I owed reading this both to someone else and myself as it was one of those classics that got missed.

Note: Spoilers? Hardly spoilers, but still.

I have longer notes on this, but what I want to say here is simply: If humanity was meant to fight and the spirit is to rise up, why did they lose? I am aware that this novel is meant to enliven people to fight, to guide them to their own intelligence and spirit, but it just doesn’t happen.

This fight doesn’t occur which means it is not only possible for “the bad guys” to win, but they can win forever. All they have to do is cross that threshold where they have an indestructible power. So the message is not “Fight!”, but “Fight-Now-Because-Soon-It-Will-Be-Too-Late-To-Save-Us!”. And I don’t know that I believe that message, or like that message, or want it to proliferate, though I suppose it would rouse people to fight faster – or just become cripplingly depressed that it is too late.

Burmese Days is set in Kyauktada, Upper Burma. The plot revolves around the European club, which was for whites only, and they are forced to accept a “token” native member into their club. This enclosed society is revealed in more ways than one: socially, politically, economically. And it is not simply about the members, but the fight amongst those who could become the “One.” James Flory, the protagonist, accepts the natives and their culture with a mixture of respect and a lack of understanding. Dr. Veraswami’s controversial nomination into the club has unfortunate results, and in the end the story leaves the reader to question whether any character is without guilt.