A review by amslersf
The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh

5.0

It took me a bit to buy into this book, but eventually I realized that this was indeed a great piece of post colonial literature. I especially appreciated the stories concerning the Second World War. Ghosh goes deep into the role and thinking of Indian soldiers within the British army and the dilemmas of soldiers when some decided to fight for themselves and their own sense of nationhood by fighting against the British during the retreat from Burma and down through Malaysia. I appreciated learning a non-European centric story of the Second World War and it also reminded me that Burma (and other's countries) struggles for self sufficient independence post WWII were also hampered by the devastation of that war. There was no Marshall plan in Asia. Burma was first pillaged by colonialism, then left bombed to the ground as colonial empires fought each other.