KAREN CONNELLY's first novel, The Lizard Cage, won the 2007 Orange Broadband Award for New Writers. Her first book, The Dream of a Thousand Lives, won the Governor General's Literary Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 2001.
Finalist for the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction!
"Karen Connelly's passionate and poetic memoir begins with her
arrival in Burma in 1996 at the age of 27. Brash, naive and
bubbling with confidence, she is enchanted by the country, but also
determined to 'catch at least a glimpse of the truth--something
beyond the beautiful images that are so readily available to the
foreign eye' . . . . Burmese Lessons is an intimate account
of a country, a relationship and a man--all three of which remain
elusive."
--The New York Times Book Review "Burmese Lessons is
a polished, literary memoir that includes, along the way, an
account Burma's turbulent history. . . . Ms. Connelly is a hugely
engaging writer. Burma itself--as Ms. Connelly well knows--is
rather more complicated than one difficult love affair."
--The Wall Street Journal "Connelly isn't a hard-nosed
journalistic observer. She's intelligent and curious, also
emotional, self-deprecating, openhearted. When she meets Maung, a
handsome Burmese dissident, at a Christmas party in Chiang Mai, she
begins a passionate and complicated cross-cultural romance. We know
things can't end well, but we're with Connelly all the way on this
journey. There's no resisting."
--Newsday
"[A] heartbreaking romance set among the temples and verdure of
Southeast Asia."
--The Seattle Times "A generous dollop of poetic chick lit
combines surprisingly well with criticism of Burma's half-century
of bloody dictatorship in Canadian Karen Connelly's Burmese
Lessons."
--San Francisco Chronicle "A sensually acute writer, Connelly
describes the lush pleasures of losing oneself in a romantic,
foreign place, but also details the bitter act of renunciation
involved in realizing that her lover belonged not to her but to the
larger struggle for Burmese democracy."
--Vogue
"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 The Fifth Book of Peace
"Burmese Lessons is 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 "Weaving a poignant personal love story
within a larger cultural tapestry of Myanmar circa 1996, Canadian
poet, memoirist, and novelist Connelly delivers a lyrical look at a
country in the throes of a deeply pernicious military
dictatorship.... Connelly writes eloquently of having given her
heart to Asia."
--Publishers Weekly
"Putting both her safety and heart on the line, Connelly renders
deft passages on sexual longing and satiation that help anchor the
book's harsh sociopolitical themes. Burmese Lessons examines
Burma's tumultuous climate and nuanced cultural ethos with colorful
prose and gritty self-reflection.
--Kirkus Reviews "Treading the boundary between romance and
politics, Connelly presents an evocative account of passionately
living the revolution, shedding light on those who give everything
to the cause, and those who love them. Piercing and raw."
--Booklist
"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.... In virtually every encounter, Connelly shows
us that there is no escaping the political: the reach of the regime
is pervasive and poisonous. The political is there in the
personal.... This is the greatest lesson in Burmese Lessons, and
the most important moment: the realization that the whole history
of Burma is reflected in every individual life. The small story is
the Bigger Picture."
--Literary Review of Canada
"Haunting and poetic.... Connelly fans will be enthralled."
--Quill & Quire
"The recounting, re-imagining, of Connelly's immersion in the
mid-90s [in Burma and Thailand] reveals a brave, even foolhardy,
idealistic, beautiful young woman utterly seduced, co-opted,
transformed by Burmese culture...."
--Globe and Mail "Connelly compels admiration for her brave
intrusions into dangerous and awkward situations, and above all for
her candour."
--National Post
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