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For Us Surrender is Out of the Question
by
Mac McClelland (Goodreads Author)
There are bad things going on in Burma that you don’t know about. There’s a civil war (the world’s longest running, in fact) raging between the government and ethnic rebels. Much of the United States’ heroin comes from there. And there’s the small matter that America helped make it all possible with overt funding and the CIA’s very first secret war. Of course, you wouldn’t...more
Paperback, 388 pages
Published
February 16th 2010
by Soft Skull Press
(first published 2010)
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Wow. While this book actually only chronicles a 6 week stay working with Burman refugees, it packs in a bunch of history (recent and less so), along with emotional impact. I suspect I may have been coming off to my coworkers like an undergraduate who just discovered a cause. And it's not exactly a polemic; it's just engrossingly enough written that I missed my bus (and then almost missed getting off at my house) because I was reading it.
And, of course, she does the usual close-to-home job of pai...more
And, of course, she does the usual close-to-home job of pai...more
This book was published in 2010, written about a short time spent with Karen rebels in 2006. The author traces the history of the world's longest-running war amidst her volunteer work teaching English to some refugees. Although some of her language is quite vulgar (shock value?) she captures the spirit of the situation so well that you feel you are right there with them. Her personal adventure actually living with the rebels is easier reading and more interesting than the pages of history with l...more
I really loved the gonzo, slightly scattered, but always passionate style of Mac McClelland. Bouncing back and forth between historical background she has researched and her own personal experiences working with Karen refugees in Thailand who are sneaking back into their native Burma to support the efforts of their people to survive against the relentless, remorseless evil that is the government of "Myanmar" is a rollercoaster ride worth taking. I'd love to sit down with McClelland and talk to h...more
I found this book after reading a brief piece by Mac about how she uses violent sex to get over PTSD.
I knew nothing about the situation in Burma and it's horrifying. She deftly and expertly weaves in her time spent with Karen refugees and a good amount of historical background on the conflict. You won't feel better about the world afte reading it, but you should put it on your list anyway. Great writing.
I knew nothing about the situation in Burma and it's horrifying. She deftly and expertly weaves in her time spent with Karen refugees and a good amount of historical background on the conflict. You won't feel better about the world afte reading it, but you should put it on your list anyway. Great writing.
I'm embarrassed by how little I knew about Burma before reading this book. Mac McCelland does a great job of making an exhaustive history lesson remarkably entertaining and even funny at times. But most of it isn't history - it's happening now and I hardly knew a thing about it. Now I know and I don't know what to do with that knowledge, but at least I know, right?
Mac McClelland's account of both her personal experience in Burma as well as her recounting of the history of the war which has been going on since and through WWII made for the best non-fiction read this year for me.I couldn't put this book down and missed a few subway stops on account of how engrossed I was in this book.
A powerful, well researched book which personalizes the legacy of (an ongoing) conflict, and contextualizes Western interaction with it. Conversational in tone, refreshingly less earnest than many books about contemporary Burma and thankfully not falling for the 'power of one' discourse which has guided much recent comment (no offence meant to DASSK and her followers). If you don't know much about Burma a) you should, and b)this is good place to start.
Having visited Burma and spoken with both di...more
Having visited Burma and spoken with both di...more
I have never read a book so hilarious and so heartbreaking at the same time.
I know what you are thinking! You are thinking, "White person in Asia stories? I have been burned by you before!" And I am right there with you. But there are a few really important reasons that For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question avoids the problems apparently endemic to fictional and non-fictional narratives of this kind:
1. Mac McClelland isn't the main character or the most important part of the story.
2. It's not some weird allegory.
3. It's not some banal allegory, either.
4. The story is...more
1. Mac McClelland isn't the main character or the most important part of the story.
2. It's not some weird allegory.
3. It's not some banal allegory, either.
4. The story is...more
Thank you Mac. Legit review to come.
I enjoyed her gonzo-style, but fact-checked writing enlightening, educational, and definitely geared for American/Western sensibilities.
A well written story that was as interesting as it was informative. The layers of information were broken up by anecdotal stories which made this book very easy to get through while at the same time providing incredible amounts of background history on the plight of Karen refugees and the conflict that continues to displace them.
May 06, 2013
Micaela
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Mac has reported from locations including Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Micronesia, Burma, New Orleans, and Bhutan on subjects such as the hot young Bhutanese king, Post-Katrina recovery efforts, South Pacific conservation initiatives, being embedded in dumpster-diving culture, posing as a high-class freelance call girl, and the decline of American manufacturing. More important, she is, according...more
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