Product Description

"a simple blueprint for Utopia" - the best travel book on Burma since World War II - despite travelling at a time of massive internal insecurity, Norman Lewis still found the eternal Burma, where pagodas are the only punctuation on the horizon and strangers are treated with an overwhelming friendliness - an overnight best-seller when first published - revisits the tragic Burma road, treked by so many refugees fleeing Burma before the Japanese advance in 1942

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131816 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 290 pages

Review
"A wonderfully vivid book" Daily Telegraph

Simon Winchester, Traveler
It will lure toward Burma almost anyone who reads its ninety thousand words.

Ian Thomson, Sunday Telegraph
A truly great travel writer, perhaps the greatest we have.

Customer Reviews

Wordcraft at its very best
Norman Lewis visited Burma not long after independance in 1947. His book is excruciatingly beautiful in his descriptions of what he found then. It is ironic that after 40 odd years his observations are still pertinent to the country and its culture. I cannot conceive how anyone can craft words together in the way Norman Lewis does here. This book is recommended as an insight to Burma and also as a demonstration of ALL that is good about the English language.

Tragically evocative
Here, Lewis visits Burma soon after the end of WWII, spurred on by the knowledge that the complex political climate will soon make it impossible to visit the country. Even so, he has difficulties navigating his way round the country, dogged by the opposing needs of bureaucracy, the military and the problems of native insurgents of all political creeds. His work is beautiful and poignant. His hope at the end of the book that the Burmese will overcome their differences and take pride in their nationality and what makes them so unique, seems so much more tragic given the contemporary knowledge we have of the harsh and brutal military regime in Burma, their appalling human rights record and the recent purges by the government.
Lewis writes with compassion and sympathy for the Burmese and their country. He gets under the skin of what it means to exist in such a peculiar place and talks about his feelings about colonialism, empire and politics which is neither forced nor grating, but comes from a natural contemplation of what he experiences on his travels. He has a lightness of touch and humour that never failed to bring a smile to my lips, and while obviously dated, this is the book I would recommend as crucial reading for anyone interested in visiting or understanding Burma.

Excellent text, beautiful edition.
Previous reviewers have lauded the content of this book and I cannot disagree. I must add, however, that this book has been printed on very high quality paper which hugely increases it's appeal as a book and an object. In an electronic age this book is a joy to handle as it is to read.