A review by rc90041
Burmese Days by George Orwell

4.0

There are flashes of searing brilliance here: the descriptions of a dying leopard, of a native Burmese dance shocking to English sensibilities, the absurd, comic corpulence of the cartoonishly evil U Po Kyin, the dogs gnawing at amputated limbs at the squalid local hospital. The story is pure melodrama. The characters are all cardboard caricatures. Yet, this is a book that will stay with you. Its primary value is as a historical artifact, a kind of fictionalized journal of Orwell's time in colonial Burma. It's also valuable as an early piece of Orwell's writing, and you can see early signs of his growing powers here, powers that would become fully realized some years later.