Can someone give me a synopsis of the book, Finding George Orwell in Burma?

Question: Can someone give me a synopsis of the book, Finding George Orwell in Burma!?

PLeasee!! I need to know what this book is about and what happens in it!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

A brave and revelatory reconnaissance of modern Burma, one of the world's grimmest and most shuttered police states, using as its compass the life and work of George Orwell, the man many in Burma call simply "the prophet!."

Over the years the American writer Emma Larkin has spent traveling in Burma, she's come to know all too well the many ways this brutal police state can be described as "Orwellian!." The life of the mind exists in a state of siege in Burma, and it long has!. But Burma's connection to George Orwell is not merely metaphorical; it is much deeper and more real!. Orwell's mother was born in Burma, at the height of the British raj, and Orwell was fundamentally shaped by his experiences in Burma as a young man working for the British Imperial Police!. When Orwell died, the novel-in-progress on his desk was set in Burma!. It is the place George Orwell's work holds in Burma today, however, that most struck Emma Larkin!. She was frequently told by Burmese acquaintances that Orwell did not write one book about their country — his first novel, Burmese Days — but in fact he wrote three, the "trilogy" that included Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four!. When Larkin quietly asked one Burmese intellectual if he knew the work of George Orwell, he stared blankly for a moment and then said, "Ah, you mean the prophet!"

In one of the most intrepid political travelogues in recent memory, Emma Larkin tells of the year she spent traveling through Burma using the life and work of George Orwell as her compass!. Going from Mandalay and Rangoon to poor delta backwaters and up to the old hill-station towns in the mountains of Burma's far north, Larkin visits the places where Orwell worked and lived, and the places his books live still!. She brings to vivid life a country and a people cut off from the rest of the world, and from one another, by the ruling military junta and its vast network of spies and informers!. Using Orwell enables her to show, effortlessly, the weight of the colonial experience on Burma today, the ghosts of which are invisible and everywhere!. More important, she finds that the path she charts leads her to the people who have found ways to somehow resist the soul-crushing effects of life in this most cruel police state!. And George Orwell's moral clarity, hatred of injustice, and keen powers of observation serve as the author's compass in another sense too: they are qualities she shares and they suffuse her book — the keenest and finest reckoning with life in this police state that has yet been written!.
Review:
"The author, an American journalist fluent in Burmese, writing under a pseudonym, notes that there's a joke in Burma (now Myanmar) that Orwell wrote not one novel about the country, but three: Burmese Days, Animal Farm and 1984!. The first takes place during the British colonial days, while the latter two, Larkin argues, more closely reflect the situation there today!. ' 'Truth is true only within a certain period of time,' ' she quotes a regime spokesman saying after a 1988 uprising!. ' 'What was truth once may no longer be truth after many months or years!.' ' Indeed, providing an accurate representation of Burmese life proves daunting, as Larkin encounters a nation bristling with informants and paranoia!. Her language skills, however, allow her to glean information and mingle with the country's reserved and cautious intelligentsia!. In addition to Larkin's depiction of the political landscape, the book also features wonderfully vibrant descriptions of the land and people!. Larkin's prose is striking and understated, and she allows the people she meets to speak their parts without editorializing!. In this way, she comes across not as an idealist but rather as an inquisitive and trustworthy guide to the underlying reality of a country whose leaders would rather have outsiders focus only on their carefully constructed veneer!. 'All you had to do, it seemed,' Larkin writes, 'was scratch the surface of one of the town's smiling residents and you would find bitterness or tears!.' Her efforts have resulted in a lucid and insightful illustration of truly Orwellian circumstances!. Agent, Jeffrey Simmons!. (June 2)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc!.)
Book News Annotation:
An American journalist who was born and raised in Asia and has been visiting Burma since the middle 1990s, Larkin recounts the year she spent traveling across Burma, now Myanmar, using the life and work of British author Orwell (1903-50) as her guide!. He lived in the country during the 1920s as an officer of the Imperial Police Force, and based his first novel, Burmese Days, on the experience!. There is no index or bibliography!. Originally published as Secret Histories: A Journey through Burma Today in the Company of George Orwell in 2004 by John Murray, London!.
Annotation ?2004 Book News, Inc!., Portland, OR (booknews!.com)
Review:
"Larkin's engaging prose reveals an observant, compassionate, and sensitive traveler whose often elegiac narrative draws on naturalistic descriptions to mirror the somber mood and agonizing tales she hears!." Christian Science Monitor
Review:
A many-faceted book, beautifully written!.!.!. (The Times Literary Supplement, UK) Never less than fascinating!. (Sunday Times, London) Fascinating!.!.!.superb!. (The Observer)Www@QuestionHome@Com