Miss Burma
SynopsisPlot
Miss Burma tells the story of modern-day Burma through the eyes of Benny and Khin, husband and wife, and their daughter Louisa. After attending school in Calcutta, Benny settles in Rangoon, then part of the British Empire, and falls in love with Khin, a woman who is part of a long-persecuted ethnic minority group, the Karen. World War II comes to Southeast Asia, and Benny and Khin must go into hiding in the eastern part of the country during the Japanese Occupation, beginning a journey that will lead them to change the country’s history. After the war, the British authorities make a deal with the Burman nationalists, led by Aung San, whose party gains control of the country. When Aung San is assassinated, his successor ignores the pleas for self-government of the Karen people and other ethnic groups, and in doing so sets off what will become the longest-running civil war in recorded history. Benny and Khin's eldest child, Louisa, has a danger-filled, tempestuous childhood and reaches prominence as Burma’s first beauty queen soon before the country falls to dictatorship. As Louisa navigates her newfound fame, she is forced to reckon with her family’s past, the West’s ongoing covert dealings in her country, and her own loyalty to the cause of the Karen people.
Story
About this book
Charmaine Craig based this novel on the lives of her mother and grandparents, following one family across several decades of Burmese history. Benny, schooled in Calcutta, settles in Rangoon while it is still part of the British Empire, and marries Khin, a woman from the Karen, an ethnic minority group with a long record of persecution behind it.
World War II reaches Southeast Asia, and the Japanese occupation drives the couple into hiding in the east of the country, setting in motion events that alter Burma's course. After the war, British officials come to terms with the Burman nationalists under Aung San. His assassination leaves a successor who dismisses Karen and other minority appeals for self-government, and armed conflict follows.
The later sections turn to Benny and Khin's eldest daughter, Louisa, whose childhood is unsettled and often dangerous and who becomes Burma's first beauty queen shortly before the country falls under dictatorship. Fame places her among competing pressures: her family's past, covert Western dealings inside Burma, and her own loyalty to the Karen cause. The narrative moves between colonial Rangoon and the contested eastern borderlands.
