Imatge de l'autor

Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925–2006)

Autor/a de This Earth of Mankind

66+ obres 2,628 Membres 53 Ressenyes 9 preferits

Sobre l'autor

One of Indonesia's most prominent authors, Toer spent most of his adult life in prison; his works have frequently been banned by the government. Toer's first novel, The Fugitive (1950), was written during his internment by the Dutch. Toer became a leading figure in the Marxist literary group Lekra mostra'n més and was again incarcerated after the 1965 overthrow of Sukarno, joining thousands of other left-wing artists on the prison island of Buru. The author of over 30 works of fiction and nonfiction, Toer is best known for his Buru tetralogy, which traces the birth of nationalism in Indonesia. Most of the work was composed as narration to fellow prisoners, then later recorded and published after Toer's release in 1979. Although the events of the tetralogy take place in the past, they must be understood in the context of his experiences at Buru. In 1988 Toer received the PEN Freedom-to-Write Award. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra'n menys
Crèdit de la imatge: Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Sèrie

Obres de Pramoedya Ananta Toer

This Earth of Mankind (1980) 743 exemplars
Child of All Nations (1980) 380 exemplars
Footsteps (1990) 280 exemplars
House of Glass (1988) 277 exemplars
The Girl from the Coast (1982) 150 exemplars
The Fugitive (1949) 137 exemplars
The Mute's Soliloquy: A Memoir (1988) 131 exemplars
All That Is Gone (1991) 109 exemplars
It's Not an All Night Fair (1951) 65 exemplars
Tales from Djakarta (1999) 41 exemplars
El Rei, la bruixa i el sacerdot (2002) 33 exemplars
Arok of Java (1999) 27 exemplars
Guerrillafamilie (1950) 25 exemplars
De stroom uit het noorden (1995) 25 exemplars
Awakenings (1990) 18 exemplars
Corruption (1955) 17 exemplars
The Chinese in Indonesia (1998) 11 exemplars
Mangir (2000) 9 exemplars
Jalan Raya Pos, Jalan Daendels (2006) 9 exemplars
Panggil Aku Kartini Saja (2003) 8 exemplars
In de fuik (1994) 6 exemplars
Dongeng Calon Arang (1999) 5 exemplars
Kronik revolusi Indonesia (1999) 5 exemplars
Cerita Dari Digul (2015) 4 exemplars
Di tepi Kali Bekasi (1996) 3 exemplars
A rapariga de Java (2002) 2 exemplars
Verloren (1979) 2 exemplars
Människornas jord 2 exemplars
Drama Mangir Copy 1 (2010) 2 exemplars
Menggelinding (2004) 2 exemplars
The Buru Quartet (1900) 2 exemplars
Exile (2000) 2 exemplars
Jantera Bianglala 1 exemplars
Perburuan 1 exemplars
Hacia el mana (1997) 1 exemplars
Tjerita dari Blora 1 exemplars
Rumah Kaca 1 exemplars

Obres associades

A Walk in My World: International Short Stories About Youth (1998) — Col·laborador — 34 exemplars
Pramoedya Ananta Toer : essay en interview (1992) — Autor — 21 exemplars

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Membres

Ressenyes

I read the entire (four-volume) Buru Quartet about seven or eight years ago and found it a tour de force. It has taken me all these years to return to his works in the form of this collection. These tales, written in the late ‘40s and early 50s, are dramatic, often intense, glimpses of the lives of the underclass as the Dutch are finally thrown out and Indonesia struggles to govern itself. (A useful introduction, by the way, explains how the book was a project of a translation collective and why the individual pieces are called “tales” and not “short stories.”) These tales, although not without humor, relate the misery and hopelessness of the poorest classes. My favorite stories included “Houseboy+Maid" (about a brother and sister, descended from a long line of servants, whose only aim in life is to become Dutch. A scathing critique of colonialism); “Stranded Fish"(friends who fought the Japanese but who have become ignored and bypassed by society—and thus the title); “News from Kebayoran" (the life of a prostitute whose initially promising life goes awry); “No Resolution" (the tale of a woman who served the Japanese during the war and her “revenge”); and “Gambir” (about revenge). Insightful, informative, depressing.… (més)
 
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Gypsy_Boy | Aug 23, 2023 |
5/5 A classic.

Wow, my country got some good classics.

Although, I gotta say that the romance plot is kinda soap opera-y but the rest of the aspects (the historical context, the narrative, etc.) is fantastic. If Indonesia had a Literature 101 class, this book better be in the curriculum.

I'll maybe read the rest of the tetralogy one day.
 
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DaVarPhi | Hi ha 13 ressenyes més | Aug 18, 2022 |
This is my favourite novel in this excellent quartet. Pangemanann is a native policeman, working for the Dutch colonial government. He has the job of monitoring Indonesian nationalist Minke’s activities.

At the end of the third book, Minke gets banished to Ambon in the Maluku Archipelago and exits the scene and so Pangemanann takes over from him as narrator for the fourth book, 'House of Glass'. Pangemanann gets promoted to be a colonial official in charge of studying and controlling the subversive movements that Minke led and still inspires. Pangemanann, an educated, intelligent man, struggles with his task. He secretly admires Minke and feels sympathy for the cause of his fellow Indonesians (although this term did not yet exist). However, he justifies his mission to destroy Minke’s work: he wants to get his pension and to continue to provide for his French wife and Indo children.

Pangemanann's internal conflicts pull him apart, he turns to drink and his wife leaves him. He falls into the arms of a prostitute, becomes ill, but still continues with his duties. Why? Maybe he’s a workaholic, or he knows it can be no other way. I prayed for the author to let him come to a moral decision, to give up his work before it was too late - but I knew it wasn’t going to be.

I found Pangemanann to be a more interesting narrator than the heroic Minke who (in the earlier novels) marries a beautiful half Dutch, half Javanese woman who dies, then marries a beautiful Chinese revolutionary, who also dies. Both of these deaths he manages to get over. Then Minke gets engaged to a French Indo girl of seventeen. Things don't work out, but no matter, he moves on to marry a beautiful princess from Maluku. The guy attracts every beautiful woman who graces the pages of the tetralogy! Rejection doesn’t come into it. Who can sympathize with such a character?

I really thought Pramoedya's writing detailing the mental anguish of (the evil) Pangemanann brilliant. I imagine it is rare that in a quartet of novels the last one is the best? I haven't got through many. Yukio Mishima's 'Sea of Tranquillity' comes to mind as a much-vaunted quartet - but I didn't get past book two. I'm so glad a pushed through to the end of the 'Buru Quartet'.
… (més)
 
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FEBeyer | Hi ha 5 ressenyes més | Oct 25, 2021 |
House of Glass (Rumah Kaca) is the last of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Buru Quartet, the series of four novels tracing Indonesia's 'awakening' that Toer wrote while in prison on the island of Buru. (See my review of Book 2 for the background to this). The quartet is an early example of historical fiction as activism, that is, it was written by an author redressing the hidden stories and silences of colonised peoples in well-researched fiction.

House of Glass is the next phase of Toer's novelised life of Tirto Adi Suryo, pioneer of Indonesia's national awakening and of Indonesian journalism. In Books 1-3 Minke is both the symbol of nationalism and the challenge to Dutch colonialism which emerged in the early 20th century but did not come to fruition until after World War Two. Toer shows how educating the cleverest of the Native Indonesians led to the development of European ideas about freedom and equality, the irony being that those same Europeans did not bestow freedom and equality on the people they colonised. Indeed, to forbid things is a colonial hobby that gives a pleasure of its own. It makes you feel more important and more powerful. It becomes the norm within six months in the colony, away from European democratic ideas.

By the end of Book 3, Minke has launched journalism that brought him to the attention of the Dutch authorities and now in Book 4, he is in exile.

So, with the hero of the first three novels offstage, House of Glass puts aside his story which is instead narrated through the reflections of the Native* Indonesian policeman Pangemanann, whose job it was to monitor and suppress the emerging independence movement. The 'house of glass' of the title refers to Pangemanann's surveillance of the key activists who follow in Minke's footsteps. Pangemanann is a conflicted soul: educated in France, he has risen to high office and enjoys the status he has acquired, but he admires Minke and his ambitions for an independent Indonesia. Nevertheless, to maintain his own position, he must corrupt his personal values and work with the Dutch authorities to sabotage the movement. He delegates authority to beat up opposition figures; he spreads divisive rumours; he incites race riots; he tortures detainees; and — while he doesn't get his own hands dirty — he is involved in murder too.

While the point of this is to show that the independence movement withered for decades because it was sabotaged from within by the very Native Indonesians that Tirto Adi Suryo was keen to unite, this doesn't make for a very engaging novel. Truth be told, I made heavy weather of it and resorted to reading a chapter a day to get it finished. I didn't abandon it despite the temptation because it was Book 4 of a significant quartet and I wanted to complete it.

Pangemanann enjoys dissecting the divisions within society which fracture the independence movement.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/05/29/house-of-glass-the-buru-quartet-4-by-pramoed...
… (més)
 
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anzlitlovers | Hi ha 5 ressenyes més | May 29, 2021 |

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Premis

Potser també t'agrada

Autors associats

Henk Maier Translator, Contributor
Hein Vruggink Editor, Translator
Max Lane Translator, Introduction, Afterword, , Introduction and Translation
Gail Belenson Cover designer
Stephen Daigle Cover artist
Jos Versteegen Translator
Bascove Cover artist
Sander Adelaar Translator

Estadístiques

Obres
66
També de
3
Membres
2,628
Popularitat
#9,770
Valoració
4.0
Ressenyes
53
ISBN
200
Llengües
15
Preferit
9

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