“I was looking into writing a secret history of the Indonesian Islands in the Southeast, everything from Bali eastward. To me those islands were like a lost world where everything remained true and authentic, away from the gaze of foreigners–a kind of invisible world, almost…We needed a history of our country written by an Indonesian, something that explored nonstandard sources that Westerners could not easily reach.”
Aware
that nearly all the history books about Indonesia begin with the discovery of the sea routes from Europe to Asia, thereby reflecting a western slant, a young teaching assistant in Jakarta in 1964 reflects the growing desire among Indonesians for a history of “their own.” Indonesia had been a Dutch colony for three and a half centuries, and had been occupied by the Japanese for much of World War II. Though long-time leader Dewi Sukarno declared the country’s independence–and became President–after the defeat of the Japanese, the Dutch remained a dominating presence in the country’s economy, to their own benefit far more than the Indonesians’. By 1964, when this novel opens, resentment against westerners is peaking. The Dutch are being arrested without warning and forcibly “repatriated,” the Chinese and Russians are exerting significant influence, Communism has become so popular that the president and the army fear a coup, and violence has become a way of life. “The police can kill anyone nowadays,” a teacher remarks, “and we just say, ‘Hey, there’s a dead body,’ without really knowing, or caring, who it was.”
Malaysian author Tash Aw, in his second novel, recreates this turbulent period, and he does so on several levels at once. In a non-linear narrative which switches back and forth in time and among several main characters and plot lines, the author emphasizes the displacement and loss felt by people of all backgrounds within the country. Many Dutch have become permanent residents of Indonesia and though they consider it their home, they are being expelled. The country’s many poor and hungry feel ignored by their government, and rebellious students feel powerless to effect change.
All the main characters are to some extent lost or displaced. Adam, a teenage orphan who has lost his mother, his brother, and eventually his adoptive father, is particularly alienated, not sure who he really is and desperate to find out. His adoptive father Karl, a Dutch artist who has worked for many years in Perdo, a remote island, has just been arrested and taken away by military police, ostensibly to be repatriated to Holland, and Adam cannot find him. Margaret Bates, a middle-aged American expatriate doing research on non-verbal communication (an “invisible world” of its own) lives in Old Jakarta and considers herself Indonesian, but she has no close family ties and no lover. Her teaching assistant Din, a communist, is committed to helping the poor, but he is frustrated at the inaction of the Indonesian government. The secret lives, invisible lives, of all these characters are revealed as part of the novel’s mosaic-like structure.
Composed with great attention to detail, the novel suggests, rather then tells about, what is going on in the “invisible worlds” of these characters. The story is cumulative, consisting of dramatic, usually short, scenes which require the reader to draw conclusions from the accretion of details about the characters, their lives, and their relationships. At one point, for example, the typeface changes and becomes the story of Johan, whom we know to be Adam’s “lost” brother, but for most of the book we don’t know much about him, where he lives, how he was separated from his brother, or what the time frames of his various commentaries are. All we know is that he believe
s “There’s nowhere for [him] to go.” Somehow Adam finds Margaret, but we don’t know, at first, how or why, or what connection they may have. And we don’t know much about Karl and his life till near the end. The plot develops on several planes at once, constantly creating suspense and constantly providing the reader with surprises, as each new piece of the puzzle falls into place–but then creates new complications to be resolved.
Very dramatic and often very exciting scenes from past and present occur in rapid succession, keeping the reader’s interest high, as we wonder whether Adam will find his brother and/or his adoptive father, whether Karl is still alive, whether Margaret will resolve her old feelings for a past lover, and whether revolution and bloodshed will sweep through Jakarta and catch up all the characters we have come to know. In some sense, however, the novel has almost an embarrassment of riches. The novel is explosive, like Indonesia itself, with a surfeit of characters acting and interacting in seemingly random fashion until coincidence brings them together in shocking new ways. The reader may actually become a bit weary from the bombardment of surprises unfolding in the lives of the many characters.
The ending feels a bit rushed, as if the author were not sure how to present a grand finale after having had so much drama up to that endpoint, and a few scenes feel gratuitous, and even manipulative of the reader, not adding to the story significantly. Over all, however, Tash Aw has created an absorbing and unusual novel about a time in which the future of Indonesia hangs in the balance, connected to the lives of the characters in invisible ways and presaging a history which no westerner wants to see.
Notes: The author’s photo appears on http://i.dailymail.co.uk
The Ravana mask from Indonesia appears on http://www.columbia.edu
n’t plan to see this film and then go out for a lively night on the town. You will be so spent after the one hundred forty-one minutes of this gut-wrenching film that when the lights come on at the end, you’ll need a minute to figure out where you are, and then additional downtime to process all you’ve seen. Days later, you’ll still be thinking about this slice of life–and Edith Piaf.
Marion Cotillard becomes Piaf, a physical likeness that is uncanny in its realism (one wonders if she can ever play another part without conjuring up Piaf’s image), and her emotional connection to Piaf’s music is total. Her song performances are absolutely flawless, as are her gestures, and the only clue that she is lip-synching is the unmistakable Piaf voice the emerges from her mouth. Louis Leplee (Gerard Depardieu) as the nightclub owner whose murder by organized crime draws Edith in for questioning, shows the genuine care he has for Edith and the tough face of a man who has seen and done it all.
, the middleweight boxer who captures her heart (Jean-Pierre Martins), gives her something to live for, besides her music–at least for a while–and it is genuinely affecting here to see how earthy and unaffected he is in her presence. The supporting actors, all French, are outstanding, and few viewers will forget Emmanuelle Seigner, playing prostitute Titine, who cared for Edith as a child.
brutally satiric little novella, the “downstairs” servants of the aristocratic Klopstocks, living in Switzerland, have their lives all planned out for the immediate future. They will not be spending another day with the Klopstocks—at least not a day in which the Klopstocks are alive, and they are breathless with anticipation. Lister, who manages the household, knows that both the Baron and the Baroness will be meeting in the library that evening with Victor Passerat, “Mister Fairlocks,” someone with whom the Baroness is passionately in love but who is himself passionately in love with the Baron. Posting a “Not to Disturb” sign on the door, the triangle of lovers meets, determined to settle their issues, but these can be settled only one way—with gunshots. “The eternal triangle has come full circle,” one servant observes.
With vivid and hilariously dark dialogue, the novella becomes as much a riotous farce as it is a comedy of manners, with the roles reversed. Spark keeps the actions and the interactions moving non-stop, her use of irony, suggestion, and gallows humor at their peak, and the one-liners coming fast and furiously. Eleanor points out that “The press and the police are coming, and there are only sixty-four shopping days to Christmas.” Hadrian adds,” Death is that sort of thing that you can’t sleep off…” Even the word order of Spark’s title suggests a kind of arch message from the aristocracy to their servants—they have been asked politely “not to disturb,” instead of the bolder and plainer command, “Do Not Disturb.” Spark’s novella is word-perfect, her sense of irony honed to stiletto sharpness. Out of print in the US since its first publication in 1971, and out of print in the UK since 1984, Not to Disturb has just been released in a new edition by New Directions, an event to be celebrated by Spark’s long-time fans and those newcomers who will joyously discover Spark for the first time. (On my 
third novel is completely different from both of his past novels. The Right Hand of Sleep (2001), his debut novel, was set in Austria in the years leading up to World War II and was the personal story of a man who had gone to the Ukraine to escape the horrors of World War I and then returned after twenty years to reconnect with his family in Austria, as Hitler was coming to power. Canaan’s Tongue (2005) is set along the Mississippi River in 1863, the story of a Messianic preacher and others who engage in The Trade, selling slaves and then, with their collusion, recapturing them and reselling them, a novel of epic themes. Lowboy is different still, the powerful and moving story of a paranoid schizophrenic teenager who is hospitalized for almost two years, and then goes off his meds and escapes back to New York City’s subways in an effort to spread his “message” and prevent global warming from destroying life as we have known it. Highly praised for both his imagination and his careful structuring, John Wray is one of the most exciting young novelists in the country today.
As Will travels the subways, he recalls stories his grandfather told him about an underground city beside the Musaquantas River, and, in fact, he finds a whole city beneath the streets when he follows a homeless woman named “Heather Covington” through the tunnels and into a “room” beneath a grate on the street. There he tries, unsuccessfully, to connect with her. He fixates on his former “love,” Emily, who has good reason to want to avoid him.
and his teachers, with his mother, with Emily, and with a prostitute who shows up when he leaves the subway all confirm his inability to deal with the real world, yet the reader cares for him, and hopes for him, despite his increasingly distorted “logic” and the reader’s own inability to know how much to believe and how much may be hallucination.
r Gerald Durrell, with a writer’s eye for the odd detail, a great sense of humor and absurdity, and an unquenchable enthusiasm for finding unusual animals and telling stories about them, recounts his third animal-collecting trip to the Cameroons in this 1960 memoir. Recently reprinted by Penguin Books, the book is a classic of nature-writing, filled with humorous anecdotes about the animals, the discoveries made about them, and, especially, about the people whose interactions with them often led to hilarious escapades.
g as the king learns from Durrell and his animals. Soon the Fon’s compound fills up with hundreds more captive reptiles, birds, and animals, including seventeen monkeys, one of which is a half-grown baboon. Eventually, Minnie, a five-year-old chimp and Cholmondely, a baby chimp, join the “family,” providing innumerable adventures, and often great hilarity.
Durrell is a lively writer with a commitment to conservation and a tremendous sense of fun. Giving the flavor of the whole trip, not just the academic details, he provides a sense of realism at the same time that he displays his own irrepressible humor, much of it directed at himself. His sensitivity to his surroundings and his ability to convey them through vibrant descriptions make the countryside come alive, while his anecdotes about the animals and the people he meets show his interest in expanding his knowledge while fully participating in events around him.
 for www.marywhipplereviews.com “I was looking into writing a secret history of the Indonesian Islands in the Southeast, everything from Bali eastward. To me those islands were like a lost world where everything remained true and authentic, away from the gaze of foreigners--a kind of invisible world, almost...We needed a history of our country written by an Indonesian, something that explored nonstandard sources that Westerners could not easily reach.” Aware that nearly all the history books about Indonesia begin with the discovery of the sea routes from Europe to Asia, thereby reflecting a western slant, a young teaching assistant in Jakarta in 1964 reflects the growing desire among Indonesians for a history of “their own.” Indonesia had been a Dutch colony for three and a half centuries, and had been occupied by the Japanese for much of World War II. Though long-time leader Dewi Sukarno declared the country’s independence--and became President--after the defeat of the Japanese, the Dutch remained a dominating presence in the country’s economy, to their own benefit far more than the Indonesians’. By 1964, when this novel opens, resentment against westerners is peaking. The Dutch are being arrested without warning and forcibly “repatriated,” the Chinese and Russians are exerting significant influence, Communism has become so popular that the president and the army fear a coup, and violence has become a way of life. “The police can kill anyone nowadays,” a teacher remarks, “and we just say, ‘Hey, there’s a dead body,’ without really knowing, or caring, who it was.” Malaysian author Tash Aw, in his second novel, recreates this turbulent period, and he does so on several levels at once. In a non-linear narrative which switches back and forth in time and among several main characters and plot lines, the author emphasizes the displacement and loss felt by people of all backgrounds within the country. Many Dutch have become permanent residents of Indonesia and though they consider it their home, they are being expelled. The country’s many poor and hungry feel ignored by their government, and rebellious students feel powerless to effect change. All the main characters are to some extent lost or displaced. Adam, a teenage orphan who has lost his mother, his brother, and eventually his adoptive father, is particularly alienated, not sure who he really is and desperate to find out. His adoptive father Karl, a Dutch artist who has worked for many years in Perdo, a remote island, has just been arrested and taken away by military police, ostensibly to be repatriated to Holland, and Adam cannot find him. Margaret Bates, a middle-aged American expatriate doing research on non-verbal communication (an “invisible world” of its own) lives in Old Jakarta and considers herself Indonesian, but she has no close family ties and no lover. Her teaching assistant Din, a communist, is committed to helping the poor, but he is frustrated at the inaction of the Indonesian government. The secret lives, invisible lives, of all these characters are revealed as part of the novel’s mosaic-like structure. Composed with great attention to detail, the novel suggests, rather then tells about, what is going on in the “invisible worlds” of these characters. The story is cumulative, consisting of dramatic, usually short, scenes which require the reader to draw conclusions from the accretion of details about the characters, their lives, and their relationships. At one point, for example, the typeface changes and becomes the story of Johan, whom we know to be Adam’s “lost” brother, but for most of the book we don’t know much about him, where he lives, how he was separated from his brother, or what the time frames of his various commentaries are. All we know is that he believes “There’s nowhere for [him] to go.” Somehow Adam finds Margaret, but we don’t know, at first, how or why, or what connection they may have. And we don’t know much about Karl and his life till near the end. The plot develops on several planes at once, constantly creating suspense and constantly providing the reader with surprises, as each new piece of the puzzle falls into place--but then creates new complications to be resolved. Very dramatic and often very exciting scenes from past and present occur in rapid succession, keeping the reader’s interest high, as we wonder whether Adam will find his brother and/or his adoptive father, whether Karl is still alive, whether Margaret will resolve her old feelings for a past lover, and whether revolution and bloodshed will sweep through Jakarta and catch up all the characters we have come to know. In some sense, however, the novel has almost an embarrassment of riches. The novel is explosive, like Indonesia itself, with a surfeit of characters acting and interacting in seemingly random fashion until coincidence brings them together in shocking new ways. The reader may actually become a bit weary from the bombardment of surprises unfolding in the lives of the many characters. The ending feels a bit rushed, as if the author were not sure how to present a grand finale after having had so much drama up to that endpoint, and a few scenes feel gratuitous, and even manipulative of the reader, not adding to the story significantly. Over all, however, Tash Aw has created an absorbing and unusual novel about a time in which the future of Indonesia hangs in the balance, connected to the lives of the characters in invisible ways and presaging a history which no westerner wants to see. Notes: The author’s photo appears on http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/05/12/article-0-03BA61A30000044D-347_224x320.jpg The Ravana mask from Indonesia appears on http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/bce_299_200/ramayana/indonesianmasks/ravana3b.jpg){kind=link}
