Bumi Manusia (Tetralogi Buru, #1) in Around the World

Dec 02, 2011 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, location-indonesia, worldlit2015, read2015, around-the-world

This is a complex novel about Dutch-Indo relations through the eyes of Minke, an intelligent Javanese boy who is sent up through Dutch schooling. He falls in love with the daughter of a nyai (a concubine, or slave, as she would put it) whose father is Dutch but whose mother is native. He calls the nyai "Mama" through most of the novel. He is forced to confront his own preconceived notions on intelligence, hierarchy, and personal value, largely because of Mama:

"Stories about happy things are

This is a complex novel about Dutch-Indo relations through the eyes of Minke, an intelligent Javanese boy who is sent up through Dutch schooling. He falls in love with the daughter of a nyai (a concubine, or slave, as she would put it) whose father is Dutch but whose mother is native. He calls the nyai "Mama" through most of the novel. He is forced to confront his own preconceived notions on intelligence, hierarchy, and personal value, largely because of Mama:

"Stories about happy things are never interesting. They are not stories about people and their lives, but about heaven, and clearly do not take place on this earth of ours."

There are co-existing governments in Indonesia during this time period - Minke's father is a bupati, a regional nobleman post that is given honor and authority until it involves a non-native person, and then all bets are off. Minke could actually have moved up into a similar role (because of his blood) but seems to be positioning himself to have more of an influence in crossing the lines, something that is not a popular approach, but one gaining a lot of attention, referred to as "Association Theory," this idea of equal governance with the Europeans. It looks like Child of All Nations continues Minke's story as he takes on a larger role. Since this volume ends so tragically, I would be interested in knowing what happens next.

I have read a handful of books set in Indonesia (more than a handful if you include West Papua) but this is the only one translated from a native author. It actually is against the law to sell or purchase his work within Indonesia, and the quartet that this novel introduces were originally composed orally while the author was in jail for political reasons, recited to other inmates, until he was allowed to have paper. The author's life is reflected in the tensions of the novel - native vs. European, tradition vs. religion, etc.

"Science was giving birth to more and more miracles. The legends of my ancestors were being put to shame. No longer was it necessary to meditate in the mountains for years in order to be able to speak to somebody across the seas. The Germans had laid a cable reaching from England to India! And these cables were multiplying and spreading all over the face of the earth. The whole world could now observe the behavior of any person. And people could now observe the behavior of the whole world.

But mankind and its problems remained as they have always been. And no more so than in the matters of love."

Also discussed on Episode 044 of the Reading Envy Podcast. ...more

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Jun 02, 2017 Kelly rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2000-books-indonesia, 2000-books

3 1/2 stars

This was a pretty good book. I can't say that I greatly enjoyed reading it—it wasn't a page-turner or anything—but I can see its literary merit and I'm not going to challenge the conventional wisdom that this is one of Indonesia's great literary classics.

The big problem for me was the central "romance," which I found unbelievable, exploitative, and frankly horrifying. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, that's as much as I'll say here, but I've written about it in (probably excessiv ...more

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