Blue Poppies

Jonathan Falla writes: Bardo Monitor (above) takes me to task for not crediting Robert Ford in a preface to Blue Poppies. In Britain, it has not generally been the custom for novelists to acknowledge sources in this way, although some now do (perhaps on the American model). Many authors, myself included, feel that this is out of place in fiction, introducing a false air of authenticity and fact, when it is the job of fiction to tell stories. However, no disrespect to Robert Ford is intended. I have always made a scrupulous point of crediting Ford's book, both when I am invited to speak in public, and also in print - for example in the interview that BM cites. Ford is actually mentioned in the novel as living elsewhere - thereby making the point that it is not his story, specifically, that I retelling. Ford's situation in Tibet was the most obvious model for Blue Poppies, but by no means the only one. Much of the story, the character motivation, many points of detail and even certain scenes derive from Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Troilus & Criseyde'. Other major sources include Regis Evariste Huc (1851), Sven Hedin (1909) and Jamyang Norbu (1979). BM considers that Blue Poppies bears only a superficial relationship to the Buddhist Continuum. I don't know what the latter is. The novel is not about Buddhism, but concerns a young man learning the difference between selfish love and generous loyalty. JF.

This book is great. It gives a great story about a Tibetan village named Jyeko, and the trials that come to pass with the Communist invasion of Tibet in the 1950's. It also follows the lives of Scottish radio operator Jamie Wilson and a Tibetan outcast named Puton. It tells of love and trials. Of anger turning into unification in the face of neccesity. It is simply a great book.