Reviews

The Enemy in the Blanket by Anthony Burgess

paul_cornelius's review

4.0

Much better than Time for a Tiger, the first book in Burgess's Malayan trilogy, The Enemy in the Blanket is quite a mix. Humorous and witty. That's what the first book promised and didn't deliver. But this one does. It's also quite melancholy. The sardonic Anne Talbot, along with the protagonist's, Victor Crabbe's, wife, Fennela, twist and squirm beneath the incinerating Southeast Asian sun and its humid jungle, until they free themselves of the burdens they carry, their husbands. Burgess recreates the sordid world of Britain's colonial administrators during the last days of the empire's rule in Malaya. His picture of wasted lives, frustrated loves, and desperate feelings outdoes even Maugham, who could never be as candid and vivid as Burgess.