Nor Iron Bars a Cage

Book excerpt: "When Ma Thanegi was taken to Yangon's Insein Prison after working as a personal assistant to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, she used every scrap of strength she possessed to adapt to incarceration without succumbing to despair. The women prisoners who surrounded Ma Thanegi in Insein joined together, sharing food, support, and humor to get them through the ordeal they all faced. Buddhism helped then to view their jailers with equanimity and the Myanmar values they had absorbed from birth allowed them to carry out a subtle form of protest -- fashioning a nurturing community in a place that was designed to quell any sort of enjoyment. From prostitutes to pickpockets to political prisoners, these women found ways to amuse each other, to be generous, to laugh within the walls of Insein. And chronicling this in her memory was Ma Thanegi, keeping her thoughts and observations in a mental notebook, waiting for the day when she could tell the world. At last she is able to do that, with the honesty, insight, and irrepressible humor that permeates every book this talented woman has written. She describes the inner bravery and joi de vivre that served her and her fellow prisoners well, in an account that provides a moving example of how to withstand times of crisis"--P. 4 of cover.