Indonesia. Books about Indonesia or written by Indonesian authors

60. Eat, pray, love. One woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia
Finished reading: 16 April 2011



This book is not about Rome, Bali or Indonesia. It is all and only about the author's navel staring. What a pathetic drag-on of self-complaint. The cover should have warned me (eating ice-cream on a bench in Rome). Perhaps this is what is called chick-lit? If so, the epithet would be well-chosen.

From my library:

Monumental Java by J. F. Scheltema. (1912) An account of the ancient Buddhist and Hindu monuments in Java written during the Dutch period. As I recall, some very interesting observations about Islam and its relationship to the seeds of Indonesian nationalism. 4 stars.

Nusantara: A History of the East Indian Archipelago by Bernard H. M. Vlekke. (1944) Haven't read it.

Night of Purnama by Anna Mathews. (1965) The account of an Australian (?) couple living on Bali caught up in the eruption of Gunung Agung in 1963/4. 4 stars.

History of Indian and Indonesian Art by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. I very important book on the History of Indian and Indonesian Art. The book is of historical importance in the understanding and appreciation of Indian Art in the West.

Borobudur: The Buddhist Legend in Stone by Bedrich Forman. History and detailed photography of the reliefs at Borobudur.

Lost Temple of Java by Phil Grabsky. Also Borobudur.

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. Fiction. A classic and I see I've given it 3 stars, but I remember it as a torture to read. The fictional setting of Lord Jim "Patusan" is thought to be based on the Indonesian part of Borneo.

All That is Gone by Pramoedya Ananta Toer is a great place to start, i have one of his novels on my tbr pile that i keep meaning to read...

I thought In the Time of Madness: Indonesia in the Time of Madness was well done

Last week I read Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw, which is set in Indonesia in 1965. It was a superb read, and I'll write a review of it later this week.

De Onheilskomeet/Lintang kemukus dini hari



Srintil is a "ronggeng": a young woman expressing the pride and joy of her village with coquettish traditional dances. The village witch doctor (dukun) and his wife act as her managers and profit as much from the ronggeng's second traditional role: to satisfy men for one or two grammes of gold. The ronggeng however is a more independent person than tradition prescribes.

Author Ahmad Tohari paints a lively and humorous portrait of village life in Central Java in the 1960's. These villages were still full of birds, reptiles, insects, traditions, ancient Gods, mysticism, magic and poverty, while Islam is absent in this novel. The slogans on Independence Day in the district capital, where the authorities claim the ronggeng expresses the desire of freedom from capitalists and colonisers, mean nothing to the villagers. Faithfulness and solidarity were confined to the village and politics were absent in a time and place were tradition and consanguinity gave security.

This description of village life rather than the development of the story is the book's strongest point. Probably this comes in the next part of Tohari's trilogy.

I gave 3.5/5 stars

A house in Bali by Colin McPhee is the essential introduction to Balinese culture, especially its music. Another memoir of Bali is Fragrant Rice, and a novel set there is The painted alphabet.

Old book, modern theme



Aboe Bakar by P.A. Daum

First published as a newspaper feuilleton in 1893, Aboe Bakar chronicles how a young Indonesian man receives a Western education but ends as a Muslim radical when he cannot live up to modern standards. As such, Aboe Bakar experiences the same kind of alienation from Western modernity as can be found in many Western suburbs and among the middle classes in the Islamic world.

On the other hand, Aboe Bakar is also a book from the long gone world of colonialism. Adam Silver, as Aboe Bakar's real name is, is the stepson of a colonial planter. Adam is the son of the planter's concubine , who has cheated on him with an Arab trader in "preciosa". The mixed-race planter is depicted as a country bumpkin who only worries about money and that others perceive him as a Westerner.

After failing in his studies in Holland, Adam returns to the Indies when his stepfather is on his deathbed. The inheritance is much smaller than he expected and he has to give up on his Dutch girlfriend. Luckily there is soon a pretty native replacement. As his stepfather had not officially recognised him as his child, Adam gets the status of a "native". His mother adds that as a native he would better become a Muslim.

The Islamic preacher explains Adam you should not want too much from life, but share peace, kindness, quiet and calmness, instead of the ever busy life of the Westerners. His conversion increases his status among his native family. The clerics convince him that he should move into the house of in-laws and should dress as a Muslim, i.e. as a native. Towards his half brothers Adam claims to identify himself with the oppressed. After a painful circumcision he becomes Aboe Bakar, and he appreciates the increased respect after completing the haj.

As a successful cattle trader in Batavia, Aboe Bakar invests in real estate and takes a lighter-skinned second wife from a higher class family, further increasing his status. His new in-laws bring him into contact with more radical Islamic priests. They convince him to give up business and join them in in the countryside. It will ruin him in multiple ways.

The book is only partly fictitious: the author based his story upon numerous interviews with an existing person. This does not mean that the image Mr. Daum paints of Islam is always very correct. There is nothing new under the sun here either.

The book has the clarity of a film script, although the feuilleton format does not benefit the development of the novel. Every chapter is about six pages long and is a small story in itself, which hinders elaboration. Some parts seem clearly written to create an effect with a newspaper audience. On the other hand, it did not stop Mr. Daum from showing the Europeans among his readers the stupidity of their patronising attitude towards the natives and disdain towards Muslims.

There is a discussion of the book and a translation of one chapter here.

4 out of 5 stars for this predecessor of V.S. Naipaul.

The Year of Living Dangerously was adapted for the film of the same name (Sjourney Weaver and Mel Gibson starred, and Linda Hunt won an Academy Award for her "Best Supporting" role). It was Sukarno himself that called 1965 "the year of living dangerously," hence the book and film title. This novel's author is C.J. Koch, whose experience in Australian news reporting gives depth to this story. Well worth a read, since there's so much in the novel that the movie did not touch on.

Toward Independence: A Century of Indonesia Photographed, Jane Levy Reed, Editor. This book contains wonderful photographs and text about people, places, and customs by different authors.

Borobudur: Golden Tales of the Buddhas, John Miksic. In addition to the books mentioned above, this book is exquisitely detailed in photographs and text as to the history, culture, society, and import of this wonderful structure.

currently reading This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Set when Indoensia was still a dutch colony, it follows a young student as he encounters the challenges of both traditional and colonial rule. really quite good.

Here's my review of Bumi Manusia/This Earth of Mankind



At the dawn of the twentieth century, traditional Javanese life and culture are no longer an option for the smart young aristocrat Minke. Javanese culture is too bellicose, superstitious, and too negative towards women compared to the promise of modernity offered by colonial society. However, the transition to modernity and the character of colonial society are full of inconsistencies, and everybody in Bumi Manusia/Earth of Mankind suffers the consequences. The social and legal segregation between the various racial communities is the one inconsistency that the book elaborates most about. Unfortunately, no analysis of the causes of this segregation is given.

Loosely based upon the life of Tirto Adhi Soerjo, Pak Pram has produced a heavy handed novel, written while he was himself incarcerated as a political prisoner by the post-colonial Indonesian government. You may ask yourself if the book is always a proper reflection of the times. E.g. I could not imagine that nobody would applaud when Minke finished his exams as the best student of his school, because he was a “native”. However, the story is written from Minke’s perspective, and given the story it is perfectly plausible that this was how he experienced the situation. Certain timelines also seem very short and some unimportant story lines simply disappear. Overall however I found it quite a strong novel.

11> Mercure: nice review, this is the third book i've read from the author, i think overall his work is quite strong and accessible for people curious about indonesia

> 12

Thank you. I have also read three books by Pramoedya (generally, I read more non-fiction than fiction). One, a long time ago, was Keluarga Gerilya, which I found weak. I found it a propaganda pamphlet rather than a serious novel.Then I read This Earth of Mankind and Child of all Nations, which I thought were fine novels. They are however novels about the Dutch East Indies, rather than about 21st century Indonesia.

Pramoedya is still the most popular author of Indonesia. However, that is also because of admiration for all the time he spent as a political prisoner.

>11 mercure:

Excellent review of Aboe Bakar, Mercure!

Some other very promising titles as well.

Thanks, Edwin.

I found Max Havelaar by Multatuli about the Dutch coffee trade in Indonesia to be very interesting and rather enjoyable.

”You do not belong here”





Rampokan Java and Rampokan Celebes are two parts of a graphic novel set in the latter days of the Dutch East Indies. Johan Knevel was born in the colony but had gone to the Netherlands to study. After the Second World War he returns to his country of origin as a soldier in the Dutch army. He is highly keen on finding back his baboe, the native servant that nursed and raised him. He spends the first book in Bandoeng, where he gets caught up in a corruption case and has a short affair with his superior’s native mistress. Knevel then takes over the identity of the pro-independence communist Erik Verhagen to move to the island of Celebes where he was raised. Here the Dutch fight a nasty war against local guerrillas that are inspired by a local priest. Johan expects his baboe to be with the local priest in the interior of Celebes and convinces his pro-independence friends to go and search for the priest. With his new identity Johan betrays the Dutch case, but gets nothing in return.

Rampokan’s complex story is not very original. You could consider it a combination of Hella Haasse’s novel Oeroeg (also about an Indies-born Dutchman returning as a soldier who is no longer accepted by his former native best friend) and Apocalypse Now (which is based upon Heart of Darkness. It is the drawings that give the books a highly filmic quality and make them entertaining. The author took seven years to research the native and modernist scenery of middle 20th-century Indonesia.

The Rampokan books were translated into French, German, Indonesian and Italian.

I know next to nothing about Indonesia but am curious about the ancient empires and their influence on the culture of today. Can you suggest a readable cultural history for someone with very little background or context other than broad general knowledge of that part of the world?

I presume that with the "ancient empires" you mean the pre-colonial and pre-Islamic empires? These are quite a few centuries away, so any influence they have is subdued. State borders, state organisation, etc. have disappeared and gone through much change. Therefore, you might want to look at for example Javanese Ethics and World-View or The Concept of Power in Javanese Culture. East Java has some Hindu areas still, described in Hindu Javanese. You also may be interested in some regional context from The Indianized States of Southeast Asia.

>19 mercure: Thank you. I know too little to put my question well. I wandered onto a site about ancient empires and read a little about one that I'd never heard of, centered in Java. There was some mention of how cultural identity is still colored today by this history, in much the same way, I suppose, that Celtic history is still embedded in the land, the language, and the culture of those whose people have always lived in the old Celtic domains.

So I'm not looking for detailed histories so much as what you might call the panoramic sweep, just to give me a sense of the shape and texture of the region over centuries before there was a nation that we know as Indonesia.

It's my impression that Indonesia, for all its size and position and population, is too little reckoned with in the global arena of today. In the West we hear so much about Japan, for instance, or renegade North Korea. To me Indonesia mostly registers as a blank. I thought filling in the space might best begin with some history.

You are right that much of Southeast Asia is kind of off the radar in the English-speaking world. Which is good, it leaves something to us Europeans.

Most English books only mention these old empires in the first few pages. They reference to some older English book that references a book in Dutch.

>21 mercure: Oh. Oh, dear. That pretty much leaves me with Wikipedia; I gave away my old Encyclopedia Britannica about 10 years ago, alas. In any case, thanks very much for so kindly answering my question.