When The War Was Over

"She manages to tell the dramatic sides, the painful aspects, she builds up a very clear and moving picture. She worked in Cambodia in the early 1970s so she got a feel for the country, she understood what had been damaged and how people were affected. It is a very effective book and I believe that it will stand up to the test of time. I had reservations initially because she wasn’t an insider, and like so many writers she goes into the story through the dark side of the Khmers, the spooky nature of the land and people- in this way foreshadowing Philip Short. I don’t buy into that at all. It’s a small reservation I have, but otherwise this is a wonderful book. This was the case for many years, For historians at least, knowing Khmer wouldn’t have helped all that much until you get to the Pol Pot era- and you get oral histories, and the archives at S-21. You can’t do inside research without Khmer. Nowadays there are many writers who are fluent in the language, and many if these have produced some excellent work in the fields of anthropology, history, politics and literature. Some of the scholars belong to the Khmer diaspora. I think the old Cambodia I loved is on the way out, due to modern pressures. It will be sad if Cambodia becomes another globalised mess like other places that have gone that way, but there is no point sitting around talking about nostalgia. The sources of strength they had to resist the various onslaughts they have faced aren’t going to do them much good now, because this change is too big for them, it is too big for all of us. But they’ll survive."