Time for a Tiger

First book in Anthony Burgess' trilogy about postwar Malaya at the time when people and governments alike are bemused and dazzled by the turmoil of independence. Rich in hilarious comedy and razor-sharp in observation. The protagonist of the work is Victor Crabbe, a teacher in a multiracial school in a squalid village, who moves upward in position as he and his wife maintain a steady decadent progress backward.