cover image No Time for Dreams: Living in Burma Under Military Rule

No Time for Dreams: Living in Burma Under Military Rule

San San Tin, Carolyn Wakeman, . . Rowman & Littlefield, $29.95 (197pp) ISBN 978-0-7425-5703-1

In elegant prose colored by vivid—but not precious—descriptions of her homeland, Burmese journalist Tin relates with great effect the insidious erosion of freedoms that occurred in her country, beginning in the 1950s with the installation of military rule and the imposition of socialism. Burma, or Myanmar since 1989, is a country often obscured to the rest of the world via the political paranoia of its government. Tin lifts the lid on how the country deteriorated under authoritarian socialism to become one of the world’s poorest nations, and writes of her own personal conflict as both government-regulated journalist in a male-dominated environment and despairing Burmese patriot. As the turmoil grows, Tin’s story continues to vacillate between resignation and the furtive search for any signs of hope, such as the one in 1988 when democracy advocates took to the streets for a brief moment of free expression. After enduring 10 more years of the often violent military junta’s rule, Tin moved to the United States in 1998 to pursue a journalism fellowship. Her quiet but powerful story deserves a wide audience. (Feb.)