Book Review - Burmese Days by George Orwell

Burmese Days by George Orwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Seeing the mayhem in Myanmar these days, the following extract from the introduction rings very true

It is a curious twist of fate that Orwell’s later novels have mirrored Burma’s recent history. In Burma today, there is a joke that Orwell didn’t just write one novel about the country, but three: a trilogy comprised of Burmese Days, Animal Farm and 1984.

In the introduction Emma Larkin goes on

1984, Orwell’s description of a horrifying and soulless dystopia, paints a chillingly evocative picture of Burma today, a country ruled by one of the world’s most tenacious military dictatorships.

As a preview of Winston Smith’s double-speak milieu, Orwell observed that Burma is

a stifling, stultifying world in which to live. It is a world in which every word and every thought is censored… Free speech in unthinkable. All kinds of freedom are permitted. You are free to be a drunkard, an idler, a coward, a backbiter, a fornicator; but you are not free to think for yourself.

In this magnificent book, the observant Orwell captures the local atmosphere accurately. Here is the hospital

The patients took the prescriptions across the yard to the Compounder, who gave them bottles filled with water and various vegetable dyes. The Compounder supported himself largely by the sale of drugs, for the Government pays him only twenty-five rupees a month…The Assistant Surgeon’s methods of diagnosis were brief. He would simply ask each patient, 'Where is your pain? Head, back or belly?' and at the reply hand out a prescription from one of three piles that he had prepared beforehand. The patients much preferred this method to the doctor’s

The doctor in question - an exiled Indian - is, however, dismissive of traditional practices

'…they will die of gangrene or carry a tumour as large as a melon for ten years rather than face the knife. And such medicines as their own so-called doctors give to them! Herbs gathered under the new moon, tigers' whiskers, rhinoceros horn, urine, menstrual blood! How men can drink such compounds is disgusting.'

Whether he describes a riot, a hunt, a crowded bazaar, corrupt officials, the burra sahibs lording over the "natives", the torrid heat or the onset of monsoon, Orwell’s simple yet lyrical language is a pleasure to read.

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Book Review - John le Carré: The Biography

John le Carré: The Biography by Adam Sisman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An enthralling book, despite its ponderous size, about the colourful life of one of the best authors in the English Language. It is as gripping as the espionage thrillers scripted by David Cornwell – better known as John le Carré. That mystery, that of the origin of his non de plume, remains unsolved – le Carré himself seems to have forgotten its provenance, attributing it to a sign-board of a shop seen in passing.
However, George Smiley’s wayward wife’s name - Lady Ann - turns out to be the same as the author’s wife's, although

It is curious that David should have used his own wife’s name for the wife of his principal character. On the face of it, they were as unlike as could be: Ann was conventional, monogamous and middle class, while Lady Ann was bohemian, promiscuous and aristocratic. Perhaps Ann was right in at least one aspect: Lady Ann represented the essential unknowableness of women to Smiley, and by extension to David.

A must-read for all le Carré fans. His delightful, if acerbic, feud with Salman Rushdie makes fascinating reading. The influence of his roguish shyster of a father Ronnie - lovingly described in A Perfect Spy, played a crucial role in the evolution of the author's mentality.

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Book Review - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tocarczuk

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once in a while one comes across a book from which a character comes to life and decides to reside in one’s mind for a long time. For example, in my case, Bertie Wooster, Yossarian, Dagny Taggart, Randle McMurphy (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) rattle around within my being. They have now been joined by Mrs Janina Duszejko along with her Animals, astrology charts and her trusty Suzuki Samurai.
This is a book difficult to classify – it is hilarious, poignant, deeply philosophical. It redefines the borders between sanity and madness, ethical and immoral, veganism and a meat-based diet.
A treat to read, nonetheless.


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Book Review - Hippie by Paulo Coelho

Hippie by Paulo Coelho
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

From the hirsute generation of Jim, Jimi and Janis this is a journey of self-exploration. A drug addict expounds on the benefits of drug use

With heroin, it’s completely different: you are in control of everything – your body, your mind, your art. An immense indescribable happiness washes over the entire universe. Christ on earth. Krishna in your veins. Buddha smiling down on you from heaven. No hallucinations, this is reality, true reality… Everybody thinking about getting home, making dinner, turning on the television, escaping reality – man, reality is this white powder, not the television.

But then the harsh reality of the moral degradation of the consequences of heroin use sinks in

The problem is your body builds up a tolerance. At first I was spending five dollars a day; today it takes twenty dollars to get to paradise. I already sold everything I had – my next step is begging on the streets; after begging I’ll have to steal, because the devil doesn’t like people who’ve been to paradise. I know what’s going to happen, because it’s happened to everyone you see here today. But I don’t care.

I have not had the privilege of reading the fabled The Alchemist. This autobiographical account meandered along with any profound revelations.

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