In the 1920s, Eric Blair, newly graduated from Eton, went to Burma as a police force recruit as part of the British Raj. In Burma Sahib, Paul Theroux imaginatively fills in the bare bones of the five years that Blair stayed there.
What was important about this man and where he lived? Blair eventually became known as George Orwell, author of 1984 and Animal Farm, and there is little documentation of this part of his life.
The plot is straightforward. Blair goes through his training and apprenticeship but does not find success. Although he forces himself to do the work, he hates the job and does not get along with his peers. He lasts only a few months in each posting and then is transferred.
The setting is much more interesting. How the British treat the Burmese they are supposed to be helping is appalling to a 21st century reader – not just in their capacity as policemen, but in their personal and social lives. Blair, a man of his times, is embarrassed to be related to his uncle who is married to a local woman, and worse yet has a half caste child, his cousin, shunned by both the British and natives.
The flavor of Burma, the tropics, suffuses the story. “the shimmering fish scales of small waves on the surface of the sea…the sun sinking like an apricot…a mass of twitching bats, clustered together, jostling their loose wings…the brown wastes of inland Burma, the scabby bush, the naked children jumping into foul creeks…”
But it is the character of the budding writer that is the crux of the book. Theroux’s portrayal is a masterclass in a young person’s discovery of who he is. At first, Blair is determined to make a success of his job. He salutes; he studies; he follows orders; but it is not for him. Eventually, Blair acknowledges his rebellious thoughts; he searches for ways to find comfort in an intolerable situation; he finds and names a second person hidden inside himself; he imagines leaving the police and Burma. In incremental steps, the writer emerges.
The epigraph, quoted from George Orwell’s Burmese Days, reads “There is a short period in everyone’s life when his character is fixed forever.”
Serenity rises from Gail Tsukiyama’s The Samurai’s Garden like the mists of the rural Japan she describes. Stephen, Chinese, ill from tuberculosis, is sent to his grandfather’s beach house outside Kobe, Japan, to recover. He has taken his paints and his journals to occupy himself in this isolated village.
His train is met by Matsu, the taciturn house caretaker. As they slowly become acquainted, Matsu begins to include Stephen in his daily activities. He takes him shopping, introduces him to an old friend in the nearby village. Most important, he takes him to meet Sachi who has made her home in the leper village in the mountains. Others have the burden of sickness as well.
Stephen likes Sachi and he soon realizes the depth of her relationship with Matsu and the loyalty and commitment that bind them despite her illness. At the same time, Stephen learns of his father’s affair and sees the marriage of his parents disintegrate. Several additional relationships are explored; each more complex than they first appear.
Both Matsu and Sachi have made beautiful gardens. His is rich with cherry blossoms and chrysanthemums; hers is raked stone. The beauty they create is hard won. When destruction comes, which it does, they rebuild. It is a symbol of their lives.
The setting is pre-World War II when Japan’s military is sweeping through China and approaching Hong Kong. Stephen’s parents send for him before it is too late to come home. He has become a full participant in the rural life he previously dreaded and is heartbroken to leave. As in the story above, it has been a short period of his life that will affect him forever. The first words of the novel, “I wanted to find my own way…” have more than one meaning.
The best part of The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra is the setting. It is 1920 in the very southern tip of India; like Burma, it is also the Asian tropics. We learn about the spicy food, the lush clothes, the local customs, the steamy climate; all give a strong sense of place.
A young Indian bride, married three years ago when she was still in school, has just joined her husband, a newly established doctor, to begin married life. They are invited to dinner where she meets his British colleagues for the first time. As dessert, carrot halwa, is served, a scream comes from the kitchen. Kaveri, bright and curious, figures out a way to get near the murder scene. The victim is a pimp well known to the police.
The scene is set to show many aspects of life, British colonial rule, upper class educated Indians, servants, poverty, and the seamier side of gangs and prostitution. Kaveri is fortunate in her arranged marriage as her husband, Ramu, is forward thinking. He supports her interests and desire for further education. They make a good team – as a married couple and as sleuths in this cozy debut mystery.
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Excellent as always. The quote from the books beginning had escaped me . So true