Review: Tales from the Weird Side of the Business World -- Myanmar
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 26, 2013
Using his more than 10 years of Asian business development experience and his natural ability as a writer very well, Jonathan Nichols has found his milieu. Though not his first book, “My My Myanmar, Tales from the New Frontier of Capitalism,” is his first novel and after spending a nice evening reading it, you come away with a few certainties:1. Nichols can write.2. Nichols understands the rapidly changing business climate (look at some current business reports from the major hotel chains and see their investments in new tourist spots such as Phuket) and you will see a changed scene from even two or three years ago.3. Newly opened Myanmar (probably better known to you as Burma) still can't make up its mind whether it really wants to open up to liberalism and democracy or remain mired behind a wall of would-be generals who have promised power-sharing, but have not given it up.4. You can understand why the generals feared pro-liberal Ann Son Suu Chi, political opponent, liberal and optimist.5. You can understand why doing business in Myanmar is like trying to herd cats.Right from his first sentence, Nichols captures you with his depiction of how Western businessmen are forced to do business with a bunch of general who want to appear changed but who can't change. Indeed, even the new, open, democratic Myanmar is just a ball of confusion, rife with payoffs, change, more payoffs and, if you are businessman you still have to hold your breath.The reason is quoted here, directly from the text:“In Myanmar, a general was always right, no matter how he chose to behave. There was no one above him; no king or princes as in times past. He was a king. Everyone had to let him play through, so to speak. In Myanmar, his men were expected to show him honor as the leader of the pack by sniffing and, in most cases, licking his ass.”That paragraph says it all pretty much. It shows that Nichols can write, his characterizations of businessmen and conditions are right on the money and his ability to write isn't open to question. He is an author who can write. He can use six words to describe a person and in that one phrase can pass on information that would take another writer paragraph after paragraph.Briefly, the story behind “My My Myanmar” involves a couple of Western businessmen who want to be the first in, make a killing and then head out. It takes you through semi-seedy nightclubs, seedier ratholes in the wall, beautifully trimmed and already-existing hotels in the capital and then on through the business practices – if you want to call them that – of Myanmar. A country mired in three centuries: the first is what remains of the colonial time of Britain in the late 1800s and early to mid-1900s; the second is the middle part of  the 20th century, when the country 's military closed its borders to the world, and now to the 21st century when it is trying to open up. Schizophrenic isn't the word for it, yet Nichols is clearly in his element as he draws life-like characterizations of everyone from a bar girl to a high-ranking general, unwilling to give up power and then finding it taken away from him.To say that parts of “Myanmar,” are a hoot just can't cover the humor that is just below the surface, but even lurking below that surface is the grim face of junta. Nichols knows that he's doing and when you have finished your read of “My My Myanmar,” you will understand why it is  such a frustrating situation.Nichols has a bright future ahead.