This ranks as one of the funniest books ever written, while being at the same time a social history of Malaysia, or Malaya as it was known under British Rule. The first book of the trilogy deals with the last days of British colonialism (hence the title "The Long Day Wanes") through the misadventures of a remittance man named Nabby Adams, a civil servant, his wife, household staff, and local government characters. The second novel follows the civil servant and his failing marriage through the guerilla years in the struggling nation, and the third is The Coming of the Americans. These three events have been a sort of template for late 20th century global affairs. It's a tight trilogy that reflects historical and social changes through its characters in the satirical literary slapstick characteristic of Burgess at his best. If you've never read Burgess, this is the place to start. It will bring you an appreciation of "where he's coming from," literally: it is based upon his experiences as a British Civil Servant in the waning days of the Empire (upon which the sun set 30 June 1997 with the cession of Hong Kong to Red China). This review was originally published in June 1997 and with some site changes, my name got lost and Amazon was unable to transfer the review with my name attached, so this is a reprint of that earlier one.

One thing I have always admired about Anthony Burgess's novels is the compassion that he quietly conveys for his characters. They are all flawed: imperfect archetypes, reluctant saviours, apologetic swearers, gin mixed in with the orange crush. And we recognize ourselves in them all for this essential humanity, their endless struggle or acquiescence, for or against their unlikely fates. Burgess's humour is rueful and sharp: wistful disappointment and calm despair are the backdrop for his characters' heroic protests or desperate affairs.

He also writes with a playfulness and intelligence that shines through every page. Typically, his debt to Joyce and Shakespeare often wanders through his pages like a passing shade.

The Long Day Wanes shows much of Burgess at his best. Its setting in Malaya is a world apart: inner struggles against human desires, social forces against cultural divides. While writing of a world that fast disappears, he tells us a story old as the Malayan jungle.

I found this an absorbing, literary read, and like the other reviewers I first read this while living out East (in the 90s - Hong Kong & S'pore). I am amazed on re-reading it how many of the actions and attitudes of the characters - British, Malay, Indian, Chinese, American - along with so many of the secondary details, were still relevant and recognizable among Easterners and Western expats of today. The main story makes fine reading, too. In fine language, Anthony Burgess (who was a colonial civil servant in Malaya and spoke Malay) describes the last few years of British rule and the troubled handover to independance. There is a lot of enjoyable detail about life in the Malay peninsula at the time - many good scenes and vignettes, but what comes across clearly by the end is the uneasiness and ambiguity felt by Burgess about the future of independant Malaya and Singapore - he is worried about the hatred of the various ethnic communities for each other and the slim hold of British law, also the lack of interest among educated locals (besides the ones with marketable skills and talents who emigrated to new lives and identities in the First World) for anything other than technological development. Many of these concerns have sadly been born out - the split between Malaysia and Singapore, the second class status of the Malays in S'pore, of the Chinese in Malaysia, of the Indians in both places, the soulessness of the modern nightlife of KL and S'pore. Law in Malaysia is today a farce - witnewess the treatment of the politician Anwar, once Prime Minister Mahathir's 2nd-in-command, put in the dock seemingly forever for what was known in Singapore as "the endless buggery trial"; and Singapore under Harry Lee Kuan Yew has an even worse legal system (read Christopher Lingle's account, *Singapore's Authoritarin Capitalism*, or Francis Seow's, *A Dissident in Lee Kuan Yew's Prisons*). But this is a vivid, funny and moving novel above all - perhaps especially so if you have any connection with that part of the world, but of course it works brilliantly also if you're just looking for a good, cracking read. The thing I remember thinking after reading this was how sad it is that so many talented Malaysians and Singaporeans emigrate to other countries to get away from the sad realities at home. Burgess forsaw some of this, as well as much more. This is a classic about Malaya/Singapore the same way Paul Theroux's *Kowloon Tong* so accurately describes Hong Kong at the end (for which it was given the honor of being banned by China). Time for a Tiger!

"Inside Mr. Enderby," is wonderful and off beat. "Enderby Outside," follows the off kilter story of Enderby and the absurdity that is his life. "The Clockwork Testament," as the title would suggest, has shadings of Burgess' very well known book, "Clockwork Orange." The "Testament," is surreal and twisted while funny at the same time. The final story, "Enderby's Dark Lady," is wonderful and surprising to the reader with value not only for fans of the dyspeptic poet but lovers of Shakespeare as well.

While slightly dated, these stories have a bite to them that speaks volumes of truth for anyone who has been an academic, a professional writer or just a little bit out of touch with the world around them. Enderby is often misunderstood and though he makes his living in a "communication" field, he has a lot of trouble getting his point across to others.

Not only are these books funny, but as is often the case with Burgess, the satire is thinly veiled and pointing at both society and himself.

Leave it to Burgess to create a poet so quirky, so outrageous and neurotic that you have to laugh at every page of his misdaventures. Whether offending strangely clad women in a gay bar or defending himself with a toilet seat, this man lives and was not just created. Clueless about the machinations around him and the pathetic hangers on that want to steal some of his glory, in his poet Burgess paints a disspiriting picture of the 1970s literary scene in London. His world is nightmarish, if leavened by a poet's vision and uncontrollable, irrepressible creativity.

Highly recommended and certainly one his best.

In these novels, Anthony Burgess has done more to de-mystify the creative process (and those who persue it) than any other modern writer. His protagonist, F. X. Enderby, professional English poet, is as flawed as any character ever created. From his almost constant malapropisms down to his bodily emissions, he is every person with true human frailties. He stumbles his way through everyday conversations (often both misunderstanding and misunderstood) while at the same time offending almost everyone he comes into contact with. He is incapable of handling life in the "real" world and is shamelessly exploited by those who do.

In spite of his human failings, Enderby produces things of great beauty. The delicately worded, well balanced verses offer a wonderful counterpoint to Enderby's social ineptitudes and lack of common sense.

There is also a fairly strong political angle in the books which readers in today's society should heed. Censorship, that demon of modern P.C. sensibility, is discussed here intelligently and honestly. Bear in mind, these books are fairly old and some of the racial and sexual comments made in them will reflect this. However, I think you will find a certain balance in their use; everyone gets it in the end. Including Enderby.

Saw this book on the counter of a wonderful new tea shop in Boston, and stayed for two hours reading. The comprehensive coverage of tea, history, ritual, and legacy is just terrific. The text is only surpassed by the well chosen photos, paintings and images. Flammarion needs to bring back this extraordinary tribute to tea!

This isn't a review in the strict sense of the word, I would just like to say that if there is any way to nag Flammarion until they reprint it, I'm in it. I would LOVE to own it, now I have to check it out from the library...

a pity that this book runned out of stock. a must for every publisher to keep freshly onPress

Anthony Burgess has written so many great novels. He is of course most famous for A Clockwork Orange, and that one sotry has overshadowed much of his other terrific work.

This book has three different storylines, including Trotsky and space travel, and its never clear as you read through the chapters how they are related, but the plotlines are captivating. And at the end, he does a masterful job of tying it all together. Simply fascinating.

It will be hard to find this book, but if you do, definitely buy it.

If you enjoyed "A Clockwork Orange" as a literary achievement and for its apocalyptic/dystopic vision, then this is a book for you. Look for it in used-book stores. I'm sure there were a few re-prints of it, so don't give up.

Sigmund Freud discovers the psyche in Vienna, Leon Trotsky discovers the worker's paradise in New York City and America waits for a comet to snuff out all life. Three very different tales spin around and through each other in another masterpiece by one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

Like most Burgess, this is a vastly entertaining book, but you can't just stand back and admire the architecture of this tale. Human characters dealing with super-human problems draw you in to this discussion of the uses of power and the purpose of life.

At first, the interwoven stories jar. You hurry to get back to the interrupted story. What happened next? To whom? But each story blooms, each story comments nimbly on the others and takes its own place in a masterwork by a masterwriter.

Anthony Burgess' "Honey for the Bears," is a fast paced farcical satire set in Cold War period Soviet Russia. Following an antiques dealer and his wife as the two attempt to sell cheep dresses on the black market as a favor to a friend.

Sexual morays and British stereo type stuffiness are thrown out the window as the two find themselves trapped in the Soviet Union with the police on Paul Hussey's trail. On the boat ride over his American wife, Belinda, becomes sick and finds herself hospitalized for a terrible rash.

"Honey for the Bears" satirizes the secret capitalist desires of the Soviet people with a schizophrenic jump between their urges for Western pleasures and at the same time a contempt for the capitalist pigs that cannot even take care of their own people.

Sharp, witty and insightful, Burgess again succeeds in bringing together a dark twisted world that strongly resembles our own. As always, Burgess' mastery of linguistics shines through as he plays games with language and dialects: thus giving his characters a sense of reality.

I didn't want to read this book. It was attached to a copy of "A Clockwork Orange" and I figured I might as well. The whole time, I felt both compelled and repelled to go on. However, I loved it more than "A clockwork Orange," and am currently trying to find out more about it. Burgess uses an interesting plot that puts full emphasis on causality and contains many twists and turns that were comical and intriguing. I found myself alternately loving and hating Paul, the main character. The thing that I love about it the most is that what appears is a simple plot is really a statement of burgess's personal resentment for the state. If you're a political kind of person, or you want to learn, this is a great, insightful book.

It is by chance that I read this book. And I don't regret it. I loved Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, and, naturally, I wanted to read more. After looking over the reviews of The Doctor is Sick ,The Complete Mr. Enderby, and The Wanting Seed, I decided I'd look for one of those. I went to the local bookstore, and sadly (or so I thought at the time) they only had one copy of Honey for the Bears, about 7 copies of A Clockwork Orange and a couple of works he did on Shakespeare. I read the summary for Honey for the Bears, and I was uninterested. However, for lack of reading material, I bought it.

It was excellent. Burgess is really talented. Unlike so many other books, this one never gets boring, not even for a second. Taking a journey of self exploration with Paul could not possibly be more entertaining, funny, exciting or meaningful than Burgess makes it. You'll enjoy this book if you like a well constructed plot and interesting story line. This was not in any way Russian babble not worth reading unless Russian yourself. (I'm not Russian, never have been to Russia, and don't know any of the Russian language. I will go even furthur to say that you most certainly don't have to have a great interest in Russia to enjoy this book!) At the risk of sounding cliche, this is just one of those books that entertains you the whole way through.

It's not complete candy though: Burgess used Russian throughout this book, making it a little diffult to understand at times. I had to reread a few parts, but it wasn't a chore at all, and surprisingly, did not bother me. Everything comes together at the end, although is not always what you expect. Delightful. I'm surprised this wasn't made into a movie.

It seems presumptuous to be definitive in the area of literature. But every now and then there is a book, such as Earthly Powers, that compells one to reach for superlatives. This is a masterful example of the literary novel, one that frequently makes its appearance on the 'top-ten' lists of 'all time greats' as compiled by those who have made it their business to read as much as possible.Burgess lavished effort on this, setting out to create a masterpiece, and he succeeded without ever forgetting the novelist's duty to perform, above all, as a storyteller for his audience.And what a story he tells!This is in essence a trip through the Twentieth Century that encompasses as many aspects as possible of what defined the era. All is seen through the eyes of an intelligent, sensitive, and sometimes bitterly confused man, Kenneth Twomey. As such, the story is his, and spans some eighty odd years.Burgess is careful to weave his tale as engagingly as he can. Despite verdant vocabulary - always contextually perfect - the pages flick past at great speed. We are not subjected to many of the more conventional literary devices utilised to pull readers in. Instead we are involved through the sheer pathos and variety of the world and age that Kenneth, Oddysean-like, must navigate.We are introduced to dozens of countries and a veritable mob of characters, none of whom ever blur or become confused in our mind, because they are drawn with such easy clarity - I have encountered very few personalities in contemporary fiction as well-realised as these.The themes that run through the book are many; love, God, war, identity, suffering, the creative impulse, guilt, peversion, philosophy, nobility and evil. Only a few of these are made obvious - the book, after all, is meant to reflect life. The rest are perched delicately for us to discern between the lines. We do not find ourselves subjected to the author shoving his own particular brand of morality down our throats; a trait rarely avoided even by luminaries within the fiction field. Burgess is far too modest to think that he should discern for our benefit the differences between right and wrong on the grand scale - that is left entirely to us. With this in mind, he is at pains to create a mood of ubiquitous evil hanging over large portions of the novel, an evil which is hard to define specifically, and it is the reader who must try to make sense of it, as themes and plots grow and elaborate over decades and continents. He does this with consummate skill.If I have been vague it is because it is impossibly difficult to get into the fabric of Earthly Powers in such a short space. It takes on far too much to lend itself to summarisation. One can only keep repeating, 'This is a masterpiece; truly a masterpiece.' Why it never received the critical acclaim it so assuredly deserved will forever remain a dreadful inditement of a literary establishment jealous of possibly its most talented virtuoso. So many critics have such petty and venal motivations. By the way, the opening line is considered by many to be one of the greatest ever written. "It was the morning of my eighty first birthday and I was in bed with my . . ." Buy it and read for yourself. This one will stay with you for years. Unless of a most violently parochial and small-minded disposition, I cannot envisage anyone failing to be thrilled and awed by a book so gigantic in theme and substance.

Burgess's 1980 EARTHLY POWERS, like Styron's SOPHIE'S CHOICE(published around the same time), hearkens back to the grand 19th century novels of Dickens, Balzac, and Galdos. It is a novel the reader enters and inhabits, a world of its own.

Kenneth Toomey, supposedly modeled on Somerset Maugham, is a middling range popular novelist who finds himself in the midst of some of the great literary and social maelstroms of the twentieth century. He knows everyone - Churchill, James Joyce, John Maynard Keynes; you name them, Toomey has sipped tea with them - and gets involved with everything - censorship trials and ancient voodoo, for instance; he even has a brush with the Jim Jones cult through one of his nieces.

Critics carped at the book for its lack of focus, but it has a definite focus: the twentieth century. Toomey's not a great artist, but he is a great observer, and through him Burgess gives us the full sweep of the twentieth century, its follies and its glories (but more folly than glory). In the past, English literature has had an Age of Shakespeare and an Age of Johnson. In the future critics and historians will judge the late twentieth century as the Age of Burgess. EARTHLY POWERS will help solidify that certainty.

Read it.

This novel, Earthly Powers, by Anthony Burgess from 1980 strips bare the twentienth century and turns its skeleton into a wonderful narrative stream inhabited by two beautifully realized characters, Kenneth Toomey, novelist, and Don Carlo, eventually the Pope. Everyone and everything of importance in the last century becomes a part of the mix without ever clogging the story, which remains clearly focused with the clever use of the fictional creations. This book is an epic that truly deserves that title and it will give the reader many hours to reading pleasure. A wonderful reading experience.

This second part of the Gormenghast trilogy focuses on Titus Groan, 77th Earl of Gormenghast's youth, from schooling to his ascention to manhood. This book took me almost a year to read (one long break) - the first half of the book progresses incredibly slowly, even for Peake's normally languid pace - I just couldn't cope. I can appreciate his qualities as a wordsmith - his vocabulary is second to none but I couldn't help but think he could have shortened things somewhat- the schoolmasters' preparation to court Irma drags on and on, but her eventual marriage has virtually no importance to the main plot, and ends up seeming like a waste of time and space - 'I waded through molasses for what!'

In stark contrast, the latter half of the book contains Peake's best (I think) work of the entire trilogy, culminating in the hunt for Steerpike - which is superb. Definately a book of two halves, (bad cliche) but the reader is rewarded for their effort in the end.

It's not really possible to review Gormenghast out of context with the other two books that sandwich it: Titus Groan leads you into the world of Gormenghast and Titus Alone makes you wonder how Gormenghast, the place, exists.
This second volume continues to follow the adventures of the murderously ambitious Steerpike, the maturity and self-awareness of Titus Groan, with some colorful side-trips into a courtship, the revelation of a creature completely antithetical to all that Gormanghast stands for, and a natural disaster that heightens the intensity of the conclusion.
I would heartily recommend starting with Titus Groan (it seems the only available edition has all three volumes in one), and working through them in sequence. But make sure you avoid all the scholarly apparatus that follows Titus Alone until you've finished all three: there are a few spoilers there.
As for the comparisons to Tolkein, I'm afraid I don't see it: they as different as can be. This is not a hero's quest and where it does come down to good versus evil, it's more to do with survival: the world of Gormenghast is a world of murk and shadows, with no clear delineations or values. Titus Groan's self-awareness and the choices he makes are what drive the story. In The Lord of the Rings, there's a sense of destiny to the decisions and actions: Gormenghast is much more personal, with Steerpike's ambition, Sepulchrave's sense of duty, Flay's vigilance, Titus's maturity all helping to propel the action.
Now go read this monster.

These books rank with the greatest books of world literature, and only one of them is still in print? Every library in the world should have a copy of the trilogy. Anyway, here we find the story of the adolescence of Titus Groan. We are also given more depth into the other characters. I'd like to note that my veiw of Steerpike and Flay changed. When I read Titus Groan, I found Steerpike more a sympathetic character than Flay, here it is otherwise. I'd also like to mention on how the events in the previous book effect the life of Titus Groan in such a way that it seems as if it happened in real life. We see the conflict inside of him between the pride of his linege and the desire for freedom, that eventually has Titus flee the great castle. The conflict between freedom and desire for the home is carried into Titus Alone.

just adding a bit of perspective to the previous review. The Disenchanted is not entirely a work of fiction. It is based on real incidents. The young writer is Budd Schulberg himself, and he based the story on his experiences with F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A really wonderful and touching novel in which Mr. Schulberg fictionalizes his days in Hollywood with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Highly recommended, lost masterpiece, probably better than "What Makes Sammy Run?", the only Schulberg novel that still seems to be in print.

Written in 1950, "The Disenchanted" is the thinly disguised story of F. Scott Fitzgerald in his alcoholic decline, when life had overtaken him to the point that his genius could no longer be expressed in the only way he knew how: his writing.

When Budd Schulberg was at Dartmouth College, he was assigned to accompany the fabled Fitzgerald while the great man made a stab at writing a screenplay for Hollywood. As Fitzgerald afficionados well know, this humiliating attempt at regaining his literary glory was a disaster for Fitzerald, and, as we see in this fictionalized account, quite an eye-opener for the impressionable young Schulberg.

What struck me most about the book was the purity of the writing, and the intensity with which the author expresses the two stories within: one about the young man's hero worship that turns to pity; the other about the disintegration of a genius. I have never again read such a moving account of the tragic relationship between Zelda and F. Scott, or the impact their relationship had on themselves and others.

Because of "The Disenchanted," which I first read as a preteen, I turned to F. Scott Fitzgerald and read everything he had ever written. I believe that my understanding of his works and his life were and are rooted in Budd Schulberg's moving and brilliant book, and if I could have thanked him in person, I would have done so, a thousand times over.

Lacks the tragic inevitability of "Dead Man in Deptford", but still a good read. Brilliant language, Elizabethan England nicely evoked, well-drawn characters, clever speculation to fill in the gaps in what we know of Shakespeare's life. A bit crazy, especially at first, but that's what you pay for with Burgess, right?

Anthony Burgess's "Nothing Like The Sun" is a linguistic marvel. It is a philosophically oppressive look at William Shakespeare's foray into literature and the world. Starting in the small 'borough' of Stratford, WS (as he is called) is an apprentice leather craftsman. He spends his days and nights dreaming of plays, gentility, and idealistic love.

Most of the novel shows WS trying to figure out what kind of love he is after. His notions of love come from Plato's "Symposium" - will it be common, physical lust, or contemplation of absolute beauty leading to his best poetic and dramatic works? The relationships that the novel explores these questions with are with the youthful noble Henry Wriothesly and the exotic, colonial Fatima.

Burgess delights in wordplay throughout the novel, using for the most part, the language of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets in the narration and dialogue. Unlike "Shakespeare in Love" Burgess's novel does not build around any specific text, instead making his works almost marginal to the drama of Shakespeare's fictional biography. Burgess presents Shakespeare's works as the results and expressions of a desperate life.

Burgess augments Shakespeare's story with an almost post-colonial historical setting. With Fatima allegedly from the Indies, and a backdrop of English oppression of the Irish, "Nothing Like The Sun" complicates Shakespeare's historical moment. Class struggles, plagues, and political sterility also mark the temporal setting as the novel moves from the country (Stratford) to the coast (Bristol) to the capital (London).

Reading "Nothing Like The Sun" was a welcome experience for me, having only ever read Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" before. The writing style takes a little getting used to, but that is the price you pay for art. I highly recommend it.

This fictional account strings together those facts we know about Shakespeare and uses complete and admitted fancy to flesh out the rest of his life. In this way, Burgess creates a fascinating and engaging lifestory of the young provincial man who became the greatest playwright of our language. While clearly a novel, it manages to make real, palpable people from those faceless names of the Elizabethean time, and helps makes sense (or nonsense) of so many of the theories surrounding Shakespeare's genius. It's vividness shows Burgess as a master of both academia and imagination. A thoroughly good read, and a must for anyone remotely interested in Shakespeare.