Miss Burma

March 13, 2017
It’s 1941 when Khin, a young, pregnant Karen (one of many ethnic groups in Burma), looks up at the sky to see “at least fifty planes flying in formation toward her—toward them all... like nothing she had ever seen, and yet precisely like what she had been preparing to witness all her life.” The Japanese have invaded, the British hold is slipping fast, and the fragmented worlds from which Khin and her Jewish husband, Benny, have come will continue to fracture for decades. This is the moment at which the war stops being a source of indecision about where to go and becomes instead what forces Khin, Benny, and their daughter Louisa onto an “airless train” without a clear destination. The book itself begins much earlier, as Benny, the son of a rabbi in Rangoon’s Jewish quarter, was growing up in the 1920s before seeing Khin and falling instantly in love with her, despite initially sharing almost no common language. Spanning generations and multiple dictators, Craig’s epic novel provides a rich, complex account of Burma and its place within the larger geopolitical theater. The first half of the book is an undeniable success; the language and the images unfold with grace, horror, and intimacy. The second half, however, becomes weighted down by the history of various corrupt generals and the parties they represent, and it loses the spark and the momentum.

February 1, 2017

In her epic new novel, Craig (The Good Men) takes readers on a journey through the political history of Burma (today's Myanmar) from 1920s British colonialism to 1960s military rule. Told from the perspective of the Karen minority, who have been enslaved and mistreated for centuries by the Burmese, the author's work is distinctive for its representation of a voice not often documented in history. Craig vividly illustrates the intertwining of the political and the personal through the chance union of Benny, a second-generation Burman citizen of Jewish and Indian descent, to Khin, a Karen native. Benny "becomes" Karen through his burgeoning love for the Karen people and dedication to their cause: fighting for their own nation-state. Ironically, their daughter becomes a symbol of Burmese unity and integration when she wins the Miss Burma beauty pageant. Fans of Jan-Philipp Sendker's The Art of Hearing Heartbeats will find this to be a darker, more nuanced story that parallels marriage, family relations, identity politics, and imperialism. VERDICT Drawing on the experiences of her Burmese/Karen grandparents and mother, Craig has written a meditation on how to attain peace and democracy after repeated betrayals, both in marriage and in the political sphere. Readers with an eye to world history and current events will find this novel riveting. [See Prepub Alert, 12/5/16.]--Suzanne Im, Los Angeles P.L.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2017
Craig (The Good Men, 2002) brings readers into the lives of Benny and Khin and their daughter, Louisa, the Miss Burma of the title, and from their perspectives offers insights into the political turmoil in Burma between 1926 and 1965. Central here is the history of the Karen, a minority ethnic group, and its tragic quest for a place at the table in complicated post-colonial Burma. The family of the Anglo-Indian-Jewish Benny and Khin, who is Karen, imbues hope in its very multiethnic existence, yet in their tale of love and disenchantment, loyalty and resentment, recognition and isolation, we see a reflection of Burma's messy reality. Whether Craig is describing the family's escape through the jungle during WWII or student protests in 1962, she transports us to the thick of the conflicts. Though this story is specifically Burmese, the references to the influence of British, American, and communist players emphasizes the intertwined histories of nations, of alliances both widely known and forgotten. Based on real lives, Craig's historical novel challenges our assumptions about everything from beauty queens to rebels and reminds us that the course of a nation's history is often determined by the fallibility of individuals.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)