UTHIS HAEMAMOOL
Uthis Haemamool won the SEA Write Award for Lap Lae, Kaeng Khoi (The Brotherhood Of Kaeng Khoi) in 2009. Lak Alai (The Mourning Of A Scribe) and Samarn Saman landed their places on the shortlists of 2012 and 2014 respectively. This year, the novelist is vying for the award again as the final saga of his Kaeng Khoi Trilogy has been nominated. Juti (Rebirth) is a dramatically complex novel as it — through an intricate layer of times, literary genres and styles — breaks all storytelling barriers.
Is the SEA Write Award still as significant as it once was?
In the literary circle, the SEA Write Award each year is a major gathering of diverse literary works. In this aspect, I think, it’s still an important platform for readers to witness the evolution of Thai literature.
Why should people read your book?
Divided into five chapters, this novel has five narrators who tell the stories in different periods. Each of them portrays a genre of narrative of its own time. The writing style imitates a chronicle, an academic writing where the main texts contradict the footnotes, and finally a deconstructed writing to examine that a grand narrative has no fixed formula, particularly for narratives. That is also to show that history and memories can be made up as time goes by.
How did you feel the moment you finished writing the first sentence of this book? Did you know you had a book in you?
I felt alert, energetic and fully ready to write. The information and stories in my head that I wanted to narrate would spontaneously tell me. They were ready to turn into words. I was ready to work on it every day from then for at least a year. It’s always been a great feeling to start a new novel.
What did you read while you were writing this book?
It took me more than a year to finish the first draft. As reading is my routine, at that time, I was reading a lot of foreign novels. Among them were Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks, Antonio Tabucchi’s Sostiene Pereira, Colum McCann’s Let The Great World Spin and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children.
Any Thai or international writers you’d recommend?
Margaret Mazzantini. After reading Non Ti Muovere (Don’t Move), I’ve found that she’s an interesting author as she tells the story through the eye of a man who is the main character. She can also peel off men’s emotions through a compelling perspective and technique. And Veeraporn Nitiprapha for the local counterpart. Her first piece, Blind Earthworm In A Labyrinth, shows her deep understanding and sharp eyes in observing lives through a manner, style and analogy that are hard to see in contemporary Thai literature. It has moving strokes — almost excessive and redundant. Yet the writer must be seasoned to possess a clear voice and great balance in order to create such an exquisite style.
— Pimchanok Phungbun Na Ayudhya