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Burma Boy
A few months ago fourteen-year-old Ali Banana was apprenticed to a whip-wielding blacksmith in his rural hometown. Now its winter 1944, the war is entering its most crucial stage and Ali is a private in Thunder Brigade. His unit has been given orders to go behind enemy lines and wreak havoc. But the Burmese jungle is a mud-riven, treacherous place, riddled with Japanese snipers, insanity and disease. "Burma Boy" is a horrific, vividly realised account of the madness, the sacrifice and the dark humour of the Second World War's most vicious battleground. It's also the moving story of a boy trying to live long enough to become a man.
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First published June 7, 2007
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About the author
Biyi Bandele-Thomas
13 books21 followersBiyi Bandele (born Biyi Bandele-Thomas; 1967) is a Nigerian novelist, playwright and filmmaker. Bandele is regarded as one of the most versatile and prolific of the UK-based Nigerian writers, having turned his hands to theatre, journalism, television, film, and radio, as well as the fiction with which he made his name. He lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
September 14, 2020
In The King's Rifle by Biyi Bandele, we are taken into the maddening world of World War II African soldiers who fought for the British against the Japanese in Burma. These soldiers were part the Allied Special Forces, known as Chindits, named after the Burmese mythical winged lion. While this was a diverse group of soldiers, little is known about the African soldiers and their contributions to the war effort. The story also centers on the coming-of-age of Ali Banana.
Ali Banana, a thirteen year-old, who is indentured as apprentice to a cruel blacksmith, decides on a whim to follow his older friends as they march off to join the British to fight a war they know little about. Ali's superior know that he is underage, but they are not aware how young he really is and is soon shipped off to be trained in India in preparation of being dropped behind enemy lines in the Burma jungle. While Ali is a fictional character, the horrors of war we witness through his eyes are all based on factual events.
The author's background as a playwright is evident as the novel reads like a play with dialogue setting the scenes for us. The scenes were played out in my mind as if I were watching a play. One of the most effective uses of dialogue in the book is in ordinary conversations among the men as they wait for the nightly attacks from the Japanese. Through these conversations we learn of the differences among the West Africans that are part of the Chindits, in their religion and tribal differences. The author also addresses the issues of race and class that existed during the time period, but does it in an implicit manner.
But this is primarily a military story and the author has done his research on the techniques and cruelties from both the British and Japanese. I enjoyed reading about this lesser known piece of history but I believe having more historical background incorporated into the storyline would have enhanced the reading experience.
I recommend this book for fans of historical fiction and military history. Readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories will also be interested in the learning how Ali learns about the larger world and becomes a man.
Reviewed by Beverly
APOOO BookClub
April 21, 2009
Ali Banana, a thirteen year-old, who is indentured as apprentice to a cruel blacksmith, decides on a whim to follow his older friends as they march off to join the British to fight a war they know little about. Ali's superior know that he is underage, but they are not aware how young he really is and is soon shipped off to be trained in India in preparation of being dropped behind enemy lines in the Burma jungle. While Ali is a fictional character, the horrors of war we witness through his eyes are all based on factual events.
The author's background as a playwright is evident as the novel reads like a play with dialogue setting the scenes for us. The scenes were played out in my mind as if I were watching a play. One of the most effective uses of dialogue in the book is in ordinary conversations among the men as they wait for the nightly attacks from the Japanese. Through these conversations we learn of the differences among the West Africans that are part of the Chindits, in their religion and tribal differences. The author also addresses the issues of race and class that existed during the time period, but does it in an implicit manner.
But this is primarily a military story and the author has done his research on the techniques and cruelties from both the British and Japanese. I enjoyed reading about this lesser known piece of history but I believe having more historical background incorporated into the storyline would have enhanced the reading experience.
I recommend this book for fans of historical fiction and military history. Readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories will also be interested in the learning how Ali learns about the larger world and becomes a man.
Reviewed by Beverly
APOOO BookClub
April 21, 2009
April 9, 2025
Tragic and comedic tale of the horrors of the Chindit campaign in Burma in WW2 .
As a novel it doesn't quite hold it together but there's enough here to illuminate the absurdity of war and it's terrible chaos and confusion . Our teenage protagonist is part of the group of Nigerian volunteers whose experience in Burma has been buried by post war politics .
This novel manages to implicitly explore the ethnic and racial divisions within Nigeria while suggesting that the universal experience of the footsoldier is remarkably similar and ruled by a strange alchemy of courage , fatalism and fear .
As a novel it doesn't quite hold it together but there's enough here to illuminate the absurdity of war and it's terrible chaos and confusion . Our teenage protagonist is part of the group of Nigerian volunteers whose experience in Burma has been buried by post war politics .
This novel manages to implicitly explore the ethnic and racial divisions within Nigeria while suggesting that the universal experience of the footsoldier is remarkably similar and ruled by a strange alchemy of courage , fatalism and fear .
February 12, 2010
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 Order Wingate: Irregular Soldier. 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 Order Wingate: Irregular Soldier. 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.
June 13, 2009
Cracking good story, by turns comic and horrific, of a Nigerian boy who two years into WW2 enlists with the Royal West African Field Force to fight in Burma for King George. Proud, quick-tongued, and thirteen years old, he is not easily domesticated to army discipline -- the comic possibilites are fully exploited. Diverted by an inopportune case of small pox to General Orde Wingate's Chindits, a special forces brigade formed to operate behind Japanese lines, Ali Banana has an especially grueling war, marching through an alien landscape from air drop to air drop, engaging and trying to disengage from the Japanese, but always tempered by the camaraderie of his section and his own naïveté. The seven other members of his section, all West Africans and his family for the duration, make a wonderful ensemble cast.
Based on the stories with which Bandele grew up -- his father had served with the Chindits in Burma as a (very) young man -- and buttressed by careful (but not obtrusive) research, this is a cracking good story ...
Currently sits on my shelf with "Red Badge of Courage" and "Harp of Burma".
Published in the UK as "Burma Boy".
Based on the stories with which Bandele grew up -- his father had served with the Chindits in Burma as a (very) young man -- and buttressed by careful (but not obtrusive) research, this is a cracking good story ...
Currently sits on my shelf with "Red Badge of Courage" and "Harp of Burma".
Published in the UK as "Burma Boy".
February 4, 2021
One of my goals is to read a book from every country in the world. When it came to Burma/Myanmar it was hard to find an author from that country so I decided to read this book instead as it takes place there. It's a pretty typical account of war but it describes the war from a different perspective. You get to see all this from young Banana's point of view and get to experience the horrors along with him, as well as the humorous moments between soldiers. Before I read this book I had no idea that Nigerian soldiers participated in the 2nd world war and it made me learn more about that so in that way it was an enriching reading experience.
April 26, 2011
Burma Boy is a story of a forgotten history: the role that West African (and specifically Nigerian) troops played in winning World War Two, in particular fighting the Japanese in Asia. The book appealed to me especially because my great-uncle was a "Boma boy" and fought for the British. I enjoyed Bandele's madcap tale - his character sketches were hilarious and full of empathy. His sentences meandered a little sometimes, and the ending seemed a little rushed and anti-climatic - but I suppose the same analysis could be made of the nature of war itself. I'm looking forward to reading more of his work.
December 4, 2022
What a quirky interesting little book. Following a Nigerian boy who signed up to fight for King Joji in WW2 with no idea of what that would entail.
Interspersing humour with pathos to show the full horror of the Burmese campaign (and war in general of course)
Enjoyed reading up about actual events afterwards too and Janar (General) Wingate, an extraordinary character.
Interspersing humour with pathos to show the full horror of the Burmese campaign (and war in general of course)
Enjoyed reading up about actual events afterwards too and Janar (General) Wingate, an extraordinary character.
July 30, 2018
Plotwise like a mix of Good Soldier Svejk and Inglourious Basterds as a troop of Nigerian colonial soldiers are sent into the jungles of Burma to fight the Japanese on their own turf, teach them to fear the jungle in the name of King George.
There's good stuff here, but the tone never quite sits right with me; the mix of horror and dry irony not quite jelling, and a feeling that it could have benefitted from being longer.
There's good stuff here, but the tone never quite sits right with me; the mix of horror and dry irony not quite jelling, and a feeling that it could have benefitted from being longer.
November 24, 2024
Kwesties als rassenonderscheid en discriminatie worden helaas nauwelijks besproken in dit korte WOII- Burma Campaign verhaal. Dat is echt een gemiste kans. Het boek eindigt daarnaast erg abrupt, en er is nauwelijks sprake van een spanningsopbouw of rode draad in het verhaal. Enige reden dat het twee sterren heeft gekregen is omdat het me wat heeft geleerd over de inzet van West Afrikaanse soldaten in de Burma Campaign.
July 16, 2023
'How old are you?'
'Old enough to be in the army, Samanja, sir. God give you four wives - if you don't already have four. And forty children-assuming you don't already have forty. And the wealth to keep them all in splendour
'You're quite a character, aren't you? How old are you, Farabiti?'
'Seventeen last Ramadan. '
‘How old are you, Farabiti?'
Farabiti Banana's voice broke. 'Sixteen, Samanja. I'm sixteen years of age.'
Samanja Damisa had been talking with his back turned to Banana.
'You do look sixteen,' he said. Then he continued, 'But really, Farabiti, how old are you?'
Finally admitting defeat, his voice dropping to a whisper, Banana said, 'I was born on the eighth day of the month of Ramadan in the year 1348, which was a Jumma'a.
Damisa made a quick mental sum. Friday the 7th of February, 1930, Now Damisa turned on his mat and looked at Banana across the tent.
'That makes you thirteen, Farabiti!
'Fourteen... in a few months time,' pleaded Banana. He was hunched over on his mat, his head resting on his bent knees, his hands clutching at his legs. 'You won't tell the kyaftin, will you? Please don't tell him. Please don't tell anyone. That will be the end of me if you tell. They'll send me back home.' He was shaking. "They'll send me home, he repeated unhappily.
Banana Boy is a unique work. It gives voice to the experiences of West African soldiers who fought for the Allied forces – a battalion that was part of the Chindit force in particular – in the Burma theatre during WWII. The territory, the land of Burma, has been covered by other authors in both fiction and non-fiction; only the coverage is sparse, and the experiences of African soldiers have only received a few token nods. (This also applies to Indian soldiers, by the way. The Indian National Army makes an appearance in The Glass Palace, and Meira Chand does justice to the all-women’s regiment of the INA. But as far as I know those are exceptions).
Until the passages dealing with war started, I feared that this might be a war that makes light of it. The author’s father was a “Burma Boy” himself, so this was unlikely, but I didn’t know it till I got to the author’s note at the end.
I did find a passage that explained a bit much, and the appraisal of Orde Wingate (who seems to have been a complex and polarising character, if there ever was one) a bit one-sided.
Bandele has created a marvellous work in which the horrors of war are interspersed with passages of deep humanity and black humour. As this academic article points out, the novel is a bildungsroman, and is unique in several ways. In this essay comparing four child-soldier novels (Banana has schemed to become a soldier; he was not forced to become one) , the writer notes that “humor is the last layer of defense in the human psyche’s immune system”.
The reviews of this book do not do complete justice to it. I hope that, over time, Banana will become as iconic as Yossarian. That has nothing to do with justice for people of colour (of whom I am one). It has everything to do with acknowledging the power of great historical fiction.
'Old enough to be in the army, Samanja, sir. God give you four wives - if you don't already have four. And forty children-assuming you don't already have forty. And the wealth to keep them all in splendour
'You're quite a character, aren't you? How old are you, Farabiti?'
'Seventeen last Ramadan. '
‘How old are you, Farabiti?'
Farabiti Banana's voice broke. 'Sixteen, Samanja. I'm sixteen years of age.'
Samanja Damisa had been talking with his back turned to Banana.
'You do look sixteen,' he said. Then he continued, 'But really, Farabiti, how old are you?'
Finally admitting defeat, his voice dropping to a whisper, Banana said, 'I was born on the eighth day of the month of Ramadan in the year 1348, which was a Jumma'a.
Damisa made a quick mental sum. Friday the 7th of February, 1930, Now Damisa turned on his mat and looked at Banana across the tent.
'That makes you thirteen, Farabiti!
'Fourteen... in a few months time,' pleaded Banana. He was hunched over on his mat, his head resting on his bent knees, his hands clutching at his legs. 'You won't tell the kyaftin, will you? Please don't tell him. Please don't tell anyone. That will be the end of me if you tell. They'll send me back home.' He was shaking. "They'll send me home, he repeated unhappily.
Banana Boy is a unique work. It gives voice to the experiences of West African soldiers who fought for the Allied forces – a battalion that was part of the Chindit force in particular – in the Burma theatre during WWII. The territory, the land of Burma, has been covered by other authors in both fiction and non-fiction; only the coverage is sparse, and the experiences of African soldiers have only received a few token nods. (This also applies to Indian soldiers, by the way. The Indian National Army makes an appearance in The Glass Palace, and Meira Chand does justice to the all-women’s regiment of the INA. But as far as I know those are exceptions).
Until the passages dealing with war started, I feared that this might be a war that makes light of it. The author’s father was a “Burma Boy” himself, so this was unlikely, but I didn’t know it till I got to the author’s note at the end.
I did find a passage that explained a bit much, and the appraisal of Orde Wingate (who seems to have been a complex and polarising character, if there ever was one) a bit one-sided.
Bandele has created a marvellous work in which the horrors of war are interspersed with passages of deep humanity and black humour. As this academic article points out, the novel is a bildungsroman, and is unique in several ways. In this essay comparing four child-soldier novels (Banana has schemed to become a soldier; he was not forced to become one) , the writer notes that “humor is the last layer of defense in the human psyche’s immune system”.
The reviews of this book do not do complete justice to it. I hope that, over time, Banana will become as iconic as Yossarian. That has nothing to do with justice for people of colour (of whom I am one). It has everything to do with acknowledging the power of great historical fiction.
July 24, 2024
Början var en katastrof, jag var så förvirrad då de inte handlade om de karaktärerna. Jag kände inte något gentemot karaktärerna tills jag hade läst 4/5 av boken men slutet förstörde mig. Boken var dock väldigt lärorik då jag inte visste att Nigerianer hade krigat för England i Burma. Kändes som en faktabok ibland och hade ingen direkt handling ibland vilket nog är då den var mer av en informerande bok. Inget för mig.
June 23, 2020
A short, fast paced and often comic historical novel about the West African troops fighting with the British Chindits in Burma during WWII. The source material is interesting, and the research comes out in many small details throughout the book. The author is also a film director best known for directing the movie adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's ‘Half of a Yellow Sun.’
January 13, 2025
I think this is a great book and story. There are many emotions running through it, from very funny to very sad, and both at the same time.
- Ali Banana is so funny, he would have been good at Twitter
- Learning about the recruitment process of Africans into the Allied Forces is sad
- The omniscient POV being occasional is interesting e.g pg 56
- Ali Banana is so funny, he would have been good at Twitter
- Learning about the recruitment process of Africans into the Allied Forces is sad
- The omniscient POV being occasional is interesting e.g pg 56
February 18, 2021
Dark humour, battle scenes, exotic locales. What's not to love? I highly recommend.
My only grouse is that it should have been much longer.
My only grouse is that it should have been much longer.
June 23, 2022
An interesting novel about oft overlooked participants in WWII. Though the chapters were short and concise they still managed to paint a compelling picture of the Burma Campaign.
June 30, 2022
This story comes from an important part of history that gets left out too frequently.
March 26, 2023
I randomly picked this book, had no idea what it was about but I continued reading it.
July 16, 2023
Dull.
April 9, 2009
Every now and then you read some galling statistic about how many American adults think the Germans attacked at Pearl Harbor in 1861, and if you’re like me (and really, you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t), you always feel a heady mix of horror and amour-propre. With a historically-minded papa and more books on WWII in the house than you could shake an Enfield at, I thought I was pretty well up on the conflict, so I was surprised and chagrined to learn of an entire theater I’d never heard about: Burma, where thousands of Japanese and British troops perished in brutal battle over some of the most inhospitable territory of the war. And, like so many discoveries of mine, it came through art: one night Turner Classic Movies broadcast the 1956 Best Foreign Film Oscar winner, Kon Ichikawa’s haunting The Burmese Harp, about a young Japanese soldier’s quest to bury his fallen comrades; then, a few weeks later, I picked up The King’s Rifle, Nigerian writer Biyi Bandele’s stark, spare rendering of one West African soldier’s experiences during the campaign. (Realizing that Africans, as British colonials, played their own part in WWII was another humbling moment.)
Bandele, who lives in London, takes an ancient theme—the absurdity and suffering of war, old hat practically since the Iliad—and adds to it the only way any writer can, with a sharp and specific snapshot of an individual unwittingly taking part in the universal. Farabiti (dialect for “Private) Ali Banana is barely fourteen, but eagerly left his village to fight for Kingi Joji; shipped to Burma, he is deployed with the Chindits, a multicultural strike force that fought entirely behind Japanese lines. In graceful, dispassionate prose, Bandele chronicles pride and bravery against daunting odds: disease, homesickness, rough terrain (not just jungle, mountainous jungle!), even the multiple languages necessary for the polyglot unit to function (Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Burmese, Hindustani, Nepalese), all seem to doom them before the shooting even starts. The King’s Rifle is a fascinating reminder that we will never know enough about war, even when we think we know too much.
Bandele, who lives in London, takes an ancient theme—the absurdity and suffering of war, old hat practically since the Iliad—and adds to it the only way any writer can, with a sharp and specific snapshot of an individual unwittingly taking part in the universal. Farabiti (dialect for “Private) Ali Banana is barely fourteen, but eagerly left his village to fight for Kingi Joji; shipped to Burma, he is deployed with the Chindits, a multicultural strike force that fought entirely behind Japanese lines. In graceful, dispassionate prose, Bandele chronicles pride and bravery against daunting odds: disease, homesickness, rough terrain (not just jungle, mountainous jungle!), even the multiple languages necessary for the polyglot unit to function (Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Burmese, Hindustani, Nepalese), all seem to doom them before the shooting even starts. The King’s Rifle is a fascinating reminder that we will never know enough about war, even when we think we know too much.
July 1, 2012
A short fictional story set in WWII Burma, is somewhat interesting in its depiction of African (Nigerian mostly) soldiers fighting for the British. It does not convey much about the actual events of the War in that theater, focusing instead on the soldiers who come across as a bit "simple" in their cultural beliefs, fables, sayings, innocence you might say. The central character, from time to time, is the young 13 year old boy who struggles to become a soldier to go to war for the adventure of it. With only occasional exceptions, however, the author does not develop the various characters sufficiently to differentiate one from another and fails to make the reader really 'care' about them. The author does create a good "feel" for the nature of jungle warfare, and of course the whole "war is hell" theme.
It's just an 'okay' book in my rating scheme, but I upped it to Three Stars partly because it was short and I didn't waste a huge amount of time to finish it, it had a few instances of humor and some combat action sequences with impact, and some colorful descriptions Jungle flora and fauna, but I would not recommend it to anyone else to read unless they already had a fairly intense interest in, and knowledge of, the combat operations of the British Army in Burma in WWII, and want a bit of "color' with regard to the little known role of the Nigerian troops in that effort. I'd recommend other historical books, more thorough ones, about the all-encompassing Chindits in Burma, addressing the actions of the British, Burma Rifles, Hong Kong Volunteers, Gurkhas and West African Serviceman. Also, there are a multitude of better books depicting the "horrors of war" for the grunt on the front lines.
It's just an 'okay' book in my rating scheme, but I upped it to Three Stars partly because it was short and I didn't waste a huge amount of time to finish it, it had a few instances of humor and some combat action sequences with impact, and some colorful descriptions Jungle flora and fauna, but I would not recommend it to anyone else to read unless they already had a fairly intense interest in, and knowledge of, the combat operations of the British Army in Burma in WWII, and want a bit of "color' with regard to the little known role of the Nigerian troops in that effort. I'd recommend other historical books, more thorough ones, about the all-encompassing Chindits in Burma, addressing the actions of the British, Burma Rifles, Hong Kong Volunteers, Gurkhas and West African Serviceman. Also, there are a multitude of better books depicting the "horrors of war" for the grunt on the front lines.
July 22, 2016
This novel casts light on a little-known aspect of the Second World War, the participation of a brigade of Nigerian soldiers in the Burma campaign against the Japanese. The author is the son of a veteran of the campaign, and the book is based on his father's account as well as on a number of sources credited in the Author's Note.
Ali Banana is a fourteen-year old boy who escapes an oppressive apprenticeship in a Nigerian town by lying about his age to enlist in the 12th Battalion, Nigeria Regiment. Ali's country-boy wonder at the marvels he is exposed to in Asia is the lens through which we see most of the action; his wide-eyed innocence will be the principal casualty once the shooting starts. Under the stress of combat, hunger and disease Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba and Tiv will bond imperfectly in an approximation of an emerging Nigerian nation.
The battle descriptions are a bit perfunctory ("One formation lunged itself against the wires by Muddy River and opened a crack at a cost of fifty Japanese lives...") but then this is not primarily a novel about combat; it's a novel about the end of innocence and a people emerging into modernity.
Ali Banana is a fourteen-year old boy who escapes an oppressive apprenticeship in a Nigerian town by lying about his age to enlist in the 12th Battalion, Nigeria Regiment. Ali's country-boy wonder at the marvels he is exposed to in Asia is the lens through which we see most of the action; his wide-eyed innocence will be the principal casualty once the shooting starts. Under the stress of combat, hunger and disease Hausa, Ibo, Yoruba and Tiv will bond imperfectly in an approximation of an emerging Nigerian nation.
The battle descriptions are a bit perfunctory ("One formation lunged itself against the wires by Muddy River and opened a crack at a cost of fifty Japanese lives...") but then this is not primarily a novel about combat; it's a novel about the end of innocence and a people emerging into modernity.
March 1, 2010
I needed a quick read for a slumpbuster and this book performed as required. A quick read with moments of humor, The King's Rifle is provides an interesting perspective of Chindit soldiers during world war II. Although I felt that the book was factually remiss at times, I enjoyed the light heartedness of a book with such serious events transpiring every couple of pages. This book could have easily been YA if not for some inappropriate subject matter. Would I highly recommend this book? No. Should you read it if you have a couple of hours and nothing else to read? Yes. Reading the story made me feel like Bandele did not finish what he wanted to tell but rushed The King's Rifle to meet a publisher's deadline. Something about the book seemed unfinished, it could have gone into more detail in order to tie up some loose ends as well as to alleviate some of the confusion with the characters' story lines.
May 30, 2018
I wasn't sure what to expect with Burma Boy. I picked it up from a shop's charity box and was inspired to read it from my grandfather's military history fighting in Burma during WW2.
Burma Boy is an original story from Biyi Bandele, who presents a different narrative from the usual UK/US viewpoint, focussing on the African involvement in the Chindit fighting brigades. It follows a small company of African soldiers who responded to the call for help from King George to fight for the Allies - the bickering, banter, immaturity and naivete of these young brave individuals brings a new perspective to military fiction and makes this an enjoyable read.
Burma Boy is an original story from Biyi Bandele, who presents a different narrative from the usual UK/US viewpoint, focussing on the African involvement in the Chindit fighting brigades. It follows a small company of African soldiers who responded to the call for help from King George to fight for the Allies - the bickering, banter, immaturity and naivete of these young brave individuals brings a new perspective to military fiction and makes this an enjoyable read.
March 16, 2017
The way Bandele writes had me spell bound from the first page. I'm a sucker for details and nice descriptions and it was just great. It was also interesting to read about war through the eyes of a naive but courageous fourteen year old boy. It just confirmed that war is a terrible thing but I also enjoyed the small glimpses of brotherhood throughout the story. No matter how many times they bickered, there was a genuine affection between them all - even if it was merely because they were all stuck in the same Hell.
It was however slightly hard to tell the other characters apart at times as whilst they had their own personalities, they were all described rather briefly and only a few really stood out.
It was however slightly hard to tell the other characters apart at times as whilst they had their own personalities, they were all described rather briefly and only a few really stood out.
June 22, 2010
I read this during my last few weeks in LA. At the time, I was unemployed, disillusioned, preoccupied with moving back to NY, and spending way too much time at the beach. I had an urge to read an adventure story, and I came across this in the Barnes and Nobel in Studio City on Ventura Blvd. I think it was in the staff recommendation section. It sounded like it would be a fun, exciting read. So I checked out a copy from the LA Public Library and read it in a few days. I was somewhat disappointed--probably because I wanted more action and instead got a tragic coming of age tale--but overall, it's a solid novel.
March 22, 2011
I kept thinking of my eldest grandson, same age (14 1/2)as the protagonist, whose age shows through even though he is doing a man's job.
In fact I bought a copy for the kid, but am going to have to go through it and make up a glossary: this books is perfect for adults who have read widely in history, esp 2d World War, Burma, and the British Empire.
The psychology of the protagonist himself, of the African soldiers who accepted "the king's shilling" and what that meant (and didn't mean) to them in general--- so much cultural color here.
In fact I bought a copy for the kid, but am going to have to go through it and make up a glossary: this books is perfect for adults who have read widely in history, esp 2d World War, Burma, and the British Empire.
The psychology of the protagonist himself, of the African soldiers who accepted "the king's shilling" and what that meant (and didn't mean) to them in general--- so much cultural color here.
October 4, 2007
A wonderful novel not yet out in the US as far as I can tell. Burma Boy is the fictionalized account of a young (14) Nigerian boy who is a soldier in Burma with the British irregulars known as the Chindits. As seen through his eyes, the war is funny and horrible at the same time. The blurb on the book compared it to Waugh, but the book it reminded me of was Ballard's Empire of the Sun.
April 19, 2016
A quick, satisfying read, alternately and simultaneously horrific and funny as hell, about a black African army unit fighting for the British in WWII Burma. It reads like many other ensemble war novels, but the bombastic characters, smart writing, modest pidginization, and -- perhaps most notably -- the surprisingly obscure subject matter definitely make this book worth a look.
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