Simon's Reviews > The Malayan Trilogy

Brilliant telling of the last days of British rule in Malaya.
Lots of humour and evident fondness from Burgess for the mix of races - Moslem Tamil Chinese British Malays Eurasians - who find themselves at last stage of foreign rule. Slowly decaying , infighting , ridiculous prejudices but all told with fondness and humour.

Nabby Adams and Rosemary are my favourite characters . One of the best lines of the novel “ she just literally didn’t know if she was lying or telling the truth “
is a preamble to the story of Rosemary , so beautiful, so idealistic , so snobbish , so self deluding. .

The final novel slightly petered out for me hence 4 stars

Final note : I have not read a book in 5 years where I had to look up so many English words. Burgess is a brilliant prose writer , not because he uses unknown words but because he blends them seamlessly with a very colloquial style , there is nothing stiff or stuffy .