Joshua Kurlantzick writes:

Most previous books on Suu Kyi were essentially hagiographies. Justin Wintle’s biography is a thorough study not only of Suu Kyi the symbol and martyr but of Suu Kyi the politician, a woman capable of transforming herself from the quiet wife of an Oxford don to a powerful political actor in one of the world’s most repressive environments. By scouring secondary sources and interviews with her acquaintances and fellow activists, Perfect Hostage reveals Suu Kyi’s weaknesses – her stubbornness, her tendency to preach – as well as her strengths. Still, Wintle tends to approve of most of Suu Kyi’s decisions, although without having interviewed her, he sometimes struggles to explain her reasons for them. It’s not clear that the aims of the Burmese democracy movement have always been served by the path activists have taken since the late 1980s. The movement may now have its greatest opportunity in decades, and any lessons learned from past misjudgements will be invaluable.

(LRB 18 October 2007)

Hutchinson | hardback 450 pp. |ISBN: 9780091796518