A layered and subtle historical fiction about a family in Burma and how they make it through all sorts of terrible things that happen there.
This is an incredibly dark book based on the true family history of Charmaine Craig. My book club had a tough time discussing it.
“Your problem is that you believe in right and wrong. Don’t you know evil will find you no matter what?” pg 11.
First of all, the introductory portion doesn’t make sense until the last half of the book. The pacing is glacially slow. A few of our club members couldn’t make it through the first couple of chapters.
Secondly, the constant warring and torture of innocents by the conquering forces is really difficult to read.
“We welcomed them because we’d been persecuted by the Burmans for centuries, we’d been their slaves – our villages perpetually attacked, our people perpetually preyed upon, stripped of everything from our clothing to our lives.” pg 37.
It is an important history, certainly, but the darkness of it made me feel sick.
A third problem club members had with Miss Burma is it feels disjointed.
At first, readers thought Khin and Benny were the focus of the book. But then, the point of view drifted around to Louisa, their beautiful daughter, and her story took over.
We must find a way to rejoice in our circumstances. We must find a way to do more than endure.” pg 145
Basically, the Karen are an ethnic minority in Burma, now Myanmar. For centuries, the Karen have been enslaved by the Burmese. The underlying story is about how the Karen tried to unite against the ruling government to create a federation.
“Our modesty that runs so deep it is almost self-annihilating. But now.. our relative invisibility strikes me as very sad. … If you stand for a moment behind their eyes- behind the eyes of anyone for whom modesty is not an ultimate virtue- we appear to value our lives less than they do.” pg 168
Against this background, the family of Khin and Benny tries to survive and do what they believe is right.
This story is full of flawed characters and whole passages where most of the action takes place in people’s minds.
There is fairly graphic torture, rape and violence. If any of those are triggers for you, beware.
Recommended for patient readers and those who can handle a very dark history. The book club certainly learned a lot about Burma from this book. And bullets still fly in Myanmar today.
Thanks for reading!
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