The first section in the first part of the book—called "The Legacy"—chronicles the life of Aung San Suu Kyi's father, Burmese national hero Aung San. She wrote that, as a young child, he imagined magic ways to dispel the British and that he grew up to make mistakes—like having his Burma Independence Army walk arm-in-arm with the Japanese into Rangoon during World War II: He is quoted later as having attributed that mistake not to "'pro-fascist leanings, but ... our naive blunders and petit-bourgeois timidity.'" Why would Aung San Suu Kyi, who clearly admires and respects her father, chronicle his mistakes?

The six preceding quotations were authored by Aung San Suu Kyi. The first comes from a descriptive article she wrote about the legacy of colonialism on the Burmese language. Why does she conclude with the relatively weak...