This firsthand account of fin de siecle Indonesia, an era of widespread chaos and violence, takes us into the heart of darkness, searing our consciousness with images of deprivation, fear and mayhem untethered. The Tokyo-based author, Richard Lloyd Parry, drawn to the gore but ignorant of the country, seems poised to update "Scoop," the classic Evelyn Waugh satire on foreign correspondents.
Having studied Indonesia since the mid-1970s, and lived and researched there at times in the '80s and '90s, I began reading this book with more than a fair share of skepticism. I am happy to report that it is well worth reading, for it provokes us to think about the thin cocoon that insulates us from the brutal realities that cut a swath through this sprawling archipelago and helps us understand some of the chilling legacies that haunt contemporary Indonesia.
The author seeks to shock the readers with his graphic accounts of grisly killings and the worst that humanity is capable of. He succeeds, and then some. At times he goes overboard with the tabloid approach and veers dangerously close to Orientalist caricatures, but his story is so grimly powerful that such infelicities are a minor irritant. We are gazing through the eyes of a newcomer prepared neither by experience nor by training to give us much perspective on what he encounters. His reportage succeeds because of its immediacy and the loss of innocence he shares so intimately with the reader.