There is a bookstore in Paris… whose owner had a wonderful knack of selecting three to four books that I would need to read the following year, and piling them all on one select table. That was my introduction to Amitav Ghosh, specifically his In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale (Vintage Departures) which I purchased a couple decades ago. It was a completely different perspective on world history, set in what in the West is called the Middle Ages, and concerned the area of the world of diverse nationalities, that stretched from Morocco to the Malabar Coast of India. At the time I lived in this area, so the different perspective was refreshing. Inspired by my initial pleasure in his writing style and perspective, I would go on to read "The Glass Palace", another different perspective, a very under-reported story: the Indians who fought on the side of the Japanese during World War II in order to liberate their country from British rule. I truly regret it has taken so long to read this particular collection of four stories of reportage, which cover the subject countries.

“They had lived through an experiment very nearly unique in human history: they had found themselves adrift in the ruins of a society which had collapsed into a formless heap, its scaffolding systematically dismantled, picked apart with the tools of a murderously rational form of social science.” Yes, “…very nearly unique in human history…”, as Ghosh says. Less than four years. What a terrible nexus: a “liberal” Parisian Left Bank “rights of man” education crossed with relentless B-52 bombings, and voila, the Khmer Rouge, who would kill one third of their fellow citizens in those four years. The Vietnamese would put an end to the Khmer Rouge madness in 1979. Under-reported? Ya betcha. For both the United States and China would officially support the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese.

Ghosh title story “Dancing in Cambodia” brilliantly underscores the historical ironies, coupling the “Exposition Coloniale” which was held in Marseille in 1906, when it was one version of the “center of the world” (some might still consider it so). King Sisowath of Cambodia would attend, with his daughter Princess Soumphady, along with a Cambodian dance troupe. (The French would graciously accommodate their guest by supplying him with opium at his prefecture residency). It would be Chea Samy, whom Ghosh interviews (!), who was the sister-in-law of Pol Pot, and who also knew both principals at the 1906 exposition, since she was a dancer at the Court, starting in 1925. Talk about the proverbial “tangled webs.” Ghosh was in Cambodia, doing his interviews, and visiting the very haunting Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh in early 1993, a year before I also was haunted, completely alone, for an hour, in the same prison. Ghosh also travels to Pol Pot’s native village, and reported his “principles” of sorts: his relatives did NOT get rich during his rule… a lack of nepotism virtually unique in the “governing classes.”

His other three stories are equally fascinating, with another view inside Cambodia from Angkor Wat. In the next story, He travels inside Thailand to the border region with Burma, and links up with the Karenni rebels, who are fighting a truly hopeless war with the central government. He also goes to Rangoon, and has meaningful and insightful interviews with opposition leader Suu Kyi, the daughter of the assassinated independence leader Aung San (oh, how the fate of Burma might have been different if he had lived). He also flew to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, shortly after they were hit by the devastating tsunami on December 26, 2004, and accompanies a government official as he searches for his family on one of the islands that experienced the most destruction. Finally, there is a very short story concerning his experience, living in Brooklyn, with the terrorist attack of 9/11.

An absolutely superb collection of reportage, of areas of interest to me, from a very different perspective than is normally provided by the Western media. It is a crime that almost 8 years after publication, this review will be the first posted at Amazon, either in the USA or the UK. My 6-star rating is an accurate reflection of the pleasure and information it provided.

Amitav Ghosh (b. 1956) is a versatile writer. He has eight novels to his credit, and in the realm of non-fiction he has written essays and journalistic pieces. DANCING IN CAMBODIA collects five of his non-fiction pieces. They are:

* "Dancing in Cambodia": This combines history with reporting on contemporary events in Cambodia circa 1990. Part of Ghosh's history focuses on the extended mission to France that King Sisowath of Cambodia made in 1906. He took with him a group of native Cambodian dancers, who captivated France, especially Auguste Rodin. Through one of those dancers, Princess Soumphady, there is a teacher-student tie to a woman named Chea Samy, who became one of Cambodia's greatest dancers, a national treasure. Chea Samy also married a brother of Pol Pot (before he became Pol Pot and one of the monsters of the twentieth century). That, however, did not spare her from dislocation and mistreatment during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Ghosh tracks her down, as well as other relatives of Pol Pot. At the end of the piece, there is a touching account of a festival in 1988 where classical Cambodian music and dance were performed for the first time since the Revolution. "It was a kind of rebirth: a moment when the grief of survival became indistinguishable from the joy of living."

* "Stories in Stone": This essay deals with the temple complex of Anghor Wat. It focuses on two men who live there, one a monk and the other a survivor of the Khmer Rouge holocaust who settled at the temple as a conservation worker. Buddhist monks had lived at Angkor Wat for centuries, and probably should be credited with helping to preserve it. French archaeologists, however, had tried to evict them, since they and their pagoda were, to the French, a blight on the purity of the ancient shrine of Hindu stories. (Western egotism: the monuments of other civilizations must be maintained as we think they should be.)

* "At Large in Burma": This combines Burmese history with a profile of Aung San Suu Kyi and a journalistic account of her efforts between 1988 and 1995 to oppose the military junta and bring democracy to Burma (a/k/a Myanmar). Ghosh also reports on a trip to the Karenni, a small ethnic group near the border with Thailand which for over a half century has waged a jungle revolt against Burmese rule.

* "The Town by the Sea": A report on the aftermath of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in just one region of devastation and death, namely the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

* "September 11": A brief four-page account of a neighbor and friend of Ghosh's who was one of the thousands who died in the World Trade Center horror.

The pieces vary in quality and in their staying power over time (the first three were first published in the first half of the 1990s). The strongest, in my opinion, is the first. For the most part, Ghosh's writing is top-notch.

Amitav Ghosh, in his inimitable fashion, weaves (fictional) historic short stories into gripping tales. The titles of the stories in the book give you an idea of what follows. Other than that, I shan't say anything, and let you read it for yourself. You won't be disappointed.

Great Book.

a smart and humane look at Cambodia and the legacy of the Khmer Rouge. Great read!