Finished February 24
Burmese Lessons by Karen Connolly
This memoir of the author's time visiting Burma and her relationship with a Burmese dissident is honest and emotional, but also touches on the idea of identity. She initially visits Burma to write about a writer who is being imprisoned, but ends up falling in love with Burma and its people. She meets many interesting people struggling to gain democracy for their country who are or have been imprisoned and tortured for their actions. When she meets and falls for a leader of the dissident movement, she is forced to face up to her own expectations of life and what she is willing to do for love.
Her writing gives a true feel to the situation in Burma at the time, and the lives the citizens of that country are forced to lead. You can also see that she doesn't hold anything back regarding her own reactions to it all, and that honesty is what really makes this book.
No wonder it was picked as one of the 2010 Evergreen finalists.
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