The Redundancy of Courage

Another book that I read because of its Booker shortlisting - this is an impressive piece of writing, but due to the brutality of the events it described it is not always enjoyable to read. The narrator and main protagonist Adolph Ng is a citizen of the small island community of Danu, of Chinese descent. The setting is fictional, but bears strong similarities to East Timor - a divided island north of Australia part of which was a Portuguese colony and became a war zone after the Portuguese left, but Mo adds to the disguise by describing the people of the larger country who occupy the island as Malai, whereas East Timor was occupied by Indonesia.

The narrator returns to the island after going to university in Toronto, and runs a hotel. He show more is friendly with but not entirely trusted by the members of what becomes the guerilla resistance army. After the "Malai" attack and occupy the main port, his hotel is used as a base by the Malai army, but he is captured by the guerrillas in a raid and becomes an important participant in their campaign, initially as a bomb maker. Eventually he is captured again, and manages to find a role working for a Malai general.

This allows Mo to explore many different perspectives on the war, and his descriptions of its atrocities are unsparing, and the writing and attention to detail are impressive. So well worth reading as long as you have a strong stomach. show less

No fucking messing with this book, Timothy Mo uses the voice of Adolph Ng to nail down the genocide perpetrated by Suharto's Indonesia in East Timor and the Western hypocrisy that underpins it. He pulls no punches, the Indonesian military are butchers and the Western journalists are toadies. It is straight out Manufacturing Consent. But it is not just polemic, Ng's voice is also silky and full of self-doubt, he is an operator above all who accommodates himself to either side as necessary before finally in exile realising the scale of imperialism. OK there are some crude stereotypes and unbelievable turns, but overall this is a compelling, vivid and truthful reading of the terrible history of East Timor.

A simply fantastic book. After a brutal beginning the book settles down to consider the occupation of East Timor by Indonisia. Not for the faint hearted, if you can survive the first 20 pages then you will be rewarded with a brilliant read. How this book failed to win the Booker prize, or indeed receive international recognition I will never know.

Wonderful read!

En una perfecta mezcla de imaginación y realidad, Timothy Mo se ha basado en la invasión y posterior anexión de Timor Oriental por Indonesia, ocurrida en 1975, para construir una de las novelas más interesantes de la literatura británica actual. Adolph Ng, joven, homosexual, descendiente de chinos y dueño de un hotel, lleva una plácida existencia en Danu, un pequeño país que ocupa la mitad oriental de una isla situada al norte de Australia. Uno de los placeres de Ng, observador irónico si los hay, es la contemplación de los tejemanejes de los jóvenes futuros dirigentes políticos de la isla, fundadores del FAKOUM, que se preparan para tomar el relevo de las antiguas autoridades coloniales. Pero la existencia libre de Danu show more será muy breve: a la semana de declarada la independencia, las fuerzas de elite malais invaden la recién nacida república y acaban con la vida de cientos de danueses, y con casi todos los placeres de Adolph Ng. El FAKOUM deja de ser un movimiento exclusivamente político y produce el FAKINTIL, su brazo armado, cuyos guerrilleros marcharán alas montañas. Y el nada combativo y muy escéptico Ng se verá forzado a unirse a ellos. show less