Wendy Law-Yone
Wendy Law-Yone is a Burmese-American author born on April 1, 1947, in Mandalay, Myanmar, and raised in Yangon. Her writing is deeply influenced by her tumultuous life experiences, particularly her formative years during the rise of a military dictatorship in Myanmar, which led to her father's imprisonment. After a brief and harrowing attempt to leave Myanmar in 1967, Law-Yone immigrated to the United States in 1973, where she pursued higher education and began her writing career.
Her novels often explore themes of identity, alienation, and the impact of political turmoil, particularly within the context of immigrant experiences. Works such as "The Coffin Tree" and "Irrawaddy Tango" depict protagonists grappling with their lack of connection to both their native culture and their new home. In her later works, including "Golden Parasol" and "Aung San Suu Kyi: Politician, Prisoner, Parent," she provides personal insights into her country’s history and the complex dynamics surrounding its political landscape. Law-Yone's narratives challenge readers by presenting characters whose lives are marked by external pressures and internal conflicts, reflecting her mature understanding of the human condition amidst societal upheaval.
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Subject Terms
Wendy Law-Yone
- Born: April 1, 1947
- Birthplace: Mandalay, Myanmar (formerly Burma)
Author Profile
The writer, Wendy Law-Yone, was born in Mandalay, Myanmar (formerly Burma), and raised in Yangon (formerly Rangoon). Her novels reflect the events in her turbulent life. In 1962, while a teenager in Myanmar, she watched her country become a military dictatorship and imprison her father, a newspaper publisher and political activist. In 1967, attempting to leave the country to reunite with her first husband, Sterling Seagrave, she was captured and held for two weeks before being released. After living in Southeast Asia, she immigrated to America in 1973. She graduated from college two years later, gave birth to twins, and ultimately divorced her husband. After moving to Washington, DC, she worked as a writer, publishing in the Washington Post and researching and writing Company Information: A Model Investigation (1983).
Her first novel, The Coffin Tree (1983), portrays an Asian American immigrant in a different situation than many other novels. In many books, protagonists need to choose between, or reconcile, their native culture and American culture. Law-Yone’s hero, however, lacks connections to both cultures. Growing up with no mother and a distant father, she develops no attachment to Myanmar and is never nostalgic. When she and her brother immigrate, however, she remains detached from and unenthusiastic about America. Unable to express or follow her own desires, she obeys her tyrannical father and grandmother in Myanmar and her deranged brother in America. When brother and father die, twisted logic leads her to attempt suicide to fulfill her newly “uncovered . . . identity.” Although she survives, institutional treatment engenders only a mild affirmation of life: “Living things prefer to go on living.”
Irrawaddy Tango (1993) also describes a woman living more for others than herself: In a fictionalized Myanmar, a friend inspires her to love dancing. She marries an officer who becomes the country’s dictator; when kidnapped by rebels, she agrees to be their spokesperson. After her rescue, she helps other refugees before drifting into homelessness in America; she then returns to publicly reconcile with the dictator. Despite her political activities, she evidences no commitment to any cause and also can express herself only by violence, finally murdering her husband.
While still living in the United States, as she was remarried and raising her children, Law-Yone published a third novel, The Road to Wanting, in 2010. Longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2011, the book tells the story of a young Burmese girl who struggles with the concepts of identity and home as she faces situations beyond her control.
As Myanmar reached a pivotal transition point, Law-Yone released a memoir titled Golden Parasol: A Daughter's Memoir of Burma (2013). This work provides a detailed, personal account of her country, her father's patriotic acts, and her family's trials and tribulations. In 2021, Law-Yone published Dürrenmatt and me. Eine Passage von Burma nach Bern (Dürrenmatt and Me: A Writer's Passage from Burma to Berne). This book discusses the importance of the German language and German literature to Law-Yone’s life and work. In 2023, Law-Yone published her work Aung San Suu Kyi: Politician, Prisoner, Parent, which explores the military coup of 2021 in Myanmar through the experience of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Law-Yone does not fully account for her hero's alienation and lack of self-esteem, though possible factors include unhappy childhoods—with cold fathers and absent mothers. Politics is also corrosive in Law-Yone’s fiction, leading parents and spouses to neglect personal relationships. Finally, fate forces some to lead unrewarding lives. Law-Yone’s fiction lacks easy answers, which demonstrates her writer's maturity.
Bibliography
"An Interview with Wendy Law-Yone." Columbia University Press, cup.columbia.edu/author-interviews/law-yone-daughters-memoir-burma. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Campbell, Charlie. "Q&A: Golden Parasol Author Wendy Law-Yone on Gauging Dictators and Burma's Reforms." Time, 25 Aug. 2013. world.time.com/2013/08/25/qa-golden-parasol-author-wendy-law-yone-on-gauging-dictators-and-burmas-reforms/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Forbes, Nancy. "Burmese Days." The Nation, 30 Apr. 1983, pp. 551–552.
Ho, Tamara C. "Border Crossing: Feminist Sinologies through a Southeast Asian Lens." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society, vol. 40, no. 3, spring 2015, pp. 695–719. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=101535008&site=ehost-live. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Law-Yone, Wendy. "Beyond Rangoon: An Interview with Wendy Law-Yone." Interview by Leslie Bow. MELUS, vol. 27, no.4, 2002, pp. 183–200, doi.org/10.2307/3250627. Accessed 19 Apr. 2023.
Law-Yone, Wendy. "Burma: Life in the Hills." The Atlantic, Dec. 1989, pp. 24–36. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1989/12/burma-life-in-the-hills/668759/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Law-Yone, Wendy. "My Father's Burmese Newspaper, the Rangoon Nation." The Guardian, 2 Apr. 2010, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/03/wendy-law-yone-burma-rangoon-nation. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Milton, Edith. “Newcomers in New York.” New York Times, 15 May 1983, archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/21/specials/hijuelos-house.html. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.
Tharoor, Shashi. "The Most Dangerous Dance." Rev. of Irrawaddy Tango, by Wendy Law-Yone. Washington Post Book World, Jan. 1994.
Tsukiyama, Gail. "Long Journey of a Tango Queen." Rev. of Irrawaddy Tango, by Wendy Law-Yone. San Francisco Chronicle, 20 Mar. 1994.
"Wendy Law-Yone." Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin, 2021, literaturfestival.com/en/authors/law-yone/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.