Burma Sahib

by Paul Theroux

From the acclaimed author of The Mosquito Coast and The Bad Angel Brothers comes a riveting new novel exploring one of English literature's most beloved and controversial figures—George Orwell—and the early years as an officer in colonial Burma that transformed him from Eric Blair, the British Raj policeman, into Orwell the anticolonial writer. At age nineteen, young Eton graduate Eric Blair set sail for India, dreading the assignment ahead. Along with several other young conscripts, he would be trained for three years as a servant of the British Empire, overseeing the local policemen in Burma. Navigating the social, racial, and class politics of his fellow British at the same time as he learned the local languages and struggled to control his men would prove difficult enough. But doing all of this while grappling with his own self-worth, his sense that he was not cut out for this, is soon overwhelming for the young Blair. Eventually, his clashes with his superiors, and the drama that unfolds in this hot, beautiful land, will change him forever.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Asia, Historical, Literary Fiction, India, Travel

400 pages, Hardcover

First published February 6, 2024

About the author

Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then back across Russia to his point of origin. Although perhaps best known as a travelogue writer, Theroux has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel The Mosquito Coast.

He is the father of Marcel and Louis Theroux, and the brother of Alexander and Peter. Justin Theroux is his nephew.

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.I loved this book - the premise and the execution were brilliant.

Although I have read some of Theroux's fiction before I found it very hit and miss - and far less fulfilling than this non-fiction - particularly the travel. I have a few more of his fiction books, but I can't imagine them matching up to this one.

We know that the five years Eric Blair spent in the India Imperial Police force in Burma were formative, but the absence of letters or diaries from the period doesn't allow us to really know how. As is stated on the back cover of my paperback edition 'this richly complex transformation can only be told in fiction, as it is here by Paul Theroux'.

And so, Theroux has taken what few facts are known about Blair's time in Burma - his being posted here and there, his police record, his quick grasp of the language, his maternal family in Moulmein - and wrapped a narrative around it, introducing elements of his written works (primarily Burmese Days, A Hanging and Shooting and Elephant carefully into the story. Theroux is obviously very familiar with Orwell's work and has brought his thoughts (often expressed through John Flory - his alter-ego in Burmese Days) as he struggled to be the Sahib, with the heavy impact on the Raj the Indians and Burmese people he was empowered to 'control'.

The descriptions of Burma, the settings of the individual towns were well managed, and reminiscent. I spent 4 weeks in Myanmar and travelled around some of the places Blair was posted, but not the delta areas or the jail, and while it was some 80-90 years later, there was still the impact of the Colonial architecture, the impact on parts of the cities, to be able to draw from. I read Burmese Days while I was there, which was a novelty.

I found the book portrayed very well Blair as I think of him (rightly or wrongly) with his social awkwardness, his bookish shyness and yearning for solitude, his intellect making him stand out from his peers. Theroux perhaps hammers home the torturing, internal conflict with Blair a bit hard and repetitively, but not overly detrimentally to my enjoyment. One of the aspects I had not pictured was Blair's self-consciousness over being tall, but apparently at 6'2'' he Gullivered his peers.

Enjoyable also was the inclusion of themes of publications contemporary to his time from DH Lawrence, Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling and EM Forster. Their assertions were used to talk about their themes and what Blair's position on the content sat.

I didn't find this a heavy read, although it was 390 pages long, as it flowed really well. If anything, I read it more slowly than I needed in the misguided hope it would last me a bit longer!

If I was to be ultra-critical, I might suggest the weaving of the characters was a bit heavy handed and the choreographing of the characters in his writing (Burmese Days mostly, but also 1984) into this book was a bit too literal in some cases. I do wonder though how much is in there that I didn't pick up on though - how deep the Orwell catalogue is woven in and I just missed it...

5 stars.

Quick quote - P22, my edition.
An internal monologue showing Blair's conflicted position, his self doubt and his cringing shyness all in two paragraphs!

It is just conceivable I am proof that it is all a colossal bluff, Blair Thought. Two years of disgraceful concealment and unpreparedness, habituated to failure, shrinking like a girl at the sight of a mere rat in the corner of a dak bungalow, disgusted by my sweaty men when they march, hiding in my room whenever someone mentions a party or a dance at the club, taking refuge in my books, appalled when I see myself in the mirror in uniform, slope-shouldered, my tabs askew, my puttees slipping down my shins, blaming my houseboy yet knowing the fault is mine, unashamed at lashing out at my bearer, the old man Myat who bobbled and broke my lacquer bowl - all that, and he hugger-mugger visits to Monkey Point, pressing money into the tiny hand of a sweet-faced tart, so that I, a well-fed sahib, can have my wicked way with her, a hungry native. Yes, I'm the Proof.
For this I am rewarded, my probationary status lifted, promoted to full assistant district superintendent with a raise of seventy-five rupees a month, for lording it over thirty Indian and Burmese guards at the refinery - in league with the brute McPake - and, oh yes, the underpaid, beleaguered and brow beaten native guards do all the donkeywork.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

At an age when many people have been retired for years, Paul Theroux continues his career as a writer of immeasurable talent and seemingly limitless curiosity. This book could not be more different from the last two of his that I've read -- one about a legendary surfer and a novel woven out of his imagination. Here we learn of the early life of George Orwell, when he was still Eric Blair, newly hatched from Eton in 1921 and sent to Burma to join the police force. It is supposed to toughen him into manhood, which it does, but it also plants the seeds of the writer he is to become. It strengthens his values and opens his eyes in ways he had never thought possible.

Burma Sahib is also a picture of colonized Burma, complete with the plummy accents of the invaders and the inherent decency of their charges. Being Theroux, the author presents almost a travelogue of the country, transferring Blair from post to post in order to paint an in-depth picture. I was interested to note that in the acknowledgements credit was given to the late Jonathan Raban, another author as proficient in writing fiction as well as travel experience.

[Rachel-Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know that my rating is necessarily fair, but it's true for me. I think this book is for a very specific type of person, and that person is not me.

I can appreciate the amount of details the author included and how it must have been a ton of research and well thought out storylines, but I just did not connect with the writing or the characters.

I learned a few things about Blair/Orwell, mainly that he was terribly unlikable and a bit of a drag.

Just my opinion, don't come for me.

[eyes.2c · Rating 5 out of 5]

A man of his times, out of place!

Insecure, bullied ex-Etonian, Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) becomes a policeman in Burma. Blair is a tall, gangly chap who finds people and relationships a burden. His inner world is far richer. Blair is withdrawn. His passion is books. That list is certainly edgy. Huxley, Lawrence for a starters. Inside he’s a rebel, an agitator. However he’s nineteen years old and en route to Burma as a training policeman with the Imperial Forces.
“ [Blair’s] detachment remained, the hovering, watchful self, seeing the young man in the jacket and tie on deck, like a character in a story, knowing what the young man was hesitant to admit: that he was uncertain; that he really didn’t have a clue; that he was to be a policeman.
Blair’s life in Burma will be very different to the life he dreams of. A puzzle he has to somehow push through. An outsider trying to find his way in.
Burma has a strong culture dating down through the centuries, rich in food, in color and movement. Paradise with more than a sting in its tail. A culture disdained by its imperial masters. Welcome to the British Raj.
He’ll confront jingoism, culture wars, attitudes to mixed races, women, and troubling juxtapositions about life and viewpoints. He is introduced to pleasures of the flesh, he finds love only to realize its limitations. He canes prisoners and sees himself back at Eton being bullied. He hates his actions. He feels unclean. His conscience is troubled. However his survival is reckoned on sticking with the status quo—the Sahibs.
That means hiding the fact that he has two half caste uncles, and cousins. Relatives he wants to hide for reasons of his own acceptance, as much as for their protection from insular snobbery and disdain.
Burma, part of Britain’s far flung empire, a place the British cling to and impose their rule of law on.
The story of this troubled, non conformist, who conforms in the worst possible way, is broken open in the worst way possible. Blair finally escapes to a different and we can only hope more satisfying future.
Last we see Blair, he is immersing himself in sociological investigations in the north of England. He writes under his other persona, George. The name he gave his writing self in Burma.
An intriguing novel that immerses the reader in the Imperial Police Force and has the main character pondering questions. Yet those questions are silenced, submerged by tradition and rules, unwritten and written. Judgement to the letter of the law with very little scope for compassion. Blair becomes part of the very system he condemns. A proper Burma Sahib, on the outside. Inside he’s a tortured, conflicted soul.
Eric Blair is a character not soon forgotten. George Orwell didn’t. This fictionalised tale of Orwell’s early years is thought provoking and brilliant!

A Mariner Books ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Literary, historical fiction, in which freshly graduated from Eton, Eric Arthur Blair AKA the historical figure George Orwell travels to Burma in 1922 to join the Imperial Police. Story describes his development into a social-critic and anti-Imperialist, as well as the influences for his first books Down and Out in Paris and London , Burmese Days and later essays.

My audiobook version was almost 18-hours long. It had a 2024 copyright. A dead tree copy would be 400-pages.

Paul Theroux is an American novelist and travel writer. He has written more than twenty novels and many works of short fiction, as well as more than twenty works of travel-related non-fiction. I have read several of his works. The last being Riding the Iron Rooster .

Narrator was Charlie Anson. He is a film and television actor as well as a narrator. Anson did a good job, better with the 24-year old Blair than the 19-year old.

I have a keen interest in Orwell as well as an interest in the 1920’s.

Oddly, I have managed not to have read Orwell’s Burmese Days (1934). That book was inspired by his time in Burma and is the setting for this one. It isn’t considered a significant Orwellian work. However, I have read the essays, A Hanging (1931) and Shooting an Elephant (1936) which supplied scenes for this book. That book and the essays speak the most about Orwell’s early anti-imperialist sentiments. I had read Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) (my review), Orwell’s first published non-fiction book and which founded his reputation for social criticism. This book ends with him launching onto the experience behind that one.

The 1920’s were a very exciting decade in western history. Having some background in: English culture, unitary Britain, and the British Empire in the decade after WWI would be helpful with reading this book. For example, period, English, colonial vernacular is used in the dialog.

I’m no stranger to Theroux’s work. Theroux is a proficient, prolific, and experienced writer. The prose of this book was very well groomed. There was a high degree of historical accuracy in the story. In addition, the pacing was very good.

In general, Theroux’s story’s timeline was mostly historically accurate for the author's police career. However, his literary embroidering’s several times brought me to a screeching halt. For example, there is no record of Orwell having the mixed race, female cousin. She provided the theatrical prelude to the final act, and earlier serves to illustrate Blair's initial racism. Note: Orwell did have a great Uncle who had a Burmese mother.

Theroux took a strange direction toward character development. The Blake character at the beginning of the book was unrecognizable. In the end, he was only vaguely Orwellian. Blake arrives in Burma, the product of his social class, and the Public School boot camp of his Eton education. He’s: anti-Semitic, racist, and jingoistic, but resisting the anti-intellectualism of it all. He’s also an introverted, cold fish, plagued by: fear, obligation and guilt. That the character developed, may be the object of a novel, but he was not recognizable to me as the eventual author of Down and Out in Paris and London, other Orwell books I’ve read, and the essays I’m familiar with.

The story contained an underlying low-level of violence. Body count was moderate. Blair was originally schooled in brutality at Eton with its, "spare the rod-- spoil the child" discipline. The Imperial Police he joined, was a paramilitary constabulary. In many ways, its methods were an extension of Etonian discipline to Blair. The Police were more concerned with maintaining order for the easy extraction of Burmese timber, oil and rice through the vehicle of the law rather than justice. Theft, rape, and banditry were checked. Although, they also maintained a veneer of western civilization over native practices by suppressing dowery death, honor murders and outright slavery. This was likewise implemented without sparing the rod or the gun. Blair became inured to ordering and meting out beatings himself to the inhabitants of the almost medieval society the Burma Sahibs lorded over, but ill understood. In general, Theroux was fairly accurate in his description of these historical circumstances.

In addition, Theroux included the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll western and ethnic music never found in proper novels of the early decades of the 20th century. The young buck, Blake had a Yellow Fever for the native women. The irony of this with the racist Blake was only apparent to the reader. I thought it was un-Orwellian. A passionate affair with a lonely Memsahib provided an interesting contrast, and was positively Orwellian. The English woman reminded me of a character in a later Orwell book, or maybe it was The Mosquito Coast ? All sex was tastefully and well executed. Alcohol of several strengths pickled the Burma Sahibs, relieving them of the tedium of service and the climate. Opium was the vice of The Oriental [sic], and Whites gone native, although it saw medicinal usage amongst proper folk. Blake’s chain-smoking of cigarettes likely presaged Orwell’s pulmonary tuberculosis? However, all White Men, but not women smoked tobacco. It was likely for medicinal purposes? There were numerous references to period music. Period American popular music was correctly featured at colonial British social entertainments. In addition, there was one bawdy, colonial drinking chanty that I wished I had all the lyrics for. Indian and Burmese music was also mentioned. In general, Theroux’s usage of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, was a shrewd piece of world building.

In places this book was terribly good. It was clear that colonialism is brutal on the colonized, but brutalizes the soul of the colonizer. However, being familiar with both Orwell and Theroux ended-up being an impediment to my enjoyment of it. I was very interested in how Theroux portrayed the development of Blair as the writer of his first book of non-fiction, whilst immersed in the world of his first novel published shortly later. In the end, I came to decide that through Theroux’s fiction, that all of Orwell’s early work was non-fiction. However, the Blake character never developed into my image of a young Orwell. I never liked the character, despite the seriously likeable, historically accurate story.

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favourite of Theroux's books.

I normally love his writing but I found this fictional rendition of Eric Blair's life in Burma very dull. Very little is known about Blair's (George Orwell) time in the country and it seemed to me that Theroux didn't particularly like the man. He certainly paints him in a terrible light - bad at his job, awkward in social situations, a shocking snob and bigot ... the list goes on. In fact Blair has very little to commend him throughout the whole of the book. The last chapter almost makes you clap in glee as he gets his just desserts.

All in all a very unsatisfactory book about an author whose work I've read little of - I didn't like 1984 at all - far too dystopian for me.

[Jifu · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)

I’ve read several of Theroux’s travel books, but Burma Sahib was my first foray into his fiction. Within the very first chapter, I found myself familiarly ensconced by the same descriptive prowess that has previously and very effectively transported me to numerous places across the globe in the author’s nonfiction works. 1920s British-ruled Myanmar came alive in all of its complexity (albeit viewed specifically through the inescapably biased lens of the book’s main character Englishman). No matter where the narrative took me, from quiet-ish delta towns to lively Rangoon, I found myself immersed.

Equally as impressive was Theroux’s management of Blair/Orwell. I confess I was a little wary at first, having read too many books where an author has taken a character from history and turned them into someone who shares nothing more than a name with their real-world counterpart. But while I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no expert on Blair in any way shape or form, the complex character that Theroux presented to me ended up matching extremely well with what little I knew of the actual man behind some of the influential works of the 20th century. And honestly, even if I went into this book with absolutely no idea about whose life it was based upon, I would still find it to be an engaging read about a bookish and almost cripplingly self-conscious man who arrives reluctantly in Burma as a fresh cog in the machinery of empire, and proceeds to only grow further adrift and disillusioned from there.

Overall, a very enjoyable reading experience!

[AndiReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following graduation at Eton, young Eric Blair is set for Burma in the 1920's. He will be trained via the British Empire to oversee the local police man. Blair chafes at the abject racism and has a hard time making friends and fitting in. He is moved from station to station as he is unable to make his supervisors proud.

As Theroux weaves in the story of George Orwell he paints a deep and realistic picture of Burma. Theroux is well known for his travelogues, and a fictional account in a country such as Burmas highlights his abilities. A wonderful take on British Rule, the idea of other and what Orwell thought and experiences when penning his famous works.
#BurmaSahib #PaulTheroux #Mariner

[Jolanta (knygupė) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5*
JAV rašytojas Paul Theroux garsiausias yra savo kelionine negrožine literatūra, bet rašo ir romanus, ir apsakymus. Nors tiek romanų, tiek apsakymų veiksmas beveik visada vyksta egzotiškose šalyse. Todėl neretai jo grožinė kūryba sudalykinama kaip kelionių literatūra.

Iš negrožinių kol kas esu perskaičiusi tik man patikusią “The Teo of Travel” – esė/užrašai apie keliones. Bandžiau “The Happy Isles of Oceania” ir niekaip nesugebėjau įveikt. Kad ir kaip man patiktų šis žanras ir domino Okeanijos salos, tačiau Theroux sugebėdavo mane užmigdyti kiekviename puslapyje. O štai, jo apsakymų rinkinys “The Elephanta Suite”, kurių veiksmas vyksta Indijoje, man labai patiko. Pastebėjau, kad kuo PT tekstai kūdesni žodžiais, tuo labiau jie man (pa)tinka.

Na, o šis istorinis-biografinis romanas mane sudomino istorine/ geografine tema, nors gal labiausiai -pagrindiniu veikėju. Veiksmas vyksta tuometinėje Birmoje (Burma), dabartiniame Myanmare. Britų Imperija šiame regione jau pradeda yrti, jau kalbama apie Mahatmą Gandhį ir tame istorijos virsme - jautrus jaunuolis Ericas Blairas, vėliau tapsiantis George Orwellu.
Tik baigęs mokslus, devyniolikmetis būsimas rašytojas išplaukia į Indiją tarnauti Britų Imperijos policijoje. Anot autoriaus (o gal ir iš tikrųjų) būtent tie metai (1922-1927) šioje tarnyboje ir suformavo George Orwellą ir jo anti-imperialistines pažiūras.

Kodėl tik 3,5* iš 5*? Buvo nuobodoka. Kažkaip nelimpa man PT daugžodžiavimas. Užsisakiau bibliotekoj G. Orwello autofikcinį romaną “Burmese Days”, gi labai smalsu - o kaip pats autorius aprašė tą laikotarpį. Beje, G. Orwello knyga šimtu puslapių trumpesnė. Just saying.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Don’t let us down, Eric,” his father told him gruffly.

Eric had played his role in school and was now playing his role as a policeman in colonial Burma. And he hated it, all of it. He hated the club but forced himself to go, pretending to care about a billiards game. He abhorred the racism of his superiors, how they held the native’s lives so cheaply, their diminishment of the men as savages, their easy use of the women. Eric mimicked their words publicly and privately mulled on seditious thoughts. He took native lovers, against the rules. His bosses held him accountable for his naivety and errors and the failings of the men who did all the work for him. He was imprisoned as much as the men he arrested. And one day, he dropped his facade and cursed his commander.

Eric had an alter ego–George–who broke rules. After he left Burma, he became George Orwell.

I was captivated by this novelization of Orwell’s early life from a nineteen-year-old beginning a career for which he was entirely unsuited to his leaving Burma at age twenty-five.

Colonialism in all its ugliness is revealed. The details change, but human nature does not. The powerful prey on the weak and vilify those who rise up demanding justice and self-determination. The Colonists justify stealing the country’s wealth by claims of bringing ‘civilization’ and ‘order’ and technology.

Eric’s reading takes us into the pivotal books of the time, D. H. Lawrence and Somerset Maugham and H. G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling and E. M. Forster, and he is both inspired by them and critical of their lack of the deep first-hand knowledge he has gained. Eric begins writing his own novel, hoping his alter ego George will use this hard-earned knowledge to pen truths the others don’t know, the cruelty and inhumane business of empire.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

[Zea Zantua · Rating 5 out of 5]

too many sexual references

[Danae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I automatically resent any book that slows me down this much from my to-read list and that I have to struggle to make progress through. I seemed to read and read and read and still find myself 10%, or 11%, or 14% complete. (Note: 82% to 96%, for example, went by in a flash). Though it is a fairly long book, almost as long as this review, my progress was slow regardless of the length.

I was also frustrated by the fact that this disturbing man Eric Blair, and there’s no other way to describe him, is portrayed through a novel that is practically one continuous unfiltered inner monologue, also somewhat like this review. I have read plenty of historical fiction and some based on true characters, but generally not this invasive into the mind of a real person who we couldn’t otherwise know. Then, I find that there was no authors note (at least not in my advanced copy) at the end to give me a sense of clarity and finality and to know how much of this was true and from where the information was sourced.

Further frustrating, especially at the beginning, was how the book felt like it was written in the time in which it was set with the language as it would have been written and so many references to local terms and of the time, and his various specific references to the life of an Eton student, all beyond what a typical historical fiction novel would, and without explanations either within the sentences themselves or even through a glossary. I later read, after skipping forward and finding no authors notes, that Eric Blair, writing as George Orwell, did write a semi-autobiographical book about Burma, but it was apparently based on his final posting, which was just a drop in the bucket of his experiences in Burma.

If he was truly as troubled and as self absorbed, I find it both easy to see him able to write such disturbing books like “1984” and “Animal Farm”, but also shocked that the kid on the boat could even contemplate such expansive ideas. You can catch a tiny glimpse of the wheels of his mind turning though through his love or H. G. Wells, Kipling, and other provocative authors of the time.

If I was so frustrated by the slow progression, the lack of context clues, the literary license to put words in the mouth of an infamous author, and the unyielding cringeworthiness of the character’s behavior, how could I rate this book as highly as I did? I did finally turn a slight corner where I became just a tiny bit numb to the cringing, though certainly not entirely, and was invested in his journey and also occasionally hopeful once he began establishing a little empathy for the “natives “. It’s still pretty cringe-worthy, though you can also almost understand how the system sometimes forced him into his unacceptable, sometimes depending on your point of view, behavior.

I think the saving grace was when I searched and saw that he left Burma after five-and-a-half years due to ongoing complications of dengue fever. There were so many times when I felt that he would be thrown out of the police force in disgrace and to know that he left on acceptable, basically on a technicality, was somewhat comforting.

As an aside, I wondered throughout the second half of the book, if Blair/Orwell truly experienced and perpetuated the risky behavior, how long it took him to realize that his troubles with breathing and stamina were due to his incessant smoking. I also wondered about the women who eventually became his wives (though one for barely any time before his death) and about his child, neither of which ever seemed a possibility for young Eric Blair.

You will feel angst reading this book. You will want to give up but will feel a sense of accomplishment having made the five-plus- year, and that feels like almost as long as it took me to read this, journey with him in Burma where he came as a child and left as a slightly naïve man. How he could move on from there is the mystery to me.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for providing an unbiased review.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear, I was so looking forward to this. One of my favourite authors writing about another of my favourite authors. But I found it really tedious and hard to read. I wasn't expecting him to be a hugely likeable man. I have read biographies and so on. and I understand that what Paul Theroux was trying to say was that Orwell had not enjoyed his time in Burma. Even so, it was really hard work and I was disappointed. I am pleased with myself that I stuck with it and the last 25% was probably better than the rest of it.

If you are thinking of reading a book about George Orwell then I would recommend finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin. And if you're thinking of reading a Paul Theroux book then I think some of his early travel books are still his best, The Great Railway Bazaar for instance.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, glad I read it, altho some of it was a bit over my head. Obscure literary references, and the use of British and Scottish dialect straight out of the 1920's. Quite the condemnation of the "Raj", their subjugation of Asian people. Orwell was so ill-equipped to be part of it, hated the part he had to play but seemingly unable to take a stand.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything by the Paul Theroux. But I was intrigued to pick up Burma Sahib after my Goodreads friend Patrick posted a review essay from the Los Angeles Review of Books. In the essay, Meena Venkataramanan discusses Burma Sahib alongside Tan Twan Eng’s The House of Doors, which was published last year and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Set in Penang, The House of Doors revolves around a moment in history when Somerset Maugham visited the island and was in the midst of composing his story The Casuarina Tree.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

This particular story—as well as Maugham’s writing in general-- had a big impact on a young Eric Blair, more commonly remembered today by his pen name, George Orwell.

I recently read two of Orwell’s famous stories set in Myanmar, "The Hanging" and "Shooting an Elephant” and so knew that Orwell had served in the imperial police in Burma during the days of the Raj, as they call it in the novel…. But Theroux really brings to life the time and place, alongside that of young George Orwell. Fresh from Eaton, the young man is completely ill-equipped to become a colonial policeman. Temperamentally uninterested in the work he is more and more worn down by the intense racism and sexism on full display in the novel. As Meena Venkataramanan points out in her review, both novels (Theroux’s and Eng's) highlight what was the absolutely banality and mediocrity of the colonial enterprise… so many of those thousand British colonialists ruling over millions of Burmese were in fact completely mediocre in terms of character and education. In the novel, the young Orwell compares this to a criminal racket.

There is so much that is great about Theroux’s novel. First, being a renown travel writer, he captures the place and time. The rough outline of Orwell’s young life is used to explore what experiences real and imaginary could have formed the foundation for all the writing that later poured out of him. I especially loved the way books and literature were explored as playing such a big part of the story. Like the Taiga dram on Japanese TV this year which looks at the young Murasaki Shikibu’s life, Theroux looks at all possible sources that informed Orwell the Writer: from violence and colonial incompetence to the books he loved and read (and re-read).

When I was young I read the Great railway Bazaar and Patagonia Express countless times. I also loved Kowloon Tong and the Mosquito Coast. Hoping to read one of his Hawaii books next!

[Philip Reari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coincidentally I read Orwell’s Burmese Days last year (free on Kindle I think) so was very excited to learn of this book. Haven’t read Theroux in a long time but he came up with a fascinating and credible narrative about Orwells early years as a policeman in Burma that weaves in elements from Burmese Days. Takes an author to know one I guess.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic speculative story about George Orwell’s years as a police officer in Burma, filled with incredible historical detail and slang. Maybe about 60 pages too long, gets a bit repetitive towards the end, but otherwise recommended.

[Laura Rogers]

I am struggling with the accents and unfamiliar words, so I am putting it aside for now

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the best writing I've ever read. I will now be devouring this author's entire oeuvre.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

natürlich musste ich dieses Buch lesen, nachdem ich zuvor Burmese Days von Orwell gelesen hatte. Die intensive Beschreibung der Kolonialzeit und des Landes, seiner Leute und seiner Natur wird nahtlos fortgesetzt. Ja sie wird natürlich noch dadurch erleichtert, dass viele fiktive Personen mit ihrer jeweiligen Geschichte, ihrem Hintergrund und ihren Haltungen die Möglichkeiten zur Schilderung und Beschreibung erweitern. Sie müssen natürlich auch dafür dienen, Sichtweisen darzustellen, die von Orwell selbst nicht sicher verbürgt sind. Natürlich bleibt offen, inwieweit nur die Eckpunkte oder mehr der Realität der Zeit Orwells in Burma entsprechen. Aber dafür ist es ein Roman, der darf das.
Als solcher gelingt ihm eine noch eindeutigere Beschreibung des Kolonialsystems, zumal aus Sicht des Inneren der Polizei. Auch hier wird deutlich, dass nicht nur strenge Konventionen, sondern natürlich auch die entsprechende Geisteshaltung notwendig sind (auf beiden Seiten!) um das System so lange Zeit aufrecht zu erhalten.
Geschickt versteht es der Autor, die Schilderungen aus Burmese Days als eigene Erlebnisse oder als Erzählungen dritter in seine Handlung einzubauen. bis zum Schluss verschärft er den Widerspruch zwischen moralischem Anspruch und äußeren Umständen sowie polizeilichen Aufgaben und steigert die Dramatik, wobei er die handelnde Person ebenso als innerlich zerrissen darstellt wie bei Orwell.
Insgesmat gelungen und eine (auf Englisch) ebens anspruchsvolle Lektüre Punkt die beiden Bücher ergänzen sich wunderbar.

[Abra Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fictional account of the life of Eric Blair as a British policeman living in Burma for approximately 4 years. Blair later became the writer, George Orwell. Over the course of his four years, he learned of the ruthlessness of the British rule and the oppression and prejudice of the British over the Burmese. He participated in it as well and despised himself for it. It had a profound impact on him. This book is long and lacked any kind of comic relief against this depressing, oppressing background. Theroux uses many words that are not english and I wasn't sure of the meaning of many of them. I do appreciate learning of other cultures and societies and the history included here was illuminating.

[Cameron Clayton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I’m not familiar enough with George Orwell to really get into this one. Burma Sahib spends quite a bit of time meandering and though the descriptions of Burma and the complications within were perfect, the book overall just…didn’t move me. Challenging dialogue, which I usually find fascinating, really didn’t help the flow of the book and at nearly 400 pages help was certainly needed. Overall: interesting but far from a favorite. Firm 3/5.

[Chris Elder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Becoming Orwell

I loved this book, which is a great pairing - Paul Theroux and George Orwell/Eric Blair. Theroux has recreated Blair’s evolution from a lost, bookish, Eton graduate endeavoring to become a policeman in faraway Burma in order to please his father - into unapologetic, anarchist Orwell. Blair begins to mature from naive snobbery as he experiences firsthand the dark, cracking facade that is the Raj. Theroux’s deep experience in SE Asia and well-honed facility with the written word make him the ideal man to enliven this terrific story. At the same time I was reading ‘Burma Sahib’ I was reading Orwell’s ‘Homage to Catalonia’ and it struck me that Theroux has managed to convincingly ventriloquize Orwell’s voice, without mere imitation. This was a thoroughly enjoyable journey back 100 years in time into a literal backwater of the tottering British empire.

[Amanda]

I read this book for a challenge knowing it probably wasn't going to be for me. It is very well written though so if it sounds good to you I'd say go for it! I do like that it is set in a place we don't get to read about very often.

[Jane Griffiths · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have admired some of Paul Theroux’s work in the past. He is more than a travel writer, though he is that. I was particularly impressed by ‘The Mosquito Coast’, set on the jungle coast of Honduras, a country I spent some months in a couple of years ago: I re-read ‘Mosquito Coast” at that time, and it held up well. An eccentric individual bullies his family into moving to Honduras, for unexplained survivalist-type reasons, and tries to make ice in the steaming jungle. With predictable results.

I had wondered at that time if Theroux (père) was still writing. Well, he is. This latest work is a fictionalised account of the five or so years spent as a police officer in Burma by one Eric Blair, later much better known as George Orwell. It’s got plenty. Scented jasmine, frangipani, pi-dogs, the stink rising off the Irrawaddy, you get the picture. He’s really good at this stuff. Young Eric, an excessively tall and shy Old Etonian, does not feel he belongs anywhere. I found this notion of not-belonging among the more convincing aspects of the book: often born in India and sent “home” as children, and then to boarding schools, England was not really home to them in any meaningful sense, and yet to many serving the Raj was one of very few career options available. For the women, of course, their only belonging was to their husbands, and their lives were often crushed by boredom. But Theroux doesn’t really go there. It’s all about the men, for him, and always has been. There’s a tumultuous (and socially dangerous) affair with a married woman. There are a lot of dusky maidens who slip under mosquito nets to join young Eric. Really a LOT of them. So young Eric spends his time: having sex with Burmese girls he pays for, one way and another, detesting his colonial colleagues, especially for some reason the Scots (there is relentless mockery of their pronunciation of English - why?), and gradually learning the ways of the colonial police.

I think what Theroux is trying to do with this book is illustrate how young Eric came about the obsessions that informed his better-known books. Casual brutality (a boot stamping on a human face, for ever). Fear of rats. He shoots an elephant, a near-career-ending move. Men with pig-like features who are not what they pretend to be. Yes, we’ve read all this stuff.

My question, really, is why? What is the point? Either: you have read Orwell and are interested in his work, in which case this book doesn’t add anything much to what you already know, and doesn’t get you to care all that much. Or: you haven’t, and aren’t much interested, in which case it’s not even much of a travel book, being set in Burma in the early 1920s, and not helping you much if you are thinking of going to present-day Myanmar, which you probably aren’t, given what is currently going on there.

[Christina Klock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before he was George Orwell, he was Eric Blair. Born in India in 1904 and raised in English boarding schools, Blair signs up as a civil servant with the Imperial Police in Burma after his graduation from Eton where he attended on scholarship. A middle-class boy amongst the aristocracy during his public-school days, Blair seems to have been pre-disposed to disdain a class system. Which makes his decision to join the Imperial police – a decidedly middleclass career choice – perhaps a bit plausible although no one (including Theroux) provides a clear answer.

The book opens as 19-year-old Blair is shipping out to Burma. A lover of books, a loner, naïve, and self-conscious, Blair survives but does not thrive in this 5-year stint in the police. In turns sympathetic to and exasperated with the local population of Indian and Burmese peoples, Blair mixes with the native peoples in admirable ways (befriending some) and not-so-admirable ways (keeping local girls and visiting prostitutes) and by doing so committing an unpardonable sin in the eyes of his Imperial peers and superiors. Ultimately, he fails at becoming a proper “Pukka Sahib” and turns his ire to British Empire and inward to himself. “Blair hated the natives screaming at him, he hated the timber merchants for enslaving elephants, he hated the police, he hated the empire – most of all he hated himself.” And reader beware: Theroux's portrayal of Eric Blair strives to portray a complex character; he is indeed seldom likable to himself, to others, and to the reader.

Theroux has done his research and paints a convincing portrait of the formative years of Eric Blair, the man who will become George Orwell. Theroux’s prose is eloquent and fairly pulses off the page with long descriptive sentences that bring Burma to life. “In the still air just after dawn, the shafts of light made the paddy fields seem like puddles of molten gold and gave the clouds of early morning mosquitoes a glow like gold dust, as they sifted through the air then formed and made for an early riser poling his sampan downstream to the west. But no ripple of current was visible. The tide was slowly ebbing past the paddy fields into the Bay of Bengal.”

This is historical fiction at its most elevated. At 83 years old, Paul Theroux is a master of his craft.

[Suanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read several of Paul Theroux’s nonfiction books (having just finished The Last Train to Zone Verde), primarily travelogues with deep insights into his various journeys, but this was my first foray into his fiction. I was delighted that he carries through with his usual marvelous depictions of people and places foreign to most readers, in this case Burma of the early 20th century. In Burma Sahib, he fictionalized the life of George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm and 1984. The story follows the primary character, Eric Arthur Blair, a quiet, standoffish, nineteen-year-old graduate of Eton who leaves his home and parents in England and goes to Burma to be part of the British police there. He spends most of his sea voyage there reading. On arrival in Burma, he’s on probation and is transferred hither and yon because of his patchy performance. He never fits in. Over time, he becomes sympathetic to the Burmese and comes to realize that due to the cruelty of the British rules, the abject poverty of the locals, the exploitation of the land and the people, the British Empire is doomed. At length, when he returns home on medical leave, belly-up on the heels of a scandal, he drops out of society and researches the depths of London.

Theroux manages to show the gradual change in Blair’s personality as he sweats in Burma. The depth of personality and personal growth are well-demonstrated throughout. Equally impressive are Theroux’s in-depth views of Burma and the various substations where Blair is stationed. Each spot has its own personality. Having lived in Asia for a time, I can attest that even one hundred years later, those shades of colonialism remain deeply imbedded.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually love Paul Theroux's books and I applaud him in trying to make sense of Orwell's state of mind when he wrote his famous books BUT I have to admit, maybe I'm shallow , this book didn't invite me in. It was painful to read, not surprising since it took place in Britain's imperial rule over Burma so racism was considered normal. It also did not make me more curious about Orwell which I found surprising. I will still always read Theroux's books but this one made me glad when I finished it.

[Don Healy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always been curious about the background of George Orwell before he became George Orwell. What went into creating one of the most iconic authors of the 20th century whose work has been re-released in the 21’st as prescient and historically foreshadowing?
This novel, based on Orwell’s Burmese Days, provides that background. A privileged, but introverted 19 year old, lacking clear direction, passes the exam to become an Imperial Policeman and is assigned to Burma. He has studied the law that he is to enforce, but is completely naive about the job and country that he is assigned to.
Like many of our own Vietnam veterans, he soon becomes both corrupted and disillusioned by being a cog in The Empire. Like our own Tim O’Brien, it is his internal life and conviction that he can capture the details and experiences of SE Asia better than any previous authors that helps him survive.
My only criticism of this novel is that it’s frequently very repetitive. Of course young adults do tend towards self-preoccupation and self-pity so it is accurate in that spirit. If you can tolerate re-experiencing that adolescent narcissism, it is a worthwhile novel about a fascinating historical figure.

[LeastTorque · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have not read the complete Orwell catalog so had to look up some of it along the way to understand more of what the author was doing. But, as best as I can tell, he does a good job of constructing a fictional account of Orwell’s years in Burma that could have inspired that catalog.

As to when Orwell took against the Raj there is some disagreement out there. But I liked how the author handled it here, with an almost split personality born of cognitive dissonance inspiring the alter ego that appears in Burmese Days. Using Insein Prison as inspiration for 1984 was also interesting. I also liked the weaving of other authors and commentary on their work.

The recreation of that time period in Burma was a bit underwhelming at first but got much better, as did the characterization of Blair. I came close to giving up on it but was glad in the end that I didn’t.

There was an irritating amount of repetition that indicated the lack of final editing. This took me out of the book every time. The author needs to use cut/paste instead of copy/paste.