BOOK TO PICK

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<hr>Years ago read fascinating and devastating memoir by French woman married to Cambodian man who was a Khmer Rouge cadre. She arrives in Cambodia deeply committed to the revolution and over several years has a terrible awakening.Called "Beyond the Horizon" by Laurence Picq.Unusual angle.<hr></blockquote>

Ive never seen that book published in English, where did you get it?

Otherwise, When the war was over by Elizabeth Becker is a good overall history. The Lost Executioner by Nic Dunlop is good, its about the authors search for Duch, the head of S21. Any of David Chandler or Milton Osbournes books are good. Cambodia 1975-82 by Michael Vickery is a good book to read for balance.

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<hr>Ive never seen that book published in English, where did you get it?<hr></blockquote>

It must have been translated quite a long time ago as I reckon I would have read it 12 or so years back. Passed it on many moons ago.Just gave it a google and they have copies on Amazon.Worth chasing.

In the past, I've publicly sneered at 'Off the Rails' - but I've got to admit, it has the sort of fascination that a magazine with an article about Paris Hilton does when you see it in the dentist's waiting room. But if Whosit thinks he's another Hunter S., he's sadly mistaken ...

For testimonies of life under the KR, the best I've read so far is "Cambodian Witness" by Someth May (and James Fenton). Great read.

Pin Yathay's Stay Alive My Son mentioned by #3, though certainly interesting and well written (originally in French, the author lived many years in Quebec) has been questioned with regard to truthfulness and honesty, not without reason I think.

Agree with JB on Bizot's The Gate, and also with DR #5 on Off the Rails. Not funny at all, indeed quite the opposite, and the writer inspires little sympathy as a character. In this case I'm happy I bought a pirated copy. It ended up in the garbage bin.

SG

OP, there are simply too many books to recommend and we all have our different take on them.
For xample, any history of Cambodia written by David Chandler will be spot-on but for a short version, read the new one by John Tully.
There are a plethora of Khmer Rouge survivor memoirs worth reading from Haing Ngor's incredible Surviving the Khmer Rouge, through Loung Ung's two books, Chanrithy Him and so on. There are more being released as we speak...but still never enough.
For a view on Cambodia today read Karen Coates' Cambodia Now or Michael Freeman's Cambodia.
Fiction-wise, the cupboard is a bit bare but Geoff Ryman's The King's Last Song is superb.
And of course there are a good number of guidebooks or coffee-table photographic books on Cambodia, Angkor and so on.
I could go on and on but you'll get bored!
Read my HOT OFF THE PRESS webpage to see whats come out in the last few years and my BIBLIO for a thorough look at what's available out there in English.

Also keep up to date with my Cambodia Blog

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<hr>Years ago read fascinating and devastating memoir by French woman married to Cambodian man who was a Khmer Rouge cadre. She arrives in Cambodia deeply committed to the revolution and over several years has a terrible awakening.Called "Beyond the Horizon" by Laurence Picq.Unusual angle.<hr></blockquote>

Sounds extraordinary. Apart from anything else, I didn't think the Khmer Rouge were particularly welcoming to foreign sympathizers. There's a great scene in The Gate, where Bizot is trying to go around PP, rounding up stray foreigners who still hadn't taken refuge in the embassy. He comes across a chubby, bespectacled French professor and his wife, both dressed in black "in solidarity with our Khmer Rouge brothers." They refuse to come to the embassy, saying that they welcome the "liberation" of the city. As Bizot says, with admirable restraint, "I confess that I became a trifle annoyed at their attitude." He doesn't record what happened to them in the end: perhaps he didn't really care, and who could blame him ...

Thanks to all, that's great.

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<hr>Apart from anything else, I didn't think the Khmer Rouge were particularly welcoming to foreign sympathizers. <hr></blockquote>

Yes, she wasnt accepted easily by the regime, they were distinctly suspicious of her. Her husband was university-educated in Paris I think, where they met and married, and he held, not a high-up position but some kind of apparatchik role in kr.I think the tension between what she wanted it to be and what her eyes told her was actually happening was what made the story so interesting.

Anyway,this has been a good thread, lots of great recommendations. I had no idea that there was quite so much written about Cambodia. (great resource Andyb).

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<hr>They refuse to come to the embassy, saying that they welcome the "liberation" of the city. As Bizot says, with admirable restraint, "I confess that I became a trifle annoyed at their attitude." He doesn't record what happened to them in the end: perhaps he didn't really care, and who could blame him ... <hr></blockquote>

Actually, he does. They were forced to move to the French embassy compound a few days later. They turned up in their black pyjamas, red khramas etc, and a Scottish surgeon was so annoyed he smacked one of them in the head, and they changed their clothes.

That woman, Laurence Picq, was probably the only foreigner to live through that time. She is not exactly entirely blameless either.

I thoroughly enjoyed River of Time by Jon Swain which is his account of his time in wartime Cambodia and Vietnam, which he split between between PP and Saigon.

Agree that The Gate is a magnificent read.

And chill out... Off the Rails is fun, trashy, enjoyable reading.