- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd (7 Jun 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0224076825
- ISBN-13: 978-0224076821
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.6 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
675,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #88 in Books > History > Military History > World War II > Burma
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Product Description
Sunday Express
"excellent and moving account"
Vogue: Rev'd Charlotte Sinclair.
`tense.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book was a complete surprise: funny, touching and eye-opening. I had never thought about the soldiers who were fighting outside of Europe during the Second World War, especially young boys who didn't realise what they were fighting for. This book gives them identities and big personalities. As you connect with each of the characters you realise that you don't want to leave them behind or for them to leave you. The battle scenes are so vivid and tense that you could be there with Ali Banana, Bloken, Sergeant Damisa and all the soldiers. I recommend this to everyone - it's not just a war novel - it is a story of life, death, laughter and, ultimately, tragedy. It will stay with you for a very long time.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a fantastic book, in part a coming-of-age story of the young Nigerian soldier, Ali Banana, but also a searing and unsettling look at political loyalities and personal friendships in the midst of absolute war. Ali Banana is hilarious in his boyish enthusiasm for 'King Joji', even when, at the end of novel, he's forced to question why he's even fighting for him. You could read this in a few hours and certainly come away the wiser...
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like most Americans, I know almost nothing about the Burmese theater in World War II. (However, many years ago I did read George McDonald Fraser's excellent memoir of it, Quartered Safe Out Here, so I suppose I do know more than most.) This slender book is set mostly in that theater and, inspired by the author's father's own service in Burma as part of the King's African Rifles, seeks to both remind the reader of its relevance and the role of the many West African troops (mostly Nigerian) who were sent there to fight on behalf of the Allied forces.
The result is a bit of an odd duck -- more a series of sketches than a fully realized narrative. The book is littered with nuggets of history, research, and championing that, while interesting don't feel quite like they belong. So, for example, we learn enough intriguing details about "Janan" (General) Wingate that one's interest is perhaps piqued enough to go seek out biographies such as Christopher Sykes's Orde Wingate and Trevor Royle's Orde Wingate: Irregular Officer. Or we learn the technical aspects of jungle siegecraft or ambuscade. But at the heart of the book is 13-year-old soldier Farabiti "Ali Banana" whose adventures paint a sketch of the trials and tribulations faced by young soldiers like the author's father.
Through him, we follow the recruitment, training, and deployment of the West African Rifles to Burma as part of the "Chindit" forces sent to harass the Japanese rear lines. He and his fellows in D-Section represent a cross-section of Nigerians who encounter the numbing brutality of jungle warfare, endless siege, and sudden bursts of terror. Each character has their own tic or distinctive trait, but they're sketched too briefly to really register. Instead, we get scattered scenes which convey the broader feeling of confusion and comradeship the war induces. For example, the descriptions of the nightly Japanese attacks on the fortified base known as "White City" are highly effective and act as a small scale foreshadowing of Dien Bien Phu and Khe Sahn.
Ultimately, while the book is too impressionistic for my taste, it did whet my appetite to learn more about the Chindits in general, and the West African contribution in particular. One interesting aspect to the book is the language, which is peppered with phonetic Nigerian pidgin English, which, while sometimes hard to decipher, helps give the story some flavor.
The result is a bit of an odd duck -- more a series of sketches than a fully realized narrative. The book is littered with nuggets of history, research, and championing that, while interesting don't feel quite like they belong. So, for example, we learn enough intriguing details about "Janan" (General) Wingate that one's interest is perhaps piqued enough to go seek out biographies such as Christopher Sykes's Orde Wingate and Trevor Royle's Orde Wingate: Irregular Officer. Or we learn the technical aspects of jungle siegecraft or ambuscade. But at the heart of the book is 13-year-old soldier Farabiti "Ali Banana" whose adventures paint a sketch of the trials and tribulations faced by young soldiers like the author's father.
Through him, we follow the recruitment, training, and deployment of the West African Rifles to Burma as part of the "Chindit" forces sent to harass the Japanese rear lines. He and his fellows in D-Section represent a cross-section of Nigerians who encounter the numbing brutality of jungle warfare, endless siege, and sudden bursts of terror. Each character has their own tic or distinctive trait, but they're sketched too briefly to really register. Instead, we get scattered scenes which convey the broader feeling of confusion and comradeship the war induces. For example, the descriptions of the nightly Japanese attacks on the fortified base known as "White City" are highly effective and act as a small scale foreshadowing of Dien Bien Phu and Khe Sahn.
Ultimately, while the book is too impressionistic for my taste, it did whet my appetite to learn more about the Chindits in general, and the West African contribution in particular. One interesting aspect to the book is the language, which is peppered with phonetic Nigerian pidgin English, which, while sometimes hard to decipher, helps give the story some flavor.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Burma Boy
I tend to agree with those reviews of 3 stars and under, and wonder at those who gave a higher rating (did we read the same book!?). Read more
Published 22 months ago by MRS C L CLARKSON
Excellent
Fantastic book. I don't really need to add much to what others have written so I'll just say it again; fantastic.Buy it!
Published on 4 Dec 2007 by Mr. T. Lewis
A Missed Opportunity
I found this novel very disappointing and it seems to confirm the theory that the only good war novels are written by people that were actually there (exceptions on a postcard,... Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2007 by Charpoy Chindit
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