“Burmese” Christophe Ono-Dit-Biot

Christophe Ono-dit-Biot
Plon (448 pages)

Arrived in Thailand with his girlfriend, Caesar had a break. It is a journalist’s dream scoop: ask Khun Sa, the sponsor of the drug in Burma. With paper, Caesar finally manage to avenge Blanchart, service manager, which brings the whole time with his adventures and encounters worldwide. And it’s not going hard with Helen, his girlfriend. Then it’s decided, Caesar folds sails towards Burma.

First stop Rangoon, the capital. huge slap. Caesar first met Julie and Eric, both very involved in humanitarian expats. As a welcome gift, a bomb explodes. Who is responsible? The ruling junta, to scare the people or stifle any attempt at insurrection? The capital is about to be “moved” in the jungle. The junta does fear of an American invasion? Caesar, with the charm of her youth, discovered this world of fools, guided by its new Beatrice, where everyone is someone’s cookie. Everyone, really?

Caesar falls in love with Julie. Warm hugs face Schwedagon pagoda. Caesar hothead, head down, unable to meet Khun Sa, almost dead. Stab in the water. Gone the scoop. The idea of consecration in a Western duck vanishes … To forget, Julie takes her on Inle Lake and introduced him to shamanism. Small moments of grace. Time stops. The young woman seems another to his business. Who is she really? She fled. Caesar runs after him, with a mission: to play matchmaker, make a large ruby as a fist to Akkha, and help this tribe subjected to the junta, led by the mysterious Wei Wei, the Woman-Tiger … And if Caesar stood his “real” scoop?

Jungle treks, ghost towns dedicated to sex and opium, or even yaa baa, the crazy medicine, Caesar rubs the real Burma and shattered its certainties. It is far from a glossy Burma. Christophe Ono-dit-Biot sign there an initiation novel and dynamic, with a refreshing idealism (it is far from jaded tone of great adventurers!), Not without thoughts on this country (role of the junta, the lords of opium moral quagmire, intellectual, technical of the population). This novel full of passion and intrigue, wonderfully written, is a true snorkeling in the heart of Burmese darkness. There remains the question, nagging, but that is Wei Wei?

Gavin’s Clemente-Ruiz
on line August 31, 2007