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Miss Burma
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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Read more from Charmaine Craig
Miss Burma: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5My Nemesis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Miss Burma
Rating: 3.4456520782608697 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
46 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I have finished Miss Burma, my fourth book in the Women's Literature Prize and I very much recommend it . I don't think the title of the book, nor the book cover do the story justice. A fascinating look into the gradual emergence of Burma , through British colonialism, war time occupation by the Japanese, and the battle towards independence. Burma, or Myanmar is still in the midst of genocide of the Rohingya people. The story is told through many points of view, and it helped me understand what is has happened in Burma and is continuing to happen .It's told as a very personal story . Benny is an Anglo/Indian/ Jewish young man working for the British Customs service in Rangoon. Benny meets and falls in love with Khin, a young women from the long persecuted ethnic group of the " Karen'". After Benny and Khin marry, WW11 forces them to flee Rangoon with baby Louisa. Benny and Khin do not speak the same languages and another man, Saw Lay, a dear friend of Benny's, and also an ethnic Karen , helps Khin and Benny communicate. The story is told through several generation and we learn more from the adult Louisa and her husband. There are some scenes of war and torture , and overall , this is relatively dark read, but very thought provoking and insightful .A fascinating and fairly complex story, well worth the read. 4. 5 stars.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This book was a history lesson shoehorned into the form of a novel. I didn't know anything about the history of Burma and wanted to learn but perhaps I would have liked this book more if it showed me the history through the lives of characters rather than lecturing about it. I wasn't enjoying this book so I abandoned it. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I made it about one third of the way through this book and then gave up. The plot seemed promising in the beginning, but then it seemed to abandon the characters and devolved into a history of Burma. I enjoy historical fiction, but this was too heavy-handed for me.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5With Burma's successor state Myanmar currently in the news, this novel illustrates just how much violence and upheaval is part of the country's history. Set in the era of WWII and the following decades, this story of a family part of an ethnic minority whose daughter becomes a contestant in the Miss Burma pageant in the late 1950s. At times this book is a little hard to get into, but I hope the author continues to write and tell more stories about this part of the world.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I found this book very disturbing and a man of Indian heritage returns to Burma to live, He marries, and along with a friend are accused of being enemies of the state. While he wastes away in prison, his wife must figure out how to keep the family together and alive. One of her ideas is to groom the daughter to win a beauty pageant. Not my favorite book, but like many things I don’t like because I would rather ignore the unpleasant history of other countries, it’s stuck with me long after the storyline of other books has been forgotten.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5"We are bewildered most of the time and doomed to be lost to history. And yet we find that there are others who are unlike us in every conceivable way, yet to whom we are bound."The book has at its heart a couple, a Jewish businessman born in Rangoon, and a Karen woman, one of the minority communities in Burma (Myanmar) and their long marriage (not a spoiler!). I know little or nothing about Burma, beyond having read two books about modern Burma -one about popular protest / opposition a few years ago, which was fascinating, and Guy Delisle's GN account of living in Burma. This novel, which is based on the author's own family history, has a very different context, exploring the long history of oppression by the Burmese majority against minorities like the Karen. It's a massive history, but by focussing on the experience of one family, Craig makes the horrors of WW2 and invasion by the Japanese, political oppression, American intervention in the politics of the region - all very human, very personal. Like all the best fiction, it made me want to understand more about the region, and read more. And it seemed terribly timely, in the light of the current situation in Burma. I particuarly admired the picture of Khin, who despite everything the world threw at her, was tough, a survivor, whilst at the same time struggling."...when she thought of how in desperation to provide for the children she’d started trading in peanut oil and cheroots and betel leaf, becoming part of an imprecise network of traders hawking their wares at open markets across the hot, wet, forested hills of eastern Mon State—what she remembered was the hours and hours, the weeks and months of walking. Walking without the burden of anyone or anything but what she had to trade. What she remembered was the fog, the damp, the rain that came slanting across the sky like relief, the watchful trees, the hungry mothers at the markets, the muddy paths that ruined her feet, the vastness of the peaceful sky, and the fields and fields of rice. Certain days, she would head out into the depth of those fields—unsure of whether she was crossing into enemy territory—and the lush green stalks seemed to regard her, in turn, an indistinct figure walking in an indistinct place."
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Some forty years of Burmese history are depicted through the narratives of one family. Benny, a Jewish officer working for the colonial English meets a local girl named Khin, who is part of the Karen people, a much oppressed minority who helped the British during WWII in exchange for a promised land of their own, one of many promises not kept. Though Benny and Khin have a language barrier, they form a life amoung the turmoil of civil war. And though their marriage will have its dalliances, their oldest daughter, Louisa, will go on to be crowned Miss Burma and provide a symbolic hope for the unification of the country, again another lie. The narrative is peppered with interesting characters, including Saw Lay and Lynton, two men integral to the lives of both Khin and Louisa, as well as American CIA operatives and glimpses of famous revolutionary dictators. But most remarkable is the realization that the author is actually writing about her mother, the same Miss Burma, who went on to lead a revolutionary quest for unification for the Karen people. Must have been quite the journey for this author to research the fragments of her mother's life into this remarkable novel.LinesNot so much as a touch from Khin. And now, posed with her before the chapel, he was told that they must ritualistically pay off a string of villagers blocking the boulder-strewn path that led to his Buick and by extension their new home, that private sphere created for the very purpose of satisfying their desire for closeness.Rather it seemed to her that baptism was a desperation to submerge doubt in the rescuing waters of belief, a desperation to wash away aeons of suffering with the promise of salvation.Another moment passed and, as if from a distance, he looked back at their hands, still clasped uncomfortably. Those hands appeared to be trying to hold on to the difficulty that he and Khin had encountered while apart, and trying to loosen themselves of culpability for having clawed their way through everythingShe had done her time as the submissive daughter, as the symbol of integration, assimilation, subjugation: as “Miss Burma,” as “Ne Win’s whore.” She had done her time as the victim of ethnic woundedness, of slander, of the regime’s ruthlessness. Oh, she loved her parents. And she would be very sorry to leave her sisters. But her time in exile was over, and she was ready to stand up actively for those who were oppressed. One could achieve nothing of greatness without risk.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The author tells the story of a family living in Burma (Myanmar) during the volatile period when the British ceded control over the country to the Burmans resulting in war and violence against tribal groups. The story starts with Benny - who is of Indian and Jewish descent - and Khin - a member of the Karen tribe. For Benny it is "love at first sight" and he arranged a marriage with Khin, who is puzzled but receptive. They work through language and cultural barriers and start their married life. They have a child, Louisa, and things go well until World War II encroaches upon their lives. Japan invades and they are forced to flee for their lives. This begins the first of several flights into the jungle, times when Benny is captured and tortured, and times when Khin feels forced to do whatever it takes to survive. Through many ups and downs and political revolutions the family becomes a target and symbol when their oldest daughter, Louisa, enters a beauty pageant and becomes "Miss Burma".This was a fascinating look at the history of a part of the world most US citizens know little about. But it was a tedious read at time, as lots of philosophizing is done by the characters throughout the story. It is based on the real backstory of her family, and I appreciated the chance to learn more about her people. Those who enjoy international fiction and the nuances of history will find this one of interest.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book is full of lots of moving parts, and the purpose also gets muddied. On the one hand, Craig highlights an important and forgotten story about the Karen people in Burma. On the other hand, the novel is chock full of plot points that it felt as if I was reading a biography and history book at once. It's just so dense, and at the same time, Craig makes the mystifying choice--several times--to jump ahead in time and reveal a major plot point that we only hear about in an unconvincing dialogue between characters. Louisa is an interesting character, and I am disappointed the novel did not center around her. In short, this is an important history being told, but it relies too heavily on its own veracity to be credible to readers. Some different writing choices would have streamlined the novel and made it more interesting.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Historical fiction about Burma (Myanmar.). VERY INTERESTING. from the 1920's--1980's. When British were in Myanmar & then left with al the different factions trying to win control. snd half not as good as 1st part