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The Lizard Cage | 
 enlarge | Author: Karen Connelly
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $8.15
You Save: $5.85 (42%)
New (32) Used (7) from $8.15
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 135816
Media: Paperback
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0385525036
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780385525039
ASIN: 0385525036
Publication Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081121221340T
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Product Description
Beautifully written and taking us into an exotic land, Karen Connelly’s debut novel The Lizard Cage is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit.
Teza once electrified the people of Burma with his protest songs against the dictatorship. Arrested by the Burmese secret police in the days of mass protest, he is seven years into a twenty-year sentence in solitary confinement. Cut off from his family and contact with other prisoners, he applies his acute intelligence, Buddhist patience, and humor to find meaning in the interminable days, and searches for news in every being and object that is grudgingly allowed into his cell.
Despite his isolation, Teza has a profound influence on the people around him. His very existence challenges the brutal authority of the jailers, and his steadfast spirit inspires radical change. Even when Teza’s criminal server tries to compromise the singer for his own gain, Teza befriends him and risks falling into the trap of forbidden conversation, food, and the most dangerous contraband of all: paper and pen.
Yet, it is through Teza’s relationship with Little Brother, a twelve-year-old orphan who’s grown up inside the walls, that we ultimately come to understand the importance of hope and human connection in the midst of injustice and violence. Teza and the boy are prisoners of different orders: only one of them dreams of escape and only one of them will achieve it—their extraordinary friendship frees both of them in utterly surprising ways.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Beautiful writing in a strong story! July 13, 2007
armchairinterviews.com (Minnesota)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
How can a book be both beautiful and luminescent, and also dark and painful? The pain is because this book is based on stories out of Burmese prisons. Connelly, the author of Touch the Dragon, a Thai Journal, lived for almost two years on the Thai/Burma border among Burmese exiles and dissidents.
Teza, a young singer, is sentenced to prison for 20 years for his work against the repressive regime in Burma. Teza supports dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was placed under house arrest. (Even though she won the election in 1989--this part of the book is based on actual events).
Teza has been in prison for seven years, in solitary confinement. Teza calls his home the Lizard Cage, because of the importance of the little green lizards in his life. Sometimes he catches and eats them to help keep him alive. And sometimes he watches them, because they inspire him. One day he has a new warder, a food server, a young orphaned boy.
The book follows their relationship, and their relationship with the Senior Jailor Chit Niang and other prisoners. They all seem to be a sort of insane dysfunctional family--one trying to survive incredibly brutal and inhumane conditions. Teza and the boy both find a different sort of release, with the boy truly freeing Teza.
There is brutality and pain in the world and there is genocide, torture, families being driven apart, disease, abandoned orphaned children. It is hard to remember all this in our privileged, calm and stable lives. Can we do something? Yes, sometimes we can--and should.
Is this book easy to read? Is it fun? There are light and beautiful moments, moments of transcendent joy. Connelly is also a poet, and her words are strung together almost like a long prose poem, like natural pearls strung on a cord, warm to the touch and reflecting light.
Armchair Interviews says: Hard to read because of the subject but beautifully written.
Compulsive July 18, 2007
Newton Munnow (Atlanta, Georgia)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
A common enough technique - a book that begins with its ending and circles back to tell the story. The problem here, and why I picked it up three times before realizing just how good it was, is that we're in Burma living among characters who have between one and three names. It makes those first pages a burden, lifted of course, when you finish the book and turn to them again. The Lizard Cage is a dense novel, lush with the words, extremely well paced (after that first chapter) and for the most part, an absolute pleasure. Burma is a mystery to me. I can't account for the accuracy of the book, but in the end, novels are supposed to convince you of their own worlds, not reflect the real one. In that, Lizard Cage succeeds as you step into a world of prison brutality, rape, torture and tiny moments of transcendence. Occasionally Connelly lets her words get the better of her and brief bumps of purple prose jar an otherwise smooth four hundred odd pages. It's quite a feat in the end, a Canadian woman stepping into the shows of a collection of Burmese men, so hats off and heads bent.
Compelling and memorable November 14, 2007
Book Addict (Midwest)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is one of the most compelling and haunting stories I've ever read, and I've read a LOT! I would say that this is in my top 20 all time favorites. If you have ever read Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, then you will understand what this book is about. No matter how desperate, how demeaning, how hopeless the situation, you are always free to choose your attitude. The author, Karen Connelly, can magnify even the most insignificant detail into an entire day's focus for the main character. Very Zen. You will not soon forget this book once you've read it.
Amazing - A Must Read September 25, 2007
N. Friedland (San Francisco)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is amazing. I think we owe a great debt to Karen Connelly for writing this novel which eloquently exposes the brutality of the military regime in Burma while celebrating the beauty of Burmese culture, food and buddhism. This book is a great contribution and has the potential to entertain through its strong writing and story line while educating readers about the reality of life in Burma. On a grand scale, Connelly has found a way to write beautifully and inspiringly about humanity with all its darkness, flaws, hope and gentleness. Well Done!
Great First Novel August 5, 2008
papaya bueno (Obispo)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Imagine serving a 20 year sentence for writing protest songs or eating lizards raw to ward off starvation and disease. Imagine that possession of a pen could add another 10 years to your sentence, along with beatings and disgusting tortures. This is Teza's world as narrated by Karen Connelly in this honest portrayal of life under the generals in Burma (Myanmar). Connelly doesn't pull any punches. Nor does she offer false hopes and solutions for her characters to assuage the reader's sensibilities, making the book, at times, a hard read. However, don't let this put you off. Despite the horrors, one thing shines through - the indefatigable human spirit. Karen Connelly is a poet and this is her first novel. Her poetic talent is evident in the descriptions of the beauty of Burma, its history and it's people. Her poet's soul leads me to my one minor criticism - I think it sometimes interrupts the story's momentum. But this small quibble doesn't prevent me from giving the book 5 stars.
I had known a little about Burma and its problems before reading The Lizard Cage, but had not given it much thought, because of, I suppose, lack of media coverage. A sad comment on our media (and me). Anybody who reads this book will surely be unable to extinguish Burma from their thoughts and, hopefully, will add their voice to the campaign against the inhumane regime of the generals.
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