Finding George Orwell in Burma

I've been savoring this book over many weeks, reading only bits at a time, not wanting it to end. Emma Larkin (a "nom de plume") has managed to focus on what must surely be a unique perspective when it comes to 21st century Burma. She ties the modern totalitarian regime with George Orwell's classics, particularly "1984" and "Animal Farm." Her insight into the workings of the country and knowledge of the language have resulted in a fascinating tale of her travels through Burma, tracing the career of Orwell during his five-year stint as a British colonial policeman. Having made numerous trips to Burma, Larkin has accumulated quite a following of contacts and friends, whose names have been changed to protect them from the very real danger of torture and imprisonment for talking to a foreign journalist. This collection of locals, however, gives the author a window into what must be the second most repressive nation on the planet (after North Korea). The reader is treated to tales of what is happening in that beautiful and tragic place, eyes opened to the situation for the average citizen. The military junta that rules Burma is responsible for unspeakable human rights violations and remains, justifiably, paranoid about its tenuous hold on power. Larkin relates the tenseness of the situation in an informative and enlightening way. I particularly enjoyed her descriptions of the remnants of British colonialism and how Orwell and his colleagues must have lived. It's a tale of a bygone era when Britain ruled a third of the world, "memsahibs" could thrash a servant for incompetence and a struggling civil servant feared for his life thanks to a high crime rate and the threat of vengenance from resentful colonial subjects. It's touching, however, to learn of long-forgotten graveyards behind English churches, the tombstones broken and discarded or used as garden ornaments by Rangoon businessmen. The epitaphs ring hollow when one realizes that the Burmese government considers the markers nothing more than impediments to a planned parking lot or housing development. Frequent quotes from Orwell's work illustrate the similarities between his works of fiction and what has actually transpired today. It's almost as if Orwell had predicted what would happen to the country where he spent part of his youth. His semi-autobiographical work based on his time in Burma, "Burmese Days," is also put to good use, providing a feel for what it must have been like in the 1920s as a lonely cop in far-off outposts, isolated and alienated. For Orwell this not only applies to his status as a representative of the Raj but the fact that he was usually seen as an outsider and loner amongst his colleagues. "Finding George Orwell in Burma" is simply brilliant. In fact, it's made me want to go to the country more than ever and I'm in the process of planning a trip there next month. I wouldn't dare try to take the book with me on the journey (it would probably be confiscated at the air

I was on a book shopping trip about a month ago and saw this on the New Voices section of the bookstore shelf. I decided to buy it because the title appealed to me and I had just seen a documentary about the lake dwelling people of Burma (see the cover photo). I was amazed by this book and would highly recommend this to most readers. "Larkin" is a wonderful writing. Her style is strong. She presents the story of present day Burma by weaving the present, the past and the views of George Orwell. She uses her own journalism in the country (under stealth) as well as scholarly research to present a depiction that was often shocking and usually quite sad. It is hard for Americans sometimes to really understand and believe that a world like 1984 could exist in modern society but this book certainly paints a picture of what other parts of the world must deal with everyday. This is a thought provoking work whether you approach it as literay criticism, socialology or editoral. Again, I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to going back and reading 1984 in light of what I have read here.

A remarkable inside look at life in a totalitarian state. The Burmese people that the author encounters reveal an inner strength of character forged in an atmosphere of oppression and constant observation reminiscent of Orwell's 1984. The author travels extensively through this country tracing the footsteps of George Orwell when he was stationed there as an imperial policeman. Along the way the not so subtle effects of a state where none of the freedoms we take for granted exist become more and more evident to the reader. The author presents these people and their stories in a very objective fashion and doesn't seek to sensationalize their struggles for political purpose. The effect of this style is actually very powerful because the reader gradually draws the only possible conclusion regarding the current regime in Burma. This is a fine book that is part travelogue, part biography, but more than anything a testament to how people survive in a country where human rights and freedom are essentially non-existent.

This British edition is the same as the Penguin hardcover from 2005. Larkin, writing under a psuedonym as an American born in Asia, educated in London, and resident in Bangkok, brings the right balance of an insider--being able to speak the language and get into the feel of Burma--and outsider--marked obviously by her presence. I wondered how the Burmese reacted to her as she suddenly must have entered many situations and places in which the local people probably never expected that a Westerner would be able to converse, interview, and delve into their own relatively unknown (to outsiders) language. Humbling too to note how many of the people she met had mastered English and were better read than many to whom Dickens is an author in a native language and not one learned with considerable effort so far away from much contact with the West. However, Larkin diminishes her own role to highlight the conditions endured in a police state. I never knew that on 8--8-88 3,000 people were killed while demonstrating; the fate of "The Lady" is about all many of us have heard about "Myanmar", unfortunately for that nation and for human rights. This is why her linking today's experiences to previous conditions at first perpetrated and then rebelled against by Orwell himself makes for a well-chosen structural foundation for her book. Written calmly and even detached from her surroundings somewhat, Larkin lets the people she talks to tell the stories. I do sense that much of Burma was left out--I would have liked, seeing the map, to know more about the peninsular strip adjoining Thailand, the border areas with Bangladesh, India, and China, and the Himalayan frontiers, but her travels seem to have been more limited to the center of the nation. This may be, however, due to surveillance. I was amazed she was able to get away with as much as she did given her "not blending in." She conveys information calmly and clearly, and her own quest to retrace Orwell's steps results in a lot of sensibly established parallels that I doubt any previous reader of Orwell or traveler to Burma had been able to make--quite an accomplishment for this modest book. I hope too that it reaches a wider audience and that more of us learn about the regime strangling this nation. Larkin's lack of self-importance makes her book a quiet but effective voice against tyranny, and Orwell would be proud of her.

The setting is the tropical beauty of Burma, its colorful villages and vibrant culture, all overlaying and obscuring the political oppression busy beneath the surface. Orwell experienced all this while posted in Burma as a member of the British Imperial Police. Larkin brings all this together in a literate tour of time and place that brings the reader back to Orwell's own writings with new insights and sensitivities.