I read this for a psychology Senior Seminar class at Univ. Maine @ Farmington... The intersection of scientific knowledge and inexplicable phenomena was awe inspiring... It is amazing how the natural world has yet to be sufficiently explained by science. This book was extremely easy to read, as I read most of it backwards (the chapters are broken down into sections). This is one of those books you can easily read twice!

Biologist Lyall Watson travels to Indonesia in search of magic... and finds a 'dancing island' and a girl who comes of age to become a shaman and healer. For those who simply enjoy a good story, this is an excellent book. For those who realize that the magic described in this book is real, it's even better. Watson is a first-rate story-teller, and I would give this book ten stars if such a thing were possible!

Thank you Destiny Books for reprinting this extraordinary meditation by the iconoclastic scientist Lyall Watson! First published in England in 1976, Watson's ideas are just now beginning to surface in the mainstream. Read it for the beauty of its language and structure. Read it for the thoughts that will suddenly stream into your consciousness. Read it for the sense of wonder a truly great book can bring to your life.

It took me awhile to realize that there is a different narrator in this book than on the previous three. While the story itself progressed as expected, the changeover is disturbing. I can't relate to this character as easily as I did to Minke.

The book awakens national consciousness.It is an inspiration to those who dream of true freedom and oneness.

The entire quartet is an outstanding statement on the theme of universal freedom that all humans yearn for in their better natures. A message that should not be lost on the autocrats who commit all the things that Pangemenann does, ie, the rulers of Burma, Malaysia and Singapore

(...). I had always towed the party line about the evil Serbs and their misdeeds, but have changed my tune after reading this enlightening, if disturbing book. Some may accuse Chomsky of being an apologist for Serb atrocities, but it is clear after reading this text that all sides, most notably NATO, were engaged in quite troublesome behavior that cost many thousands of lives. I heard Bill O' Reilly dismiss Chomsky as a "revisionist," and it is sadly interesting that most critics of this and similar works simply stick a "communist", "liberal", or "revisionist" label on the author without ever addressing the points made within the work. If you are looking for a wealth of facts on deceitful and imperialist American policy in Serbia/Yugoslavia and Indonesia/East Timor, I doubt if a better source could be found.

Here Chomsky compares and contrasts the responses of western governments (specifically, those of Clinton's USA and Blair's Britain) to two instances of "ethnic cleansing", both of which received extensive media attention at the end of the millennium. In Kosovo, there was NATO intervention, a 78-day bombing campaign, and a much-publicised war crimes tribunal; in East Timor, at the very most, a few regretful shakes of the head and perhaps the suspicion that we are not, as yet, quite living up to our high ideals of truth, justice and liberty. Chomsky collates some of the facts underlying this apparent irony and shows that, as usual, the paradox has a rather simple solution. For example: (1) The indictment against Milosevic confines itself largely to crimes committed after the bombing began; it seems logical to assume that (a) "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo was not a major motivation for the bombing, and (b) any crimes committed before the bombing are not a major concern of our new generation of moral crusaders. Nevertheless, on the grounds that they sanctioned and participated in "ethnic cleansing", Milosevic and his cronies have been routinely portrayed as the worst enemies of human life and moral decency since Adolf Hitler. (2) The 1999 massacre in East Timor (much advertised in advance as the inevitable consequence if a referendum concerning independence from Indonesia should go the wrong way) was the latest episode in an extremely well-documented record of slaughter dating from the Indonesian invasion of 1975. All the atrocities, including the accession to power of the Indonesian leader Suharto in 1965, with its attendant third of a million casualties, were carried out with western backing and with US armament and training. The solution to that paradox, then, is obvious: the west has, as is traditional, no problem with genocide just so long as it's done by the right people. Chomsky is adept at drawing out the salient points (e.g. the timing of the Serbian war crimes indictment noted above) from voluminous and often skewed information; and, as befits a scientist, his sources of evidence are painstakingly documented. The focus on two contrasted sets of events throws the Standards of the West into sharp and unpleasant perspective.

Chomsky uses the NATO bombing of Milosevic as a framework for analyzing the direction of Western foreign policy, specifically in East Timor. While NATO (remember, not UN) forces were destroying non-military targets and infrastructure in the name of a "just cause", US sponsored paramilitaries were rampaging through E Timor slaughtering thousands. It is the awareness of this hypocrisy (as well as the well documented FACT that NATO bombing would worsen the humanitarian crisis it was designed to alleviate) that forms the framework for his analysis. With recent events in the world (easy to predict for those of us who actually know our own foreign policy, our history, and the history of the regions and people in question) Chomsky is one of the few, non PC, intellectuals who are willing to actually hold their own nation to the standards that we hold other nations to. Not surprisingly, CNN, Fox, and the other worthless entertainment disseminators masquerading as flag-waving "news" outlets refuse to cover the obvious issues raised by Chomsky (or Zinn, Fisk, Pilger, Nader, Roy, Herman, Said; the list is much to long to list). Oh well, its just the bodies and misery of the "evildoers" (read: Bush Daddy's old friends who no longer know their place) that are piling up in the name of corporate US hegemony. Also, beware of negative reviews like the one above (nothing wrong with negative reviews, but it woiuld be nice if they would at least attempt to deal with and refute Chomsky's thesis) that quote passages completely out of context.

Victory is the story of a man named Heyst who leads an isolated life in the South Pacific. However, he is drawn out of his isolation when he brings a woman to his island home. A chance encounter between a dishonest German who dislikes Heyst and two criminals sets up the dramatic ending. Conrad's style is as fluid as in his better known books, such as Lord Jim, and it is amazing that someone could write English so well who did not learn it until later in life and who always spoke it with a heavy Polish accent. Victory is similar to Conrad's other works in that the plot flirts with melodrama, but always is rooted in realism. Those who read the book will find the title apt.

Axel Heyst, the protagonist in Conrad's novel, Victory, makes a final statement to Davidson, a fellow seaman, just before he dies: "...woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love--and to put its trust in life!" This statement coming from a man whose whole life has been lived in isolation is remarkable. His father taught him that life was a Great Joke, that it was an illusion; that the best way to survive was to drift oneself into oblivion. But he found love in the person of Lena and it changed his perspective on living and was responsible for his change of heart as represented in the above-quoted statement. It's too bad that the novel could not have had a happy ending, but Conrad's view of the world probably would not permit it. I found the novel engrossing, somewhat melodramatic, yet vintage Conrad in its depiction of good and evil battling each other on the island of Samburan.

Victory is the best of the handful of Conrad novels I have read (for reference sake, the others are Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Heart of Darkness, and Nostromo). For one thing, the other novels were much heavier in their narrative and descriptive content. As a result, I often suffered from mental imagery overload when plodding through a page-long paragraph. Victory has more dialogue, making it an easier read. Conrad's characters are always great, and the ones in this book are no exception. I also really liked the correlation between these characters and their environment. Heyst living in a serene yet isolated island matched his aloofness perfectly. As the book reaches its climax and tensions reach a boiling point, Conrad adds to this tension in godlike fashion, as the storm evinces the internal and external struggles occurring in Heyst. Of course, Conrad don't write no happy tales (sic), but in the end, I think that the title Victory was still very appropriate. This was an excellent read and one of the best novels I have read in a long time.

Readers should be aware that this book was published in 1991, with a different title, "Indonesia's Forgotten War: The Hidden History of East Timor". The only differences are an updated chronology and one new chapter about recents events since 1998. The 1990s are not carefully treated.

Professor Taylor in this book presents a pretty thorough history of East Timor. He lays emphasis on the development of its indiginous culture particularly the kinship system which helped it survive Portugese rule and the barbaric Indonesian occupation. He examines the efforts of foreign powers particularly the United States and Australia and even Portugal (at least until the early 80's) to support Indonesia taking over East Timor, the United States taking the lead in replenishing Indonesia with advanced weapons when it ran into trouble as before its "encirclement and annihilation" campaigns of the late 70's.

He examines the East Timorese indigenous culture including the kinship system which is deeply ingrained in the society and helped it survive Portugese rule and (just barely) Indonesian rule; up until 1990 the major Indonesian military campaigns (Persuatan, the dreadful Fence of Legs, etc.), the World Bank funded forced sterilization of Timorese women, some of the major massacres, the ideology of Fretilin, the "resettlement villages," the economic activities of companies like P.T. Denok in East Timor, the visits of foreign journalists and delegations of politicians, the apologetics for the Indonesian regime by the Catholic Relief services.

I think that his rather long introduction about the September 1999 incident and the chronicles of events during the 90's in the timeline at the end of the book serve as more than adequate updates. However I think he is rather too soft on the role (or lack there of) of the Western powers during the 1999 crises. Those countries continued to have normal military and diplomatic relations with Indonesia up until about two weeks into the crises when East Timor was basically destroyed and its population driven from their homes, when they finally engaged in minimally serious gestures, temporarily suspendeding military relations with Indonesia and agreed to a peackeeping force which was probably not needed under the pressure of Australian public opinion. Very little effort was made to conduct war crimes trials or investigations or help the country seriously rebuild from the years of destruction and occupation which America and its allies were in large part responsible for. There's alot more that can be said about this but the criticisms of Indonesia by U.S. leaders in the months leading up to the crises which Taylor lays great stress on are completely worthless.

In anycase a minor flaw; this is a very good introduction to East Timor, if slightly dry here and there with small print.

John Taylor simply sets the standard, with this new and comprehensive text, on a subject in which he has long been an authority. The book is tremendously comprehensive, approaching a variety of issues relating to East Timor's past and recent history as well as the present. It offers analyses, always well substantiated, and without giving excessive space to the author's own subjective views. It is well written and easy-to-read. All in all, it is a book that should be read by anyone studying this topic, whether a beginner or expert.

This follow-on tale from This Earth of Mankind has some interesting stories woven throughout -- for instance the tale of the young maiden who willingly contracts smallpox to avoid a life of shame as a concubine. However, the book lacks the momentum (and uniqueness) of his first novel. It also lacks subtlty and tends to be somewhat preachy. In this book the reader gets beaten over the head mercilessly in contrast to the gentle pats from This Earth. It just wasn't as fun. That said, it still has some interesting angles on a life and culture so very foreign to a turn-of-the-21st century American. And it has some poignant fragments, particularly those insights on the life of Minke's strong-willed concubine mother-in-law. It's still worth reading even though it's not of This Earth. I'm looking forward to Footsteps.

"Child of All Nations" is excellent reading for those interested in history, more specifically, the history of the Dutch East Indies. The reason I gave this novel four stars, however, and not five is because with all the historical references in the novel, it masks the underlying plot and also does not allow the reader to connect personally with the characters. The writing style in this novel, like it's predisessor,"This Earth of Mankind," is impressional, and moving.The message in the story is also very moving. The novel makes you think and helps the reader come to understand humanity more effeciently than they did before reading the novel. This set of novels (The Buru Quartet) are a comprised collection of intellectually stimulating and touching peice of literature.

Sorry, being so late, but you've done the job. The writer of this book, twice nominator for Nobel Prize, the victim of Buru exilement--without trial, the so called communist by Soeharto regime--but widely known as humanist is an Indonesian. So, read geography. Read history. I am--uhmmm--insulted, (a little bit) by such LITTLE ignorance.

I bought this book in Jakarta, where I live, since I wanted an updated book for my business travels around Indonesia. There have been so many changes in this country during the past two years that you need the latest information. Bill Dalton ("Indonesia Handbook" etc. etc.) and Kal Muller (the "Passport Regional Guide" series, etc. etc.) have separately written some of the best guidebooks available on Indonesia. But I was disappointed with this one. Its beautiful, to be sure, with fantastic photos by Muller (many of which are found in this other books). Its a perfect bedtime companion, and a very good introduction to the complexity of cultures and sights in Indonesia. It will help you determinine where you want to go --- and don't you ever want to go after reading this book. But the book will not help you how to get there or where to stay. For instance: there are no hotels mentioned in Nusa Dua on Bali or any hotel outside of Mataram on Lombok, or outside of the major cities on Sumatra. And most hotel prices do not reflect the past two years drastic inflation. I would recommend travellers to Indonesia to wait for the next edition of Indonesia Handbook, or buy Muller's very detailed regional books (my favourites). But then again, the book is beautiful, so you might want to pick it up just to dream away about paradise.

This is the best, funniest and most consistent guide to Indonesia. I remember on my first visit to Indonesia back in 92, the Handbook was still banned under Indonesian law. One day my wife and I were visiting the great temple at Borobodur, central Java, and we noticed the local guide was carrying a strapping guidebook in his hand. I surreptitiously noted the title, and later visited a bookshop to check it out. I was in for a surprise - the 'official' guidebook was none other than the illegal Indonesia Handbook: different publisher, title and a pseudonymous author, but the same book alright. If you like that kind of approach to a small problem of censorship, then you'll love this book.

A Canadian friend got me to abandon my English teaching business in Madrid for the promise of an "oil patch" job in Indonesia in 1980. I can still hear him today "The first thing to get when you go through London, is get Dalton's Indonesian Handbook. Don't wait until Singapore or Jakarta - it's banned out there.

So this young man did indeed go east. The job my friend assured would be waiting was nationalized in the few months the intervened between our vinos in Madrid. "I hope you didn't come all this way just to work for..." read his letter I picked up Post Restante in Penang. Undeterred I managed to find another and better oil patch job. I spent the next three years working out of Jakarta and Balikpapan - Kalimantan's Jewel in the Jungle.

And I used the Indonesian Handbook extensively. Across Java, the lakes of Sumatra, Bali and Lombok and my favorite Indonesian destination: Tanta Toraja in central Sulawasi. (If you see just one thing on the archipelago, see Torajaland.) This backpacker, now a newly minted expatriate executive, always took the old black cover edition on his business trips.

So why do I like Dalton's book - and the Handbook travel series in general? I really appreciate the concise yet detailed "briefs" of key subjects. One small example . During a visit to Yogakakarta, I became interested in batik. A quick read of Dalton's brief two page "primer" I learned the history, fabric and style types. And I leaned a half a dozen key Indonesian terms. When I hit the market I was amazed at how well I could get the vendors' attention. Novice bargaining by Westerners is typically based on price. Savvy Asian peddlers know this. They usually display or direct a foreigner's attention to inferior goods. Experienced market hunters will talk quality first. The Handbook's brief's quickly got me up to speed fast - and got me some great batik pieces at great prices.

I often contrast the Moon Handbooks with more popular Lonely Planet series. Marketed as a "travel survival guide" that's exactly what LP guides are. But surviving is only the first phase in traveling. Perhaps that why the LP books have become the "backpackers bible." But if you are looking to do more than eat and sleep in Indonesia, give Dalton's Indonesian Handbook a try.

As a professional woman in the international news business, I find myself flying to different countries on a minutes notice. I appreciated "The Beginners Guide to Bali" because of its no nonsense approach to the new arrivals need to become acclimated quickly upon arrival in Kuta. This guide did not waste any of my time. It also cd-rom size and easy to access. I'd recommend it.

The guide was extremely informative about the important stuff like, how to bargain without getting ripped off, where to stay, and what to stay away from such as the no-metered taxi cabs, cane chairs, and tourist traps especially in the Kuta area. The Cd-Rom is more up-to-date than any book you could purchase in the bookstore because it is constantly being updated. My husband and I went to some of the restaurants that are recommended, and for the price the food was outstanding. This is for the person who wishes to travel to paradise on a budget, but who wishes to experience all that Bali has to offer.

I found the CD-ROM to be extremely informative in thinking about what to pack, what to expect in customs, where to eat, how to bargain and many more questions I had when considering a trip to Bali. I have actually used the information in this CD-ROM to prepare my "Bali travel book" that I can use as a quick reference while I'm there. It provides first hand practical information that most travel books do not, or would not include about how to travel on a budget. I would highly recommend this CD-ROM to anyone considering a trip to Bali.

The title of this book is misleading, though humorous. Distracted on the one hand by messages from 'everywhere', and especially from Lord Mountbatten's headquarters, and plagued on the other: 1)by the need to deal with the surrendered Japanese (who were charged to guard the still full prisoner camps from those Indonesians bent on revenge against the Dutch); 2)by the imperious demands of the Dutch; and 3)by the disunited but potentially dangerous Indonesians, Admiral Patterson, on the Cumberland, anchored in the harbor at Batavia, sent this message to Lord Mountbatten: "We can continue to rock the baby to sleep only if you people outside the house would not make so much noise." Van der Post "promised the Admiral that night, that if [he] lived, [he] would one day write a story about all that had happened and was happening to [them] in Indonesia, and call it The Admiral's Baby"(74). A bit unfortunate, as the title has nothing to do with the contents of this book, which is an account of how the British dealt with the enormously complex task that had been thrust upon them in postwar Indonesia. [Incidentally, van der Post had the highest regard for both Admiral Patterson (he dedicated the book to Patterson and to General Philip Christison) and for Lord Mountbatten, for whose powers of intuition he had the greatest admiration.] The occasion for the writing of this book, near the end of his long life, was van der Post's coming across in his papers a copy of the extensive report that he had written for the Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs on the history of this British period in Indonesia. It is an important document in its own right, is printed in full here, and is amplfied by much of the rest of the book. Both book and document contain scathing attacks on those Dutch who believed that they could simply move in, if necessary by force, and reestablish themselves as colonial masters, as though the war had not changed things forever. Van der Post occasionally attacks puffed up British officers as well, though he tries, and his psychological insight is great, to understand them. On the whole, however, he worked with men and women whom he found admirable and he had a penetrating ability to judge character. Although the book is a bit disjointed, on a deep level it has a certain unity. Van der Post deeply respected what he saw as an underlying Buddhism in Indonesia, and was overwhelmed by the sacred Buddhist monument, the Borobudur. He ends his book with a religious reflection of his own, that we are put here "to fulfil to the utmost what one was born to be...."(321).

An uncommon look at history from a creator of history. Mr. Van der Post's illuminating mystical humnanistic work describes his position at the vanguard of British efforts to keep the lid on the island of Java while transitioning from the Japanese occupation to a new political system. It is also an intensely personal exploration of the author's feelings and realizations after his 3 1/2 years of cruel confinement in a Japanese prison camp, after which he was asked to monitor the Japanese till the takeover of Allied forces was complete. Add to the mix a highly charged nationalism appearing unexpectedly in the Indonesian population aimed primarily at their former overlords the Dutch, and there is plenty to follow in this very dense read. I highly recommend it.

A description of the actions of a lone remaining British former POW in Post World War II Java (Indonesia) While the story is fascinating the author's poetic writing style and pscychological insights make it both hauntingly beautiful and intellectually challenging. I highly reccommend it for the reader interested in different writing styles.

I saw this movie years before I read the book. Weir's version was good enough but the book is something else (on the film, Mel Gibson a bad choice, Linda Hunt is terrific). I liked Koch's style (and for a person who reads a lot I hadn't heard of him till I visited Sydney) - its unique, evocative and very poetic. The insights into Indonesia were interesting (I am Indian and remember something of the politics that dominated the 60s) and its parallels with India even more so. I don't think its a bad thing at all that its a Western version - why should Koch be the insider who knows Indonesia better than the natives (spare me the angry Third World defenders). Its enough that Koch decsribes what he knows and feels - and does it well. Also interesting was its description of how print media works.

"The year of living dangerously" is the story of a group of foreign journalists (moslty one named Guy Hamilton) in the year of Sukarno's deposition in Indonesia. It is well written and the reader is given SOME of the facts of life in Indonesia back in the sixties.

The good part of this book is that it resembles, in pace , thrilling and style, one of John LeCarré's spy books.

The bad part of this book is that it seems to have no reason at all to exist. The book starts out of nowhere and finishes suddenly. I don't know if that's because the environment of the story is so alien to me, or any other reason, but that's how I felt.

Grade 7.1 / 10

This novel of international intrigue makes an exciting read. It is also a good place to start for Western readers (like me) who don't know much about Indonesia and its history. What sets it apart from all the other hard-boiled romances about journalists in danger is the author's real compassion for his characters, their frailties and their aspirations, as well as for Indonesia itself. The Year of Living Dangerously is thrilling but not manipulative, sensitive but not maudlin. It explains Indonesia to novices without patronizing. It is an important book which goes way beyond the boundaries of any genre.