Elephant Run - Roland Smith

Smith, Roland. Elephant Run. Hyperion, 2009. 978-1423104018

I think this book had all the right ingredients to make it a favorite of young boys. There are secret passageways, elephant attacks, bombings, faked deaths, and war prisoners. I was completely immersed in the Burmese culture and discovering a new appreciation for the history of World War II in Southeast Asia. I guess all that allowed me to give Roland Smith freedom with his literary license to fill in this historical setting with his fiction.

I didn’t notice how both the two main characters were white men. I didn’t notice that the story was resolved by another powerful white man riding in to save the day. I didn’t notice the whole last part was essentially “and they lived happily ever after.” I just enjoyed the massive amount of information that I distilled from this novel, and the subsequent curiosity it left in me for more information about this part of the world during that period of history.

I think that my individual response (before the class discussion) is important to remember when considering whether this tale is too Anglo-centric to be authentic or even plausible considering the knowledge that they would have in making the decision for him to move into a remote foreign land that was already being invaded by Japan. This book opens a door to a whole range of topics that move away from the typical Anglo-centric view of WWII being about Germany vs. Europe (with a surprise appearance of the USA at the end!) Maybe this is a way to approach topics that would otherwise seem distant and unfamiliar, and help an Anglo-centric audience make a connection with that time and culture. Maybe that takes something away from experiencing the effects of the war on the Burmese people, but I think the amount of interest it could spark in a YA reader for more knowledge would eventually tilt the scales in the book’s favor.