Fionnáin reviewed The Understory by Mui Poopoksakul
A story in stripes
5 stars
Myth, magic, analogy and history entangle in this fascinating Thai story. The telling is relentless, never pausing for the end of a chapter, as all the stories amalgamate into one. Central to this is a Buddhist monk, a story-spinner who lived to be 101 years old. For the first half of the book, many stories interweave, all about characters in the monk's home village, somehow giving context to a century where farming practices and enclosure were normalised in Thailand. The second half is hyper-focussed on a short couple of years where the monk's life was changed irrevocably.
Animals are central to this story, particularly the tiger who is protagonist, antagonist, powerful and helpless. Shape-shifting myths, considerations of wildness and attitudes toward violence all interweave into a narrative that is heartbreaking and beautiful. So much happens in this book it is hard to believe you have not just entered a world, …
Myth, magic, analogy and history entangle in this fascinating Thai story. The telling is relentless, never pausing for the end of a chapter, as all the stories amalgamate into one. Central to this is a Buddhist monk, a story-spinner who lived to be 101 years old. For the first half of the book, many stories interweave, all about characters in the monk's home village, somehow giving context to a century where farming practices and enclosure were normalised in Thailand. The second half is hyper-focussed on a short couple of years where the monk's life was changed irrevocably.
Animals are central to this story, particularly the tiger who is protagonist, antagonist, powerful and helpless. Shape-shifting myths, considerations of wildness and attitudes toward violence all interweave into a narrative that is heartbreaking and beautiful. So much happens in this book it is hard to believe you have not just entered a world, and in the end nothing is revealed. The story, like the tiger, has many stripes and many beings, and hides in plain sight.