...[a] thought-provoking book ... A Savage Dreamland follows [Eimar's] journeys and is threaded with a cast of wonderful characters who guide him ... Throughout, Eimer deftly observes those he meets, recounting conversations and making sure that the people and the country are the stars. It is not his story, but theirs ... The result of Eimer’s intrepid endeavours is a revelatory and moving book, enriched by vivid descriptive colour and an incredible cast of characters. But it is the deep, frustrating sadness at Burma’s terrible tragedy that lingers.
[Eimar] listens to as many factions as he can in a disunited nation. These voices coalesce in a book that explains wonderfully well why Burma today is both compelling and combustible ... His book is a good primer on history, culture and modern-day politics, and on the power wielded by the Buddhist hierarchy. But it's the realities of daily life that really interest him ... George Orwell, who served as a police officer in Burma during the Twenties, was withering in Burmese Days (1934) about the British Empire’s role there; Eimer is equally forthright about its legacy ... If Orwell could read A Savage Dreamland, he would be impressed, surely, by this choral-voiced account of a country where so many, for so long, have been silenced.
A Savage Dreamland is travel-writing...yet in a sort of politically-targeted way: the book is more about the destination—an attempt to understand contemporary Myanmar—than the journey itself ... The result is a patchwork of dialogue, vignettes of observation, held together with relatively straightforward research material about peoples, places, politics, religion and history. Eimer writes very well and the pieces are almost seamlessly integrated ... A Savage Dreamland’s main strength is Eimer’s prose. Eimer is a meticulous, fair-minded and empathetic observer, he takes interest in people of all kinds and from all walks of life, and is adventurous and curious enough to go off the beaten track. The places are easy to visualize, the voices of his interlocutors clear. One probably cannot understand Myanmar without going there, but Eimer’s book may be one of the best alternatives.
Eimer’s powerful account reveals a country plundered and brutalised during the colonial era and decades of autocratic rule, while struggling to come to terms with the reality of its present ethnic and religious diversity.
David Eimer...tries to capture this quicksilver place in A Savage Dreamland. He is an intrepid reporter ... He goes to places where tourists, and many journalists, fear to tread—such as Shan state, where he encounters rival armies and is probed by a lieutenant-colonel on the battle-readiness of the enemy. His interlocutors show just how diverse the country is ... Mr Eimer backs his reporting with historical research, mostly focused on colonialism and its aftermath ... A Savage Dreamland...for all its gripping vignettes, can be baggy and repetitive. Sometimes Mr Eimer relies too heavily on anecdote and supposition. Perhaps this is a risk of charting such a wildly varied country ... Mr Eimer’s book takes readers closer to his fascinating subject, and leaves some of its mysteries unsolved.
At times, [Eimer's] take feels like the trope of a white man Orientalizing an Asian country ... these types of comparisons represent the detachment of a colonial gaze. Yet Eimer takes care to acknowledge the destructive colonial legacy ... Eimer’s work is a gauge for how Europeans and North Americans might experience the country, how they might be received, and what they should know. The downside to his narrative is that it focuses almost completely on men’s issues ... Adding a broader sense of women’s experiences in the country may have given the book more depth as Aung San Suu Kyi takes such a prominent role in it. To be fair, as a foreign man, the author may not have had access to enough women to bring out that perspective ... makes a contribution to the literature on Burma, offering an outsider’s understanding of this often confusing, always fascinating country.
... haunting, perfectly titled ... a chilling travelogue through modern Burma intertwined with helpful historical context ... Kipling described the country as 'quite unlike any land you know about.' Eimer’s reporting could blow Kipling’s mind ... Eimer goes where few foreigners do, tearing down dirt roads on the back of a motorcycle ... A good listener with an eye for the incongruous, Eimer convenes a peculiar, oddball cast including rebel generals, a disenfranchised princess, a prophet who speaks directly to God, and a Tibetan in the Burmese Himalayas who says he’d rather be in Tibet ... riveting, though I wished the author had included some interviews with Burmese entrepreneurs and activists, and a few more with artists and educators—people closer to the inside. In a land as varied as Burma good things are happening, too. He might have found some reasons for hope.
