, the sounds — in language of sublime perfection."
—The Hamilton Spectator
"Touch the Dragon is a splendid evocation of a place and a people that remain, for most of us, in dreams. Few can record such dreams — but Karen Connelly has done so."
—Timothy Findley
"Karen Connelly not only illuminates a society, but shows us, through the beauty, energy and humour of her language and imagery, how this strange place touched and changed her, allowing her to receive and understand a common humanity."
—Christopher Wiseman
–Publisher’s Weekly
“Connelly demonstrates the considerable gifts that won her the Governor General's Award in 1993 for Touch the Dragon: A Thai Journal, and which set the stage for her emergence as one of Canada's most clear-eyed poets and travel writers. . . . [She] reminds me of Latin American writers and poets like Pablo Neruda, who wrote so eloquently about the ills of their homelands. Like these writers, too, Connelly finds beauty and kindness and the potential for redemption in the most unexpected places.”
–The Globe and Mail
“The Lizard Cage is ridiculously and beautifully cinematic…. Connelly is an exacting writer. She burrows into scenes and surroundings and returns with startling imagery. There are great moments in the book, strung together like honed passages in a collection of poetry.”
–Quill & Quire
“Connelly’s writing is fluid and well-paced, and her fictive prison world, set in the actual political hellhole that is present-day Burma, is as affecting as any UN statistical report about the conditions of life in that ruined country.”
–Edmonton Journal
Praise for Karen Connelly:
"Karen Connelly has an enviable, somewhat disquieting ability to possess the spirit of a place. . . The unknown, the faraway, the endlessly strange spring to life in her work."
—Books in Canada
"Hers is an authentic voice, the voice of a born poet intoxicated by language."
—Atlantic Books Today
". . . a genius for framing the texture of daily life — the feel, the shape, the inner longing, the sounds — in language of sublime perfection."
—The Hamilton Spectator
"Touch the Dragon is a splendid evocation of a place and a people that remain, for most of us, in dreams. Few can record such dreams — but Karen Connelly has done so."
—Timothy Findley
"Karen Connelly not only illuminates a society, but shows us, through the beauty, energy and humour of her language and imagery, how this strange place touched and changed her, allowing her to receive and understand a common humanity."
—Christopher Wiseman
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An utterly brilliant novel and a brave new world,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lizard Cage (Hardcover)
This is an extraordinary novel. A page turner, a mystery, an exploration of human evil and human goodness, I can't believe this book did not win a huge prize. Maybe it will! Set in dictatorship-ruled Burma, it tells the story of several people in a prison--a political prisoner, a sympathetic jailer and his nemesis, a little boy who is a child labourer and who becomes the political prisoner's dear friend. Easily on par with the Kite Runner--and also on par with the great prison books, like Papillon and The First Circle.It should be read by anyone who cares about the big issues like freedom of speech, compassion, betrayal, love. Everyone! I'm buying this excellent novel for all my friends. (Okay, not all, but a few!) It's the best book I've read in a long time. The tension at the end is absolutely unbearable, but Connelly pulls it off with grace and elegance. How some white woman from Alberta could write a book about an Asian man in a prison is in itself a mystery. That she does it so well is an act of bravery and profound artistry. Read it, and you will be amazed, delighted, saddened, and profoundly moved.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Lizard's Heartbeat,
By Golden Lizard "Teza's lizard" (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lizard Cage (Hardcover)
A work of profound beauty amidst torture, pain and despair! Not an easy accomplishment, but Ms. Connelly manages to accomplish the task with a sense of ease. The story tells of the final chapter in the life of a young political prisoner Teza, who is able to transcend the horrific abuse and treatment of the militant prison officials. The setting is harsh with the Teak Coffin, abusive guards, un-sanitary conditions, and yet the addition of tiny lizards, also trapped, takes the edge off of the bleakness, and allows for Teza's inner compassion for all creatures to shine.Photographs of everyday Burmese citizens allow for faces to be juxtaposed onto the characters, and this allowed for me to imagine the lives of the singer, his family, the prison officials and the young boy who he protects and eventually rescues and sets free. The plight of the Burmese people resonates brightly within the pages of this book and should be on everyone's "To Read" list. It has moved me in ways I never imagined possible and has become the favoured book of the year. Take a journey to a far away land and come home feeling enriched for having been introduced to someone as memorable and insightful as beloved TEZA
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Lizard cage,
By
This review is from: The Lizard Cage (Paperback)
One of the best books I have ever read! It sure makes one appreciate being a Canadian.
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