Rangoon

Rangoon is the setting for a brief interval of professional success and domestic hope in Marco Polo’s life, but also the place from which war abruptly dislodges him and Susan Munro. Its promise of anonymity and a future gives way to evacuation, return, and a changed reception in Calcutta.

A post and a fresh start

After marrying Susan, Marco accepts a hotel-manager position in Rangoon. Calcutta is Susan’s city, but her past there makes it difficult for her to prosper; in Rangoon, the couple expects that no one will know it. The move therefore offers more than employment: it gives them a chance to begin again away from the scrutiny attached to Susan’s former life.

Marco’s work brings him a substantial income. He receives two thousand rupees, and in Rangoon earns the same amount he had made elsewhere, supplemented by commissions from suppliers. The account connects his pay to a shortage of competent hotel staff after the war in Europe: capable managers have become expensive, and a large hotel cannot be run well on a modest salary.

Work and domestic hopes

For a time, the arrangement suits both of them. Marco works hard at the hotel, and foreign guests are impressed that such a hotel exists in Burma. Susan’s hopes and Marco’s work keep the couple occupied, giving their life in Rangoon a stability they had not found in Calcutta. That stability is real but provisional, dependent on the hotel’s success and on the safety of their adopted home.

Evacuation and return

The Japanese invasion brings that provisional life to an abrupt end. Bombers fill the sky over Rangoon, and Burma must be evacuated; the account stresses that no one, including Marco, had expected the crisis. The couple returns to Calcutta, but cannot simply resume their former life there.

In Calcutta, people who had once urged Marco to stay now turn away because of his connections with Burma, while others regard his Italian connections with suspicion. His Greek passport helps protect him from possible imprisonment as an Italian, but it does not restore his former standing. Meanwhile, his savings run out and demand for Susan’s musical services grows as British and American soldiers fill the city seeking restaurants and music. Rangoon thus marks both a refuge from Susan’s past and the starting point of a displacement that leaves the couple facing changed loyalties and financial pressure.