DAILY PHOTO: Tricycle Transport in Vietnam

Posted on August 14, 2025 by B Gourley

DAILY PHOTO: Canton House Gate

BOOK REVIEW: “Becoming Ghost” by Cathy Linh Che

Posted on March 12, 2025 by B Gourley

Becoming Ghost: Poetry by Cathy Linh Che
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Simon & Schuster

This collection is built around the surreal emotionality of the author’s parents having both lived through the war in Vietnam and also having served as extras in the film, Apocalypse Now. [For those unfamiliar, Apocalypse Now was a Francis Ford Copp0la film based loosely (and partially) on Joseph Conrad’s novel,Heart of Darkness. The film follows a military officer sent upriver to assassinate a rogue Special Operations colonel during the Vietnam War, and shows the war from various perspectives as the would-be assassin travels through the country to complete his mission.]

At times, the poems read like a poem-shaped biography, but that’s not all there is to the book. There are points that imagery and language are used to shoot beyond a mere telling of events, in order to create emotional resonance with the core strangeness of living through a traumatic event only to portray a background individual (someone like one’s own past self) in a fictional retelling of events based on those through which one lived.

The poetic forms vary somewhat, though all within the modern, free verse style. Most notably, the author uses the golden shovel approach of Terrence Hayes extensively.

This collection grabbed me both with its clever language and its thought-provoking central premise. I’d highly recommend it for readers of poetry.

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BOOK: “Mad About the Mekong” by John Keay

Posted on November 19, 2024 by B Gourley

Mad About The Mekong: Exploration and Empire in South East Asia by John Keay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Site

This book is largely, but not exclusively, an accounting of the Mekong Exploration Commission’s two-year (1866-1868) expedition of the Mekong River. The French undertook this expedition in the expectation that the Mekong, like other of the world’s major rivers, would allow ocean-going ships to traverse deep inland — possibly even up into Yunnan, China. The explorers were quickly disabused of this notion, but they relentlessly kept going – despite suffering from disease and the exhaustion of a trip that involved a lot more portaging and other intense physical activities than they’d hoped for.

As I mentioned, Keay doesn’t stick purely to description of the activities of these nineteenth century explorers. Along the way he also brings in fascinating stories from other periods as well as discussion of what the river is like (e.g. its ecology, infrastructure, role in geopolitics, etc.) these days. So, while it would be excessive to call the book a history of the Mekong, it is in some regards — albeit the highlights reel. Some of the diversions were among my favorite parts of the book. Perhaps my favorite was the story of Tony Poe, whose story is said to be the model for Col. Kurtz of Apocalypse Now. I’d long heard that that movie was based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and it is (the name “Kurtz” is clearly from Conrad’s novella, though Poe’s occupation more closely mirrors the Col. Kurtz character played by Marlon Brando.)

While the book sometimes shines the light more broadly than he Mekong Exploration Commission Expedition, it also narrows its focus much of the way, putting the expedition’s most colorful character, Francis Garnier, front and center. Garnier was not only the most intriguing member of the leadership, he also led the group to what was the end of the line for the expedition, deep in China, when the Captain, Ernest Doudart de Lagree, became incapacitated by disease.

If you’re interested in history, travel, or exploration, I’d recommend this book.

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DAILY PHOTO: Canoe in the Mekong Delta

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BOOKS: “Southeast Asia: A Very Short Introduction” by James R. Rush

Posted on October 1, 2024 by B Gourley

Southeast Asia: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Southeast Asia: A Very Short Introduction by James R. Rush
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site

I’ve been to most of the eleven countries of Southeast Asia, but still my questions are many. This short guide answered some of them. The book takes a largely historical approach, breaking the timeline into periods during which these countries were pre-nation-state kingdoms, then colonies, and then independent countries. While the guide is written by a historian and is organized by governance (i.e. who won the wars,) it does not solely address politics and regimes.

The guide also explores subjects such as religion. This was fortunate for me because a lot of my questions involve this topic. Why is the northern part of the region mostly Buddhist while the southern part is mostly Muslim? Why did Hinduism and other Indian religions (not inclusive of Buddhism, which virtually died out within India) almost entirely give way to other religions in this area, except for spotty exceptions (most notably Bali?) Incidentally, the former question is answered more than the latter, which makes sense as this is small book for a relatively large area, but more importantly for a long history. Southeast Asia has been a strategically and economically important place for centuries.

As a traveler, I found this book well worth reading as a way to gain insight into the region. It doesn’t dive deep into cultural questions (except a bit into religion,) and so there is much more to learn from other books. It does explore who governed these countries and how, and the last chapter brings the question up to date — reflecting on the political and economic changes in the last couple decades. If you’re curious to know more about Southeast Asia, in a way that doesn’t get too deep in the minutiae, this book is worth checking out.

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