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Shadows of Java
SETTING Indonesia in the late eighties and early nineties.
SYNOPSIS OF STORY
Miles has been transferred to Jakarta after 5 years in Hong Kong. He wonders why his company has “deported” him to this backwater.
He quickly meets a cross section of the expatriate community. Claudia is praised in her absence - she is one of the few single British girls in Jakarta Claudia works in the British Embassy and is popular. She is easy going, perhaps too laid back, but good at her job. She thinks her abilities are not fully appreciated and fears that she is being bypassed. She is also bored and feels she is wasting her time in Jakarta. She commiserates with Helga her friend in the German Embassy.
Henry takes Miles to a local bar where he sees Fitri and is immediately overwhelmed by her beauty and sexuality. Fitri comes from a poor rural background. She is a trainee nurse. She is extrovert, clever, beautiful and pragmatic with no artificial moral scruples and no psychological hang ups. At the age of 15 she deliberately went to the bars to find out about men and sex - no one else was going to tell her. She was not impressed by the “bar girls” nor the drunken, lonely expatriate men she met. She stopped going after trying unsuccessfully to lose her virginity.
Miles is lonely at first – he has not yet met Claudia and is unable to find Fitri again - and this first vision of Fitri preys on his mind and he builds her up into an image of perfection.
Miles life changes when he meets Claudia at long last and rediscovers Fitri. From one of loneliness and depression his mood is transformed into a romantic vision of the beauty of the country & the people. He has an almost mystical experience one morning when he hears the sounds of a gamelan orchestra drifting across a golf course. From that moment he succumbs to the magic and mysticism of Indonesia and will forgive it anything.
Miles spends the next few months happily with the two girls (separately). Both are equally enthralled with him. They visit different parts of Indonesia - The West coast beaches overlooking Krakatau - The tea plantations in the hills above Jakarta - Isolated reservoirs and mountains - the volcano of Bromo - Bali and the “Dragons” on the island of Komodo.
With Claudia and the other expatriates he enjoys an indulgent & luxurious lifestyle; but it is easy to fall into a lethargic and ultimately rather aimless existence, which many people do.
Fitri lives in a different world - a basic, sensual and superstitious world where the various Gods and Spirits dictate day to day life. He finds out more about the real Indonesia through her.
The contrast between his two lives forms a major theme of the book.
The love affair with Indonesia and with the two girls becomes more serious but the idyllic and romantic interlude does not last long before they all realise that their relationships have become so intense that some hard decisions have to be made. Miles cannot continue with both of them.
Meanwhile Miles has been discussing with Brad how to set up in business (on the side) in order to remain in Indonesia which he now wants to do. Eventually he goes into partnership wit
SYNOPSIS OF STORY
Miles has been transferred to Jakarta after 5 years in Hong Kong. He wonders why his company has “deported” him to this backwater.
He quickly meets a cross section of the expatriate community. Claudia is praised in her absence - she is one of the few single British girls in Jakarta Claudia works in the British Embassy and is popular. She is easy going, perhaps too laid back, but good at her job. She thinks her abilities are not fully appreciated and fears that she is being bypassed. She is also bored and feels she is wasting her time in Jakarta. She commiserates with Helga her friend in the German Embassy.
Henry takes Miles to a local bar where he sees Fitri and is immediately overwhelmed by her beauty and sexuality. Fitri comes from a poor rural background. She is a trainee nurse. She is extrovert, clever, beautiful and pragmatic with no artificial moral scruples and no psychological hang ups. At the age of 15 she deliberately went to the bars to find out about men and sex - no one else was going to tell her. She was not impressed by the “bar girls” nor the drunken, lonely expatriate men she met. She stopped going after trying unsuccessfully to lose her virginity.
Miles is lonely at first – he has not yet met Claudia and is unable to find Fitri again - and this first vision of Fitri preys on his mind and he builds her up into an image of perfection.
Miles life changes when he meets Claudia at long last and rediscovers Fitri. From one of loneliness and depression his mood is transformed into a romantic vision of the beauty of the country & the people. He has an almost mystical experience one morning when he hears the sounds of a gamelan orchestra drifting across a golf course. From that moment he succumbs to the magic and mysticism of Indonesia and will forgive it anything.
Miles spends the next few months happily with the two girls (separately). Both are equally enthralled with him. They visit different parts of Indonesia - The West coast beaches overlooking Krakatau - The tea plantations in the hills above Jakarta - Isolated reservoirs and mountains - the volcano of Bromo - Bali and the “Dragons” on the island of Komodo.
With Claudia and the other expatriates he enjoys an indulgent & luxurious lifestyle; but it is easy to fall into a lethargic and ultimately rather aimless existence, which many people do.
Fitri lives in a different world - a basic, sensual and superstitious world where the various Gods and Spirits dictate day to day life. He finds out more about the real Indonesia through her.
The contrast between his two lives forms a major theme of the book.
The love affair with Indonesia and with the two girls becomes more serious but the idyllic and romantic interlude does not last long before they all realise that their relationships have become so intense that some hard decisions have to be made. Miles cannot continue with both of them.
Meanwhile Miles has been discussing with Brad how to set up in business (on the side) in order to remain in Indonesia which he now wants to do. Eventually he goes into partnership wit
520 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 3, 2011
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