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Burmese Lessons by Karen Connelly
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Burmese Lessons (edition 2010)

by Karen Connelly

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13217205,619 (3.26)51
Orange Prize-winner Karen Connelly's compelling memoir about her journey to Burma, where she fell in love with a leader of the Burmese rebel army. When Karen Connelly goes to Burma in 1996 to gather information for a series of articles, she discovers a place of unexpected beauty and generosity. She also encounters a country ruled by a brutal military dictatorship that imposes a code of censorship and terror. Carefully seeking out the regime's critics, she witnesses mass demonstrations, attends protests, interviews detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and flees from police. When it gets too risky for her to stay, Connelly flies back to Thailand, but she cannot leave Burma behind. nbsp; Connelly's interest in the political turns more personal on the Thai-Burmese border, where she falls in love with Maung, the handsome and charismatic leader of one of Burma's many resistance groups. After visiting Maung's military camp in the jungle, she faces an agonizing decision: Maung wants to marry Connelly and have a family with her, but if she marries this man she also weds his world and his lifelong cause. Struggling to weigh the idealism of her convictions against the harsh realities of life on the border, Connelly transports the reader into a world as dangerous as it is enchanting. nbsp; In radiant prose layered with passion, regret, sensuality and wry humor, Burmese Lessons tells the captivating story of how one woman came to love a wounded, beautiful country and a gifted man who has given his life to the struggle for political change.… (more)
Member:whoizme8
Title:Burmese Lessons
Authors:Karen Connelly
Info:Vintage Canada (2010), Paperback, 480 pages
Collections:Your library
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Burmese Lessons: A true love story by Karen Connelly

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LIFE STORIES
a sad story. she loves the guy. he's taken with her but his big love is his cause--burma. she gives up. not really that much about burma. like other reviewers, i found the first 200 pages hard going but the last 200 were great. she is very taken with herself, ( )
  mahallett | Sep 4, 2013 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
I like reading books about North Americans (in this case Canadian) going to live in places that I'm curious about, but too much of a wuss to visit myself.

The first third of the book is about Karen Connelly's first visit to Burma: the people she meets, how they live, and the fear of the military rulers. The rest of the book is spent in Thailand among the Burmese refugees there. Unfortunately, much of the second part of the book is the story of her love affair with one of the leaders of a resistance group. Through him she's able to visit and live in refugee camps and get a closer look at what things are really like. That said, I found their relationship much less interesting than the rest of the book. ( )
  kbuxton | Aug 27, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Burmese Lessons documents the author's observations of the Burmese resistance movement, as well as her own love affair with one of its leaders. Karen Connelly's writing is lyrical, but there is something about the way this novel is crafted that I found jarring. Perhaps, I was expecting more of a love story and less of a chronicle of the resistance movement players.

Fans of Connelly will want to at least check out the work. Certainly, it is a worthwhile read for those seeking to understand more about the plight of the Burmese. ( )
  FranklyMyDarling | Aug 5, 2011 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
After the Lizard Cage novel where the author wrote a very detailed description of Burmese struggles, Karen Connelly has turned to a more intimate portrait of some of her own experiences in Burma. It is easy to imagine a young woman who has fallen in love with a re ( )
  kcaroth1 | Nov 19, 2010 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Excellent piece of non-fiction which reads like a novel. I could not put it down. The author's journey in Burma and "on the border" are informatively transformed into a gripping narrative. I learned about Burmese politics and the opposition to the status quo. The sections about student protestors and political prisoners were really well written! Just shy of 400 pages, it felt like 100! ( )
  hemlokgang | Nov 11, 2010 |
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Orange Prize-winner Karen Connelly's compelling memoir about her journey to Burma, where she fell in love with a leader of the Burmese rebel army. When Karen Connelly goes to Burma in 1996 to gather information for a series of articles, she discovers a place of unexpected beauty and generosity. She also encounters a country ruled by a brutal military dictatorship that imposes a code of censorship and terror. Carefully seeking out the regime's critics, she witnesses mass demonstrations, attends protests, interviews detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and flees from police. When it gets too risky for her to stay, Connelly flies back to Thailand, but she cannot leave Burma behind. nbsp; Connelly's interest in the political turns more personal on the Thai-Burmese border, where she falls in love with Maung, the handsome and charismatic leader of one of Burma's many resistance groups. After visiting Maung's military camp in the jungle, she faces an agonizing decision: Maung wants to marry Connelly and have a family with her, but if she marries this man she also weds his world and his lifelong cause. Struggling to weigh the idealism of her convictions against the harsh realities of life on the border, Connelly transports the reader into a world as dangerous as it is enchanting. nbsp; In radiant prose layered with passion, regret, sensuality and wry humor, Burmese Lessons tells the captivating story of how one woman came to love a wounded, beautiful country and a gifted man who has given his life to the struggle for political change.

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