Weaving a poignant personal love story within a larger cultural tapestry of Myanmar circa 1996, Canadian poet, memoirist, and novelist Connelly (
The Lizard Cage) delivers a lyrical look at a country in the throes of a deeply pernicious military dictatorship. Although she is based in Greece, Connelly's various trips to Burma and Thailand are sponsored by PEN Canada in order to gather information on Burmese political prisoners such as short story author Ma Thida; consequently, Connelly, then in her late 20s, is easily accepted within Burmese artistic circles, gets caught up in violent street demonstrations, and even interviews the revered opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, now under strict house arrest. At a Christmas party, she meets and falls for Maung, a sexy Burmese revolutionary leader who shares his not uncommon story of becoming politicized after the unrest of 1988 and being forced underground. However, she comes to the wrenching realization that her lover belongs to the national struggle for Burmese democracy, and not to her. Connelly writes eloquently of having given her heart to Asia, yet her portrait is dated as the country has changed much since then, considering the recent devastation by Cyclone Nargis, well chronicled in Emma Larkin's
Everything Is Broken.
(May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
“Passionate and poetic.” —
The New York Times Book Review “[
Burmese Lessons] boldly examines Burma’s tumultuous climate and nuanced cultural ethos with colorful prose and gritty self-reflection.” —
Kirkus Reviews “Karen Connelly has given her heart to Asia. I bow in gratitude to this writer whose love story is personal and political—and true.” —Maxine Hong Kingston, author of
I Love a Broad Margin to My Life and
The Woman Warrior “
A tour de force. At once beautiful literature, an intimate account of a moving journey, a nuanced portrait of another country, a complex yet quietly honest reportage, this book is also a page-turner. It will, I believe, become a classic in the new genre that mixes personal memory with public events.” —Susan Griffin, author of
A Chorus of Stones and
Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy “Sweeping in its historical research, devoid of personal commentary (or indeed experience), I highly recommend
Burmese Lessons. In quietly beautiful, searching prose, Connelly shows us the small stories. . . .
Burmese Lessons shows us more than a place, or a person in a place: it shows us a way to be in the world: open, seeing, breathing, awake.” —Jamie Zeppa,
Literary Review of Canada “Beautifully written. . . . The book is rich with a nostalgia for Connelly’s youth, and the passion of it, when she flung herself into unknown cultures and the arms of dangerous lovers.” —
The Globe and Mail (interview)
“Extraordinary.” —
More “A harrowing account of life under Burma’s military dictatorship—the terror, the treachery, the brutality, but also the astonishingly resilient serenity, camaraderie and fatalism of the Burmese people. . . . An insightful, riveting book.” —B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction jury citation
“A poetic love story with all the strengths of her previous works, a tale of a wounded country and a gifted political activist struggling to transform it.” —
Maclean’s “[Connelly] compels admiration for her brave intrusions into dangerous and awkward situations, and above all for her candour.” ––
National Post (Open Book feature)
“Connelly has continued to astound. . . . [Her] fans will be enthralled.” —
Quill & Quire “With
Burmese Lessons, [Connelly] explores a relationship that defined who she is today.” —
National Post “The enchanting story of a highly erotic love affair, one made wonky and dangerous by politics. . . . The book goes far beyond memoir. . . . Her personal loss has become her book’s gain.” —
Winnipeg Free Press “Connelly is a sensualist, as a writer; this memoir is redolent with the smells of food, the stink of bodies, the weight of stones carried on her head as she helps the women in a camp build a well, the sharp, deep pleasures of sex, the edgy frustrations of sex denied, for the sake of propriety. . . . Readers familiar with
The Lizard Cage will experience several shocks of recognition of characters and images and ideas . . . especially the sweet wisdom of monks, and the fleeting encounter with a feral boy who becomes one of the most memorable characters in Canadian fiction.” —
The Globe and MailPraise for Karen Connelly:“[Karen Connelly] shows us what autobiography usually veils: the human spirit not at its most defiant and brave, but as it really is and can only be.”
—
The New York Times
