The Year of Living Dangerously
by C. J. Koch
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"The charismatic god-king Sukarno has brought Indonesia to the edge of chaos - to an abortive revolution that will leave half a million dead. For the Western correspondents here, this gathering apocalypse is their story and their drug, while the sufferings of the Indonesian people are scarcely real: a shadow play. Working at the eye of the storm are television correspondent Guy Hamilton and his eccentric dwarf cameraman Billy Kwan. In Kwan's secret fantasy life, both Sukarno and Hamilton show more are heroes. But his heroes betray him, and Billy is driven to desperate action. As the Indonesian shadow play erupts into terrible reality, a complex personal tragedy of love, obsession and betrayal comes to its climax."--Provided by publisher. show lessTags
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We tend to mark the passage of time more in decades than years. Something about a larger number of days, months, and years gives us perspective. But some decades become lost. In the twentieth century, that is true, I think, for the 1920s and 1970s (and it may become true for the 1990s). The preceding and following decades tended to nibble into both the 1920s and 1970s. Like the 1920s and the aftermath of World War I, the first few years of the 1970s dealt with a lingering war, Vietnam, that had impacted not just the United States and Southeast Asia but the world at large. And like the 1920s again, with the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929, the last year of the 1970s slipped back into a renewal of the Cold War leading to the show more ultimate demise of Communism in Eastern Europe and Russia. The 1970s, it seems actually existed for but a small span of time, for three or four years from 1975 to 1979. And right in the middle of them appeared Christopher J. Koch's novel, The Year of Living Dangerously.
Koch seems to realize he has managed to place his narrative in a unique time. Part of that is brought about through the skillful use of a narrator, "Cookie" (Koch himself). Why skillful? Because the setting of the story is 1965 Indonesia, during the last year of Sukarno's dictatorship. To tell it solely from that viewpoint would have made it too immediate. And the story needs distance. After all, it is told in a semi-nostalgic tone, which is also loaded with the wisdom of age and its accompanying skepticism rather than youthful disillusionment and cynicism. The 13 year gap provides that, as does shifting the point of view of the story from Guy Hamilton, the Australian journalist at the middle of it all, to Hamilton's friend and confidante, Cookie. It is all of a time with its particular era, because the late 1970s, or the "true 1970s," themselves reflected that same exhaustion and skepticism towards anything other than the personal in life.
That is the real story of The Year of Living Dangerously, the exit of the West from Asia, the knowledge that especially Southeast Asia would always have an unknowable quality that Westerners could never understand. Ever. Hamilton depicts that perfectly. His still lingering schoolboy character is built on the echoes of empire and Kipling. His desire to escape the humdrum existence of suburban Australia reflected in his reading of W. Somerset Maugham. And his thirst for adventure and danger in the novels of Ian Fleming's James Bond. These are the books that dominate his bookshelves. And probably the James Bond movies should be included, too. After all, when Hamilton is menacingly held underwater at a mountain top resort pool by a Russian agent, Vera, it is awfully reminiscent of Bambi and Thumper's attack on Sean Connery in Diamonds Are Forever, which, by the way, just happened to be directed by Guy Hamilton.
At book's end, Koch's Guy Hamilton is ejected from Asia altogether. Left physically scared, he holds Asia as his true "home." But it can't be. As is also made clear towards the end, Hamilton belongs to a tradition rooted in the Aegean and flourishing in even further northern climes. Yes, there is clearly something of the dark and light of the Indonesian shadow puppet show in the clash between the two cultures. A hope for a merging of the Christian and the socialist, the Hindu and the Muslim, and perhaps East with West, as Hamilton's own puppet master, the dwarf, Billy Kwan, held out for. But that is a hope. I think it was Koch's hope. I am not sure, however, that his character, Hamilton, could ever really achieve that home any more than the rest of us Westerners living in Southeast Asia. show less
Koch seems to realize he has managed to place his narrative in a unique time. Part of that is brought about through the skillful use of a narrator, "Cookie" (Koch himself). Why skillful? Because the setting of the story is 1965 Indonesia, during the last year of Sukarno's dictatorship. To tell it solely from that viewpoint would have made it too immediate. And the story needs distance. After all, it is told in a semi-nostalgic tone, which is also loaded with the wisdom of age and its accompanying skepticism rather than youthful disillusionment and cynicism. The 13 year gap provides that, as does shifting the point of view of the story from Guy Hamilton, the Australian journalist at the middle of it all, to Hamilton's friend and confidante, Cookie. It is all of a time with its particular era, because the late 1970s, or the "true 1970s," themselves reflected that same exhaustion and skepticism towards anything other than the personal in life.
That is the real story of The Year of Living Dangerously, the exit of the West from Asia, the knowledge that especially Southeast Asia would always have an unknowable quality that Westerners could never understand. Ever. Hamilton depicts that perfectly. His still lingering schoolboy character is built on the echoes of empire and Kipling. His desire to escape the humdrum existence of suburban Australia reflected in his reading of W. Somerset Maugham. And his thirst for adventure and danger in the novels of Ian Fleming's James Bond. These are the books that dominate his bookshelves. And probably the James Bond movies should be included, too. After all, when Hamilton is menacingly held underwater at a mountain top resort pool by a Russian agent, Vera, it is awfully reminiscent of Bambi and Thumper's attack on Sean Connery in Diamonds Are Forever, which, by the way, just happened to be directed by Guy Hamilton.
At book's end, Koch's Guy Hamilton is ejected from Asia altogether. Left physically scared, he holds Asia as his true "home." But it can't be. As is also made clear towards the end, Hamilton belongs to a tradition rooted in the Aegean and flourishing in even further northern climes. Yes, there is clearly something of the dark and light of the Indonesian shadow puppet show in the clash between the two cultures. A hope for a merging of the Christian and the socialist, the Hindu and the Muslim, and perhaps East with West, as Hamilton's own puppet master, the dwarf, Billy Kwan, held out for. But that is a hope. I think it was Koch's hope. I am not sure, however, that his character, Hamilton, could ever really achieve that home any more than the rest of us Westerners living in Southeast Asia. show less
I was drawn to this book after reading a short history of Indonesia. I had read the book decades ago, and hadn't been too impressed. On re-reading, I was more pleased with it.
Set in Jakarta around the time of Suharto replacing Sukarno in the mid 60s, the story is told via the foreign correcpondents in town at the time. The book paints a good picture of the awkwardness of the correspondents, and their unbridgeable distance from the fundamental issues of the people of the host country.
Set in Jakarta around the time of Suharto replacing Sukarno in the mid 60s, the story is told via the foreign correcpondents in town at the time. The book paints a good picture of the awkwardness of the correspondents, and their unbridgeable distance from the fundamental issues of the people of the host country.
Genre: Historical Fiction
What I really liked: Short
Me as a human, have never been interested in politics. That already keeps me away from books about politics. ‘The Year of Living Dangerously’ is historical fiction with Indonesian politics as a central theme. Yet, this book held my attention with its writing style. I could very easily relate with the Hindu Gods that have been mentioned. It was a unique style of comparing & contrasting characters with Gods based on traits. This is the first time I read a book with a dwarf as the main character. It was so refreshing and very different than the things already known and perceived.
There were multiple instances where I was little lost concerning chapters. I would have found my way back show more easier if the chapters had names.
Overall a good read- it made it to my list of “different and tried” show less
What I really liked: Short
Me as a human, have never been interested in politics. That already keeps me away from books about politics. ‘The Year of Living Dangerously’ is historical fiction with Indonesian politics as a central theme. Yet, this book held my attention with its writing style. I could very easily relate with the Hindu Gods that have been mentioned. It was a unique style of comparing & contrasting characters with Gods based on traits. This is the first time I read a book with a dwarf as the main character. It was so refreshing and very different than the things already known and perceived.
There were multiple instances where I was little lost concerning chapters. I would have found my way back show more easier if the chapters had names.
Overall a good read- it made it to my list of “different and tried” show less
A book that didn't get me going until I really got into it. I took it with me to Ukraine, back in '05, and read it in Independence Square, sipping the local brew, wondering how it would have been like during the Orange Revolution the winter before I arrived.
In some ways, the book is about the same thing - the struggle for power in Indonesia, and the eventual emergence of Suharto. The language is evocative, and I could feel the oppressive heat every bit as much as the narrator, "Cookie."
A good book, and it's hard for me to specifically say what I would have wanted in it to be different. I could see Jakarta through Koch's eyes, and maybe that should have been enough.
In some ways, the book is about the same thing - the struggle for power in Indonesia, and the eventual emergence of Suharto. The language is evocative, and I could feel the oppressive heat every bit as much as the narrator, "Cookie."
A good book, and it's hard for me to specifically say what I would have wanted in it to be different. I could see Jakarta through Koch's eyes, and maybe that should have been enough.
Perhaps the best-known novel about Indonesia is “The Year of Living Dangerously” (1978), Christopher Koch’s story about a group of journalists in highly unstable Indonesia in 1965. Mr Koch has since been criticized from various sides, but his book remains equally chilling and entertaining at the same time.
In salute to the anniversary of the late Christopher Koch OA (b. 16th July 1932-23 September 2013), I re-read his breakout novel, The Year of Living Dangerously, published to great acclaim in 1978.
Wikipedia tells us somewhat peevishly that it was not even on the short list for the Miles Franklin Award, but of course it wasn't. It wasn't eligible under the terms of Miles Franklin's bequest that the award is for 'a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases'. Koch's novel is set uncompromisingly in Indonesia, during the soon-to-be-deposed President Sukarno's 1965 'Year of Living Dangerously'. That was why Australians loved it: Indonesia was in the news in 1975 for all the wrong reasons, show more and Koch's novel captured the sense of crisis and betrayal on our doorstep. The Year of Living Dangerously won the 1978 Age Book of the Year Award and the 1979 National Book Council Award, and it made Koch's name.
Australian journalists in the novel who felt threatened on the streets of Jakarta in 1965 had good cause to feel betrayed. Only twenty years beforehand, Australia had been Indonesia's most stalwart and highly effective supporter of its declaration of independence in 1945 which was rejected by Dutch colonists. Four years of intransigent negotiations and bloody conflict ensued. But through diplomatic channels in the UN and elsewhere, Australia led one of the first successes of the United Nations and of regional diplomacy: an end to the fighting in the Indonesian archipelago and the bringing into being of a new and great member of the world community. But although Koch's novel is derived from historical events, Australia's support is remembered only by its narrator who is older than the other journalists.
To maintain his grip on power, Sukarno was whipping up postcolonial vilification which made it necessary for western journalists to seek refuge in the Wayang — a foreigner's bar in a foreigner's hotel. Because outside, Konfrontasi had shifted from military confrontation with Malaysia to Konfrontasi within the nation so it was wise for white faces never to go out alone, to go out at night, or to go into certain pockets of the city. As Cookie, the journalist-narrator who tells the story some years after events, recalls:
Cookie is an old hand, and one in whom some of his compatriots confide, especially as the alcohol flows in the Wayang bar. From this vantage-point, he weaves his story, supplementing these confidences with dossiers that had been covertly kept by Billy Kwan, a Chinese-Australian photojournalist with mysterious access to members of the government and diplomatic services. That is how Cookie knows about the sex-lives of this mostly male company of journalists, and it's how he discovers the souring of Kwan's admiration for Sukarno.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/16/the-year-of-living-dangerously-1978-by-chris... show less
Wikipedia tells us somewhat peevishly that it was not even on the short list for the Miles Franklin Award, but of course it wasn't. It wasn't eligible under the terms of Miles Franklin's bequest that the award is for 'a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases'. Koch's novel is set uncompromisingly in Indonesia, during the soon-to-be-deposed President Sukarno's 1965 'Year of Living Dangerously'. That was why Australians loved it: Indonesia was in the news in 1975 for all the wrong reasons, show more and Koch's novel captured the sense of crisis and betrayal on our doorstep. The Year of Living Dangerously won the 1978 Age Book of the Year Award and the 1979 National Book Council Award, and it made Koch's name.
Australian journalists in the novel who felt threatened on the streets of Jakarta in 1965 had good cause to feel betrayed. Only twenty years beforehand, Australia had been Indonesia's most stalwart and highly effective supporter of its declaration of independence in 1945 which was rejected by Dutch colonists. Four years of intransigent negotiations and bloody conflict ensued. But through diplomatic channels in the UN and elsewhere, Australia led one of the first successes of the United Nations and of regional diplomacy: an end to the fighting in the Indonesian archipelago and the bringing into being of a new and great member of the world community. But although Koch's novel is derived from historical events, Australia's support is remembered only by its narrator who is older than the other journalists.
To maintain his grip on power, Sukarno was whipping up postcolonial vilification which made it necessary for western journalists to seek refuge in the Wayang — a foreigner's bar in a foreigner's hotel. Because outside, Konfrontasi had shifted from military confrontation with Malaysia to Konfrontasi within the nation so it was wise for white faces never to go out alone, to go out at night, or to go into certain pockets of the city. As Cookie, the journalist-narrator who tells the story some years after events, recalls:
Sukarno had popularised the term, hypnotising his crowds at the great rallies we covered almost every week at the Jakarta Sports Stadium he had built with Russian money.
He had made for himself and his people a sort of theatre there; a theatre of romantic-revolutionary euphoria in which they were spellbound. And he had created a strange propaganda world of paper and capital letters: a world divided between the NEFOS—New Emerging Forces—and the OLDEFOS—Old Fashioned Forces—where we whites were called NEKOLIM: 'neo-colonial imperialists'. Bung Karno showed a genius for such coinings, as a substitute for economic management. Talismans, intended to change reality, they have all gone under glass now, with the other debased coinage of history: but in that year, Konfrontasi was a term to juggle with. Malaysia was confronted. Its protector Britain was confronted. The United States was confronted. The whole western world and India as well were confronted, while the Bung warmed his ego at the blaze, striking dictatorial attitudes from Europe's nineteen thirties, his black pitji tilted in defiance: a baffling mixture of menace and playboy appeal. The people sometimes called him bapak—father—but really, he was the Bung. the daring elder brother who carried out every outrageous scheme they had ever longed for, and shouted every imagined insult at the world's Establishment—and at shady colonial masters who might try to come back. (p.8-9)
Cookie is an old hand, and one in whom some of his compatriots confide, especially as the alcohol flows in the Wayang bar. From this vantage-point, he weaves his story, supplementing these confidences with dossiers that had been covertly kept by Billy Kwan, a Chinese-Australian photojournalist with mysterious access to members of the government and diplomatic services. That is how Cookie knows about the sex-lives of this mostly male company of journalists, and it's how he discovers the souring of Kwan's admiration for Sukarno.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/16/the-year-of-living-dangerously-1978-by-chris... show less
The Year of Living Dangerousl does a wonderful job of capturing the heat, the desperation, and the danger. As the country spirals out of control, so does the life of Billy Kwan. As I started reading, I was concerned that the book would not be able to keep pace with the movie, which in my mind was extremely well acted and directed - yet, it did. This was a surprisingly excellent book - one that propelled me forward with no desire to set it down. Well done.
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Awards
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Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Guy Hamilton; Jill Bryant; Billy Kwan; Kumar; Cookie
- Important places
- Jakarta, Indonesia
- Important events
- Indonesian killings of 1965-66
- Related movies
- The Year of Living Dangerously (1982 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- 'Tartar prisoners in chains!
Of all the sorrows of all the prisoners mine is the hardest to bear!
Never in the world has so great a wrong fallen to the lot of man --
A Han heart and a Han tongue set in the body of... (show all) a Turk.
-- PO CHU-I, 'The Prisoner' (translated by Arthur Whaley)
God dwells in the heart of all beings, Arjuna: thy
God dwells in thy heart. And his power of wonder
moves all things -- puppets in a play of shadows --
whirling them onwards on the stream of time. &... (show all)nbsp;
-- The Bhagavad Gita (translated by Juan Mascaro) - Dedication
- To my wife
and my brother
with love and gratitude - First words
- There is no way, unless you have unusual self-control, of disguising the expression on your face when you first meet a dwarf.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)His good eye burned and closed it for a moment. As soon as he did so, a dark shape pedalled and creaked across his middle distance: a betjak, whose rider wore a black shirt, black shorts, and a limp straw hat, and the name of whose machine was Tengah Malam: midnight.
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