The Road to Wigan Pier - George Orwell

Oddly enough, while this book provides great food for thought regarding modern life and the role of coal in it, as well as about socialism, and the reasons that societies adopt socialist measures, it does not talk very much about Wigan Pier. Therefore, the choice of title a slightly disjointing to a contemporary reader, who likely has no conception of where Wigan is, or what its connection is with coal mining. To provide a similar example, imagine if John Steinbeck had set 'Cannery Row' in a vineyard.

In fact, the book splits cleanly down the middle. The first half of the book describes conditions in coal mining in England in the 1930s, while the second half of the book details Orwell's thoughts about the reasons for lack of success of socialism in the world of 1937. Regardless of the passage of time, much of Orwell's thinking continues to resonate today, just as we continue to depend on coal despite the passage of over 70 years.

Burmese Days - George Orwell

I have never been to Burma, though I have been studying it these days, which is the reason that I have recently read Burmese Days by Mr. Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell. The action of the book takes place in 1926, in a small station town in Upper Burma called 'Kyauktada'.

The plot mainly flows along two streams, one at the level of the British colonialists and one at the level of the 'local' Burmese and Indians. Flory, an English timber merchant with local sympathies, provides the narration for his unsuccessful romance with the niece of one of the other Englishmen living in the town, while an Indian doctor and a Burmese magistrate narrate their opposing sides of their intrigues over whom would be elected the first 'native' member of the local English Club.

The book has value mainly as a perspective on colonialism, Another of the British characters helpfully summarizes the 'five chief beatitudes of the pukka sahib':
Keeping up our prestige
The firm hand (without the velvet glove)
We white men must hang together
Give them an inch and they'll take an ell and
Espirit de corps
In many ways I can see the echoes of attitudes held by some to the characters in the book in individuals that I met during my time in China, Japan, and even Italy.