Burmese Days by George Orwell

George Orwell was always an author I wanted to read.  I found this book in my parents garage, littered for years in dust and dirt.  I had never heard of this book prior to that encounter and later found out that it was one of his earlier works.  I was drawn to the idea of it being an imperialist satire mocking the British Empire and was recently interested by this concept in seeing the movie "The Battle of Algiers."  Therefore, I assumed before reading the novel that it would sort of be a 1984 take on imperialism, not really knowing anything about Orwell besides generalizations that he was a political satirist. I was drawn into reading it by the first chapter which depicts a Burmese character who later becomes an important plot twister later in the novel.  After completing the book I learned that the main character was based on Orwell's description of who he might have become if he had stayed in Burma with his early carreer job as an officer of the British Imperial police.  In short, he would have become a sad, pathetic creature called Fiory, the main protagonist of the novel.

Fiory has a birthmark on the side of his face which he is humorously self-conscious about the entire novel. He falls in love with a British girl named Elizabeth and works very hard to impress her throughout the entire story.  Unfortunately, he is upset when his prospects with Elizabeth turn dry and he later kills himself.  This is a very short description of the novel which takes out a large portion of the narrative, but it breaks down the story to it's most important essence.  Fiory, although materialistically comfortable with many hand servants and a house,  never find true love and therefor cannot live a lonely, solitary existence.  His boredom forces him into a corner of despair where must ultimately end his existence, and his irrelivance to anyone in the world.  This is a story about a man who despite a position of stature and a decent outlook on life, decided that his irrelivance in the word is intolerable, and the world would really not miss him at all.

In short, Orwell exhibits a brilliance for storytelling which makes him one of the great writers of the 20th century.  He keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, but in the end, Fiory runs out of options when he realizes that his best chance at settling down with a society girl will be unmet due to a moment when his character is slandered by a former Burmese lover who exposes his previous life of philandering and drinking to Elizabeth.   Orwell, in the end creates sympathy for a character who we might otherwise despise, and he does it with a sense of humor.  The novel is a cautionary tale of a middle-aged bureaucrat who serves no real purpose in the world, and to be honest never really puts up a fight.  He plays it safe, and in the end he becomes so inadequate that he shoots himself in the face.