Page 395 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

Books CONTEXTS 393
Books

Myanmar has a rich English-language literary heritage dating back to
colonial times, when authors from quintessential Empire tub-thumper
Rudyard Kipling through to anti-imperialist freethinker George Orwell
penned various poems, essays, travelogues and novels about the country.
Post-independence literature largely focuses on the desperate plight of the
country under military rule – often sombre reading, but offering unparalleled
insights into life under the generals. Sadly, there’s virtually no Burmese
literature available in translation, although Burmese authors writing in
English have provided a handful of excellent memoirs, histories and other
works. All the following titles are widely available overseas, although less
easily obtainable in Myanmar itself. Particularly recommended titles are
marked with a ★ symbol.
LITERATURE
★ Amitav Ghosh The Glass Palace. Set in Burma, India American writer Daniel Mason, set in 1886 and telling the
and Malaya, this acclaimed historical novel follows the story of piano tuner Edgar Drake, despatched to the remote
fortunes of four Indian and Burmese families (including Shan States to repair the Érard grand of an eccentric army
that of the exiled King Thibaw) during the six tumultuous doctor – full of convincing historical detail, and a very
decades between the fall of Mandalay in 1885 and the end enjoyable read.
of World War II. Essential Burmese reading. George Orwell Burmese Days. Orwell’s classic critique of
Rudyard Kipling Barrack-Room Ballads; From Sea to Sea. British colonialism has its moments, although it’s a turgid
Rudyard Kipling’s entire experience of Burma consisted of read at times, with heavy-handed satire and a cast of
brief visits to Rangoon (Yangon) and Moulmein profoundly unsympathetic and largely one-dimensional
(Mawlamyine) during a sea journey from India to the US in characters who are little more than mouthpieces for
1889 – which didn’t stop him from leaving a heavy literary Orwell’s anti-imperialistic screed. Burma also appears in
mark on the land. Originally published in Barrack-Room two of Orwell’s most celebrated essays, “A Hanging” and
Ballads, “Mandalay” (which he never visited) remains the “Shooting an Elephant”, both of which say more about the
most famous poem ever written about the country, though canker of empire in just a few pages than Burmese Days
Burma appears in several other poems and short stories. An manages in its entire length.
account of his 1889 visit can be found in From Sea to Sea, Amy Tan Saving Fish From Drowning. This is a richly comic
which is also the source of his endlessly repeated quote: “This depiction of modern tourism following a group of
is Burma, and it will be quite unlike any land you know”. bumbling American visitors who go missing near Inle Lake
Daniel Mason The Piano Tuner. Bestselling novel by – with memorable consequences.
TRAVELOGUE AND REPORTAGE
★ Emma Larkin Everything is Broken: Life Inside of the state of Myanmar under the generals – and its
Burma. Even better than Larkin’s earlier Burmese book uncanny resemblance to the Orwellian dystopias of Animal
(see below), Everything is Broken provides a harrowing Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
portrait of Myanmar in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis ★ Norman Lewis Golden Earth: Travels in Burma. Classic
and a damning indictment of the ruling junta’s tome by one of the twentieth century’s finest travel writers,
spectacular inaction in the face of the country’s greatest describing a 1951 journey the length of the country from
ever natural disaster. Myeik to Myitkyina during the turbulent early years after
Emma Larkin Finding George Orwell in Burma. Enjoyable independence, all narrated with Lewis’s characteristic
and insightful mix of travel writing and reportage: part insight and wit.
travelogue, following in the footsteps of Orwell during his Rory Maclean Under the Dragon: A Journey Through
stint as a colonial police officer in Burma; part examination Burma. Genre-bending book cross-cutting an account of

356-402_Myanmar_B2_Contexts.indd 393 30/06/17 2:21 pm