Southeast Asian resident and Scottish expatriate, New Juche combines these two sensibilities of his to give a poetic and emotionally charged anatomy of former British colony Burma's [Myanmar] capital Rangoon [Yangon].

Here, he explores the psychogeographic underpinnings of being a member of the colonizing tribe, in the heart of the land of the colonized, in a poetic raptus intertwining his childhood in despairing Thatcher-era Scotland, with his lonely disposition in run-down colonial estates in the Burmese capital.

He constantly juxtaposes the architecture of the city with his own body, creating a strange palimpsest map of man and memories upon monuments.

As in his former work 'Mountainhead', the prose is vibrant and emanates from a deeply personal and sensual writer's gaze. There is an intensity in his present tense writing that is really effective, often using repetitious acts [drinking beer and smoking cigarettes like an absolute madman], describing these actions over and over, in a way that decelerates the present moment into complete immersion [for the reader].

The amount of alcohol, tobacco, sweat, and grime is astounding and effective in placing the reader in his stead and conjuring up a seedy atmosphere.

There is also an inquest into the brutal colonization of Burma [from the Brits], riffing especially on the works/life of George Orwell and his time in the country, which seemingly contained some amount of police brutality from the famous writer's own hand. New Juche sort of aligns himself with Orwell, but in what I took to be a sarcastic or even contemptuous way.

Great writing on display here - if a little scant in volume. Not quite on the level of 'Mountainhead' in my opinion; which felt more whole as a work, and also had the added benefit of effective transgressive elements and even higher bouts of poetic beauty.