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Jalan Jalan
The Guardian Self-published Book of the Month - December 3rd 2014.
Laura has died and Newbie flies to Indonesia to get over his loss. He wants to be someone new. He wants no more painful memories or reminders. No more missing her. The trouble is she has followed him there. Now he has to work out if she really has haunted him, or if she is a figment of a potentially breaking mind.
Club-land bosses, prostitutes, shaman, damaged expats, he meets them all and they all have an effect on his 'new' self. And so do the local mushrooms, the jungle grass, and the dead girlfriend who turns up when she pleases.
Laura believed that time isn't linear, that the past is still there, waiting to be found again. Newbie starts to wonder if she was right.
The story moves between the culturally diverse, sometimes maddening, but always beautiful island of Sumatra in Indonesia, and a small seaside town in England, where Newbie and Laura first meet.
About The Author:
Mike Stoner lives in the UK, but has spent time in Asia and Eastern Europe. As a mature student he graduated with a distinction in the MA in Creative Writing from the University of Kent. He loves writing and intends to do an awful lot more. He is married with two kids and currently lives in the UK.
Laura has died and Newbie flies to Indonesia to get over his loss. He wants to be someone new. He wants no more painful memories or reminders. No more missing her. The trouble is she has followed him there. Now he has to work out if she really has haunted him, or if she is a figment of a potentially breaking mind.
Club-land bosses, prostitutes, shaman, damaged expats, he meets them all and they all have an effect on his 'new' self. And so do the local mushrooms, the jungle grass, and the dead girlfriend who turns up when she pleases.
Laura believed that time isn't linear, that the past is still there, waiting to be found again. Newbie starts to wonder if she was right.
The story moves between the culturally diverse, sometimes maddening, but always beautiful island of Sumatra in Indonesia, and a small seaside town in England, where Newbie and Laura first meet.
About The Author:
Mike Stoner lives in the UK, but has spent time in Asia and Eastern Europe. As a mature student he graduated with a distinction in the MA in Creative Writing from the University of Kent. He loves writing and intends to do an awful lot more. He is married with two kids and currently lives in the UK.
- GenresNovels
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2014
About the author
Mike Stoner
3 books19 followersMike Stoner has had numerous jobs, ranging from ice-cream seller to policeman to salesman and finally to an English teacher. This gave him the opportunity to travel to Indonesia where the inspiration for his first book, Jalan Jalan, came from.
In 2011, as mature student, he gained an MA with distinction in Creative Writing at the University of Kent.
Before finding a publisher, his self-published version of Jalan Jalan was awarded The Guardian's Self-published Book of the Month in December 2014. Jalan Jalan was his first novel and is published by Tuttle Publishing. His second novel, I Am Book, is currently and confidently hunting an agent.
In 2011, as mature student, he gained an MA with distinction in Creative Writing at the University of Kent.
Before finding a publisher, his self-published version of Jalan Jalan was awarded The Guardian's Self-published Book of the Month in December 2014. Jalan Jalan was his first novel and is published by Tuttle Publishing. His second novel, I Am Book, is currently and confidently hunting an agent.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 14, 2019
Man this was a ride. It was really interesting reading about Indonesia from an outsider's pov. Also it's about medan, and I've never been there so there were stuff that I didn't know which was coolsies. The actual story itself was wonderful. The main character went through a rough time and oh boy it was super relatable. This book kinda gave me hope about hopelessness I guess, although the ending wasn't very clear but that's the beauty of it yeeee
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 9, 2015
My first impulse was to put off reading this book when it was mentioned in our little Goodreads Fairy Godreaders group. In all honesty, I only picked it up because Don, who recommended it, has a marvelous instinct for books. So I didn’t doubt that it was going to be good. But from reading the description, I gathered it was going to be about sadness and loss, bleak scenes of substance abuse, and expats behaving badly. I felt there was a little too much of all of that in real life; why would I want more?
Even so, I started reading and from the beginning it was different from what I’d been dreading. Sure, there were expats behaving badly, but there a few that were trying hard not to. The protagonist was certainly grieving, but he starts out that way, so there’s a sense that as time passes, he could only get better. And since I love reading about new places and cultures very different from my own, I was happy enough to travel to Indonesia along with him to share his experience of the beauty, the strangeness, and the chaos of his new life. These experiences are very well rendered in Jalan Jalan. Normally I find a lot of physical description distracting, but there was just enough here to feel the heat and humidity while Newbie, as the narrator is referred to, struggles to keep his sanity in an unfamiliar place full of gorgeous sensory onslaughts.
This is not a typical tale of a man immersing himself in a totally new environment in order to escape sad memories. Whether his girlfriend is a ghost or a protective creation of his mind to blunt his grief, she travels along with him. The book opens as he arrives, jetlagged and struggling to make sense of a world where inanimate objects like his backpack can fall sleep. Perhaps this book is English magical realism. The magic is experienced, but a bone must be thrown to our cultural sense of reality that resists following along unless we have some sliver of rationality to gnaw on. So the narrative lets us consider emotional health stressed by a sense of loss and abandonment, frequent mind-altering drug use, and questions of physics relating to time and space. Then we can nod and shrug and accept the magic as real.
The title "Jalan Jalan" refers to a common phrase used for greeting passers-by. It means walking in a broad sense, or it can mean the road, or going along one’s way, or simply hello. The book itself is a nonlinear journey of human relationships, culture, and ideas about reality. It's often lyrically beautiful as it winds its way, even when describing distressing circumstances. There is redemption for some, flat characterization of others, and the opportunity to say every now again, “Wait, what? Is that real or just hallucinated?”
It doesn’t come off as drug-induced rambling though. That might be why there were occasionally times when I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to believe about what was happening. But all in all, there was no reason to dread it. Newbie remained a sympathetic character throughout, if we can forgive him for one incident of being a jerk that he much later – far too much later – tried to make amends for. I’m happy for all his ideas and efforts to make things better at the end, but it seemed too rushed and glossed over to be satisfying. The book had done a very good job in showing us all the complexities of the situation, so that didn’t quite seem realistic. But perhaps it wasn’t meant to be; the magic of everyday life still wants its place. Even in the lives and literature of English-speakers.
Even so, I started reading and from the beginning it was different from what I’d been dreading. Sure, there were expats behaving badly, but there a few that were trying hard not to. The protagonist was certainly grieving, but he starts out that way, so there’s a sense that as time passes, he could only get better. And since I love reading about new places and cultures very different from my own, I was happy enough to travel to Indonesia along with him to share his experience of the beauty, the strangeness, and the chaos of his new life. These experiences are very well rendered in Jalan Jalan. Normally I find a lot of physical description distracting, but there was just enough here to feel the heat and humidity while Newbie, as the narrator is referred to, struggles to keep his sanity in an unfamiliar place full of gorgeous sensory onslaughts.
This is not a typical tale of a man immersing himself in a totally new environment in order to escape sad memories. Whether his girlfriend is a ghost or a protective creation of his mind to blunt his grief, she travels along with him. The book opens as he arrives, jetlagged and struggling to make sense of a world where inanimate objects like his backpack can fall sleep. Perhaps this book is English magical realism. The magic is experienced, but a bone must be thrown to our cultural sense of reality that resists following along unless we have some sliver of rationality to gnaw on. So the narrative lets us consider emotional health stressed by a sense of loss and abandonment, frequent mind-altering drug use, and questions of physics relating to time and space. Then we can nod and shrug and accept the magic as real.
The title "Jalan Jalan" refers to a common phrase used for greeting passers-by. It means walking in a broad sense, or it can mean the road, or going along one’s way, or simply hello. The book itself is a nonlinear journey of human relationships, culture, and ideas about reality. It's often lyrically beautiful as it winds its way, even when describing distressing circumstances. There is redemption for some, flat characterization of others, and the opportunity to say every now again, “Wait, what? Is that real or just hallucinated?”
It doesn’t come off as drug-induced rambling though. That might be why there were occasionally times when I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to believe about what was happening. But all in all, there was no reason to dread it. Newbie remained a sympathetic character throughout, if we can forgive him for one incident of being a jerk that he much later – far too much later – tried to make amends for. I’m happy for all his ideas and efforts to make things better at the end, but it seemed too rushed and glossed over to be satisfying. The book had done a very good job in showing us all the complexities of the situation, so that didn’t quite seem realistic. But perhaps it wasn’t meant to be; the magic of everyday life still wants its place. Even in the lives and literature of English-speakers.
January 19, 2015
This book is a great read for real people. It moves away from the predictable reading style of many authors, and I'm looking forward to the follow up. I had the impression it had been written by a down to earth author, about a real life experience. It did take a little while to settle into the writer's style, but once I had, I was intrigued and found it refreshing and honest. A bit different, which makes a good change! Read it!
June 18, 2018
What a strange little book this is. Part memoir, part fiction and part travel book, this is a story of a man escaping from his demons to another land half way across the globe.
I enjoyed the stories of his experiences as an expat in Medan, but the melodramatic bits of him taking with his dead girlfriend gets tiresome really fast. And a lot of the book is hovers on that melodrama. Like half of it.
But still, it captures a bit of Indonesian history that not many books write about.
I enjoyed the stories of his experiences as an expat in Medan, but the melodramatic bits of him taking with his dead girlfriend gets tiresome really fast. And a lot of the book is hovers on that melodrama. Like half of it.
But still, it captures a bit of Indonesian history that not many books write about.
February 21, 2019
Perhaps you have to be a certain age to appreciate this book, but for me it perfectly captures an era - the late nineties/early noughties, a carefree and happy time filled with TEFL teaching and backpacking around South East Asia. It’s the best bit of escapism I’ve read in a long time, transporting me back to the year I spent working in a series of crappy language schools and backpacking around South-East Asia.
It’s a book about Indonesia - a place I haven’t been to. But that doesn’t matter because Stoner’s prose brings the place to life - the hectic Medan streets, the calming jungle - epic description encapsulated into just a few words. It’s really well written. There’s no time to get bored because the narrative - mysterious and almost supernatural at points - grabs you from the very first pages and drags through a bumpy ride of self-discovery and hedonistic adventure.
It’s more than a simple adventure book though. Stoner’s protagonist, an awkward young man on the run from his demons back home, is haunted by the ghost - or should I say ‘ghost’ - of his recently departed girlfriend. Bereaved, a little lost, and looking for his ‘new me’ he finds himself mixed up with a motley crew of backpacker TEFL teachers, all of whom are as confused as he is and all so very very real (trust me - TEFL teachers are really like this!) they almost burst from the page.
And this is what really makes the book work. Stoner’s use of dialogue provides a real insight into the minds of his characters - each as troubled as the next. But no character is as complex as the protagonist himself. Unnamed until the very last page and referred to only as ‘Newbie’ throughout, we are forced to listen to the working of his mind as he argues his way free of his lost love.
It’s fascinating. Sometimes it’s funny too, sometimes troubling - because it’s a book about people, because it’s a very clever book. On the surface a backpacking adventure in South-East asia, but when you delve deeper (and about half way through you’ll find yourself with no option but to start delving) you’re presented with an exploration of the human mind - or should I say the backpacker’s mind...or the expat’s mind...and the question ‘why do we travel’ - or better - ‘what are we escaping from?’ presents itself. And to some extent Stoner answers this...or does he?
In short it’s a brilliant book. If you can get hold of a copy, read it.
It’s a book about Indonesia - a place I haven’t been to. But that doesn’t matter because Stoner’s prose brings the place to life - the hectic Medan streets, the calming jungle - epic description encapsulated into just a few words. It’s really well written. There’s no time to get bored because the narrative - mysterious and almost supernatural at points - grabs you from the very first pages and drags through a bumpy ride of self-discovery and hedonistic adventure.
It’s more than a simple adventure book though. Stoner’s protagonist, an awkward young man on the run from his demons back home, is haunted by the ghost - or should I say ‘ghost’ - of his recently departed girlfriend. Bereaved, a little lost, and looking for his ‘new me’ he finds himself mixed up with a motley crew of backpacker TEFL teachers, all of whom are as confused as he is and all so very very real (trust me - TEFL teachers are really like this!) they almost burst from the page.
And this is what really makes the book work. Stoner’s use of dialogue provides a real insight into the minds of his characters - each as troubled as the next. But no character is as complex as the protagonist himself. Unnamed until the very last page and referred to only as ‘Newbie’ throughout, we are forced to listen to the working of his mind as he argues his way free of his lost love.
It’s fascinating. Sometimes it’s funny too, sometimes troubling - because it’s a book about people, because it’s a very clever book. On the surface a backpacking adventure in South-East asia, but when you delve deeper (and about half way through you’ll find yourself with no option but to start delving) you’re presented with an exploration of the human mind - or should I say the backpacker’s mind...or the expat’s mind...and the question ‘why do we travel’ - or better - ‘what are we escaping from?’ presents itself. And to some extent Stoner answers this...or does he?
In short it’s a brilliant book. If you can get hold of a copy, read it.
February 9, 2020
Purchased this book at a book sale. I bought this book because I thought it would be about the author who travelled around Indonesia, visited the cities and stayed for a while. It took me six months to finish reading it because I got bored after 5 chapters so I read other novels and completely forgot that I had put this book on hold.
February 5, 2019
it's fun refreshing book with psychological background to the character. totally can relate to the lead character and the book. As Indonesian who leaves in Sumatera, this boom captures well the ambiences and the city life of Sumatera and Indonesia in general. good book
January 19, 2022
Part the Beach, part a tale of loss, part ghost story. part travel log. A great travel fact/fiction for anyone who wants to visit the heat, spice and the light and dark side of Asia. Sad, funny, sexy with a side of magic mushrooms.
March 6, 2023
it's the first time I've ever read a book written by someone I actually know. I really enjoyed it and as a fellow teacher could relate to the idea that all teachers have a story and a reason for going, and coming back. I thought it was really well written and loved the ending. well done Mike ☺️
October 18, 2018
Better than expected! Slow start but I got hooked halfway. Part memoir, part adventure, part fiction.
November 19, 2019
Just boring.. couldn’t attract me to even move to more than 3-4 chapters..
July 7, 2020
I don’t but I got little bit confused and decided to stop reading this. I’ll try again next time.
December 5, 2020
Entertaining enough and I liked that it was about expat life.
September 15, 2021
Fairly entertaining. A little raunchy. I didn't really get the pivot there at the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 12, 2023
An entertaining, touching, and humorous novel on Indonesia, loss, and expat life. A highly recommended novel with a unique voice.
November 11, 2018
Anyone who has experienced loss would completely relate to this book. It's very well-written because I know it's not easy to turn raw emotions into written words. Honestly the cover really doesn't represent what this book is all about & more people should've read it. It cuts me deep and will leave a mark for me in a longggg time. Is this a memoir? If it is, I really hope Newbie is living a full, happy life now.
October 3, 2024
Not a spoiler because it’s made clear early in the book: Mike Stoner’s protagonist Newbie has come to Indonesia on the run from the grief he’s suffering from the accidental death of his English girlfriend. Jalan Jalan is an accomplished entry into the ‘Clueless Westerner in Asia’ genre.
Most chapters contain an episode about Newbie’s life in Indonesia and then an imagined conversation with his dead girlfriend. This gave the character depth but slowed down the arc of the ‘in Indonesia’ narrative. I found myself rushing through the girlfriend sections.
Many of the Indonesia set pieces involve drug taking in Medan or in the famous tourist destinations within the reach of that Sumatran city.
I could relate.
Newbie takes magic mushrooms at Lake Toba and has a bad trip – an almost de rigeur experience for the backpacker/English teacher in Sumatra. I adapted my own experience of taking mushrooms at Lake Toba into an episode in my novel Smoko, changing the setting to the NZ bush.
Stoner and his predictable but well drawn rabble of English teacher colleagues buy ecstasy off a waiter in a club in Medan. Once again Newbie doesn’t really enjoy the trip – and perhaps his colleagues don’t either. I’ve often wondered why Westerners drug and drink so much in Asia when they don’t actually seem to enjoy it (I include myself in this group). They do it as a kind of sacrament – a duty to the tradition, and also a way of escaping and enhancing an environment that to them is very weird and different.
I remember taking ecstasy in a club in Surabaya. Yes, my friend really did buy the pills from the bar staff. The club was pitch black – you had no idea who was touching you. Too freaky an environment for me while high and I had to leave. I was on holiday from my teaching job in Wuhan, China and had no idea how to return to the suburban house of the English teacher we were crashing with. My friend didn’t want to leave the club so I was on my own. Somehow I managed to get back to the house. I remember a bluebird taxi, wandering streets for an hour, and then lying on the couch tripping balls.
Newbie teaches the kids of the owner of the club where they sell the drugs. This is Charles, a super-rich Chinese Indonesian whose family suffered greatly in the 98 anti-Chinese violence. Charles is a mercurial figure, a kind of gangster with a heart of gold. As Tim Hannigan notes, Stoner doesn’t explain much about the status of the Chinese ethnicity in Indonesia when perhaps he should have. However, it’s impressive how little exposition Stoner uses full stop. Maybe creative writing classes do have their uses... I note Stoner has an MA in creative writing.
Newbie only stays 9 months in Medan and Stoner was there for one year, so don’t expect any great insights into Indonesia. However, this novel nails the teaching in Indonesia experience. Newbie is a self-absorbed protagonist but complex enough to keep us interested. I’m glad Jalan Jalan had some success - it was reviewed in The Guardian in 2016. I'm sad to see Stoner hasn’t written much since.
I bought my paperback of Jalan Jalan in 2023 in a bookstore in the Khaosan Road area of Bangkok. From the quality of the paper and binding, I'd say it's a pirate copy. It cost me about 3 USD. If you write this kind of book, I guess you'd want that for it? To be offered as a knock off in the biggest Southeast Asian backpacking hub. However, my buying it felt like a requiem for yesteryear. Khaosan Road isn't what it was, and neither is the market for backpacker classics in pirate paperbacks.
Most chapters contain an episode about Newbie’s life in Indonesia and then an imagined conversation with his dead girlfriend. This gave the character depth but slowed down the arc of the ‘in Indonesia’ narrative. I found myself rushing through the girlfriend sections.
Many of the Indonesia set pieces involve drug taking in Medan or in the famous tourist destinations within the reach of that Sumatran city.
I could relate.
Newbie takes magic mushrooms at Lake Toba and has a bad trip – an almost de rigeur experience for the backpacker/English teacher in Sumatra. I adapted my own experience of taking mushrooms at Lake Toba into an episode in my novel Smoko, changing the setting to the NZ bush.
Stoner and his predictable but well drawn rabble of English teacher colleagues buy ecstasy off a waiter in a club in Medan. Once again Newbie doesn’t really enjoy the trip – and perhaps his colleagues don’t either. I’ve often wondered why Westerners drug and drink so much in Asia when they don’t actually seem to enjoy it (I include myself in this group). They do it as a kind of sacrament – a duty to the tradition, and also a way of escaping and enhancing an environment that to them is very weird and different.
I remember taking ecstasy in a club in Surabaya. Yes, my friend really did buy the pills from the bar staff. The club was pitch black – you had no idea who was touching you. Too freaky an environment for me while high and I had to leave. I was on holiday from my teaching job in Wuhan, China and had no idea how to return to the suburban house of the English teacher we were crashing with. My friend didn’t want to leave the club so I was on my own. Somehow I managed to get back to the house. I remember a bluebird taxi, wandering streets for an hour, and then lying on the couch tripping balls.
Newbie teaches the kids of the owner of the club where they sell the drugs. This is Charles, a super-rich Chinese Indonesian whose family suffered greatly in the 98 anti-Chinese violence. Charles is a mercurial figure, a kind of gangster with a heart of gold. As Tim Hannigan notes, Stoner doesn’t explain much about the status of the Chinese ethnicity in Indonesia when perhaps he should have. However, it’s impressive how little exposition Stoner uses full stop. Maybe creative writing classes do have their uses... I note Stoner has an MA in creative writing.
Newbie only stays 9 months in Medan and Stoner was there for one year, so don’t expect any great insights into Indonesia. However, this novel nails the teaching in Indonesia experience. Newbie is a self-absorbed protagonist but complex enough to keep us interested. I’m glad Jalan Jalan had some success - it was reviewed in The Guardian in 2016. I'm sad to see Stoner hasn’t written much since.
I bought my paperback of Jalan Jalan in 2023 in a bookstore in the Khaosan Road area of Bangkok. From the quality of the paper and binding, I'd say it's a pirate copy. It cost me about 3 USD. If you write this kind of book, I guess you'd want that for it? To be offered as a knock off in the biggest Southeast Asian backpacking hub. However, my buying it felt like a requiem for yesteryear. Khaosan Road isn't what it was, and neither is the market for backpacker classics in pirate paperbacks.
February 19, 2016
Jalan Jalan, winner of the Guardian Self-Published Book of the Month Award,
is an extraordinarily compelling debut novel by Mike Stoner, graduate of the University of Kent’s MA in Creative Writing. It kept me turning the pages long past my usual bedtime to find out what happened and thoroughly deserves its acclaim.
This heady mixture of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll at an English language school is underpinned by a hefty dollop of quantum physics and the shifting nature of time.
It will appeal to anyone who has worked in a foreign country and found themselves in an exotic but alien environment. Readers familiar with South East Asia will identify with “Newbie”, the latest English teacher on the block, as he struggles to make sense of how he ended up in a backwater language school in Indonesia while fighting the inner demons of his past that refuse his efforts to stop them pursuing him into his new life.
His great love, Laura, is ever present, as is the unbearable sense of her loss, which threatens to spill out at any moment, placing even greater strain on Newbie as he struggles to adapt to this dysfunctional new life, driven by the trauma in his past.
Knowing from the start of this thought-provoking new novel that Laura is dead, adds poignancy to the story of Newbie, who tries to mask his grief and sensitivity under a brash, couldn’t-care-less attitude. We follow the trail of his memories and his developing relationship with Laura, all the while driven to compulsively turn the pages to find the shocking truth about how someone so full of vitality, poised at the threshold of adulthood, had her life so tragically cut short, propelling her left-behind lover into a bizarre new adventure on the far side of the world.
The final resolution leaves us thoughtfully questioning the way we view time and with a sense that our own reality may be more “bendy” than we think.
By Cara Louise
Author of Betrayed,
Winner of 2nd prize First Three Pages of a Novel,
Annual Writers’ Conference Competition, Winchester.
http://www.amazon.com/Betrayed-Story-...
January 27, 2021
Self-discovery in a foreign land is always a good theme. The illusions, the short snappy dialogues, the impulsive heroic moments, the love triangle (if I can call it one), I see why people are drawn to it but for me, I was a little dulled out. Especially halfway after I stopped reading the flashbacks altogether.
There's one thing that stood out to me. I noticed that there are parts of the story, things told about Indonesia, that I know foreigners aren't used to. Like the truth about little children selling cigarettes, about the corruption and hypocrisy in business, and the '98 riots. It's not easy UNDERSTANDING a different culture and society. It just isn't, especially if you're just there because of the built-up spite over a dead girlfriend. The author definitely spent his time in Indonesia doing the right thing and gaining the right perspective, which I most absolutely have to appreciate.
There's one thing that stood out to me. I noticed that there are parts of the story, things told about Indonesia, that I know foreigners aren't used to. Like the truth about little children selling cigarettes, about the corruption and hypocrisy in business, and the '98 riots. It's not easy UNDERSTANDING a different culture and society. It just isn't, especially if you're just there because of the built-up spite over a dead girlfriend. The author definitely spent his time in Indonesia doing the right thing and gaining the right perspective, which I most absolutely have to appreciate.
September 20, 2016
Can I say WOW? It's not often you come across a deep and meaningful read, nevermind a brilliant author. When I first opened this book, I was intrigued by the very nature of the writing because I'm so accustomed to opening another dull, mainstream fan-fiction with a regurgitated storyline. This book is anything but ordinary and the author possesses a talent that I might dare say is literary. I would compare this book to some of the finest classic and contemporary masterpieces, and I certainly think everyone should have a copy on their bookshelf. Thanks for the great read.
April 16, 2016
A young man jets off to Indonesia after a five-minute telephone interview, hoping to escape the torment of losing the love of his life in a tragic accident. A wonderful tale of adventure, I read the book in one sitting. There is a heart-warming message, which has been so beautifully conveyed in the story, which I will leave up to the reader to discover. Highly recommended, a must-read for anyone with an adventurous soul.
April 16, 2016
A young man jets off to Indonesia after a five-minute telephone interview, hoping to escape the torment of losing the love of his life in a tragic accident. A wonderful tale of adventure, I read the book in one sitting. There is a heart-warming message, which has been so beautifully conveyed in the story, which I will leave up to the reader to discover. Highly recommended, a must-read for anyone with an adventurous soul.
March 31, 2016
** Books 81 - 2016 **
1,2 of 5 stars!
Meh. Too much Galau and hallusination moment that really getting my nerve. why i should spent my time to read the book that most of the story is about how he cannot forgot his girlfriend and talking in his own minds between he and his died girlfriend? =___=
I am sorry this book is not my cup of tea :(
1,2 of 5 stars!
Meh. Too much Galau and hallusination moment that really getting my nerve. why i should spent my time to read the book that most of the story is about how he cannot forgot his girlfriend and talking in his own minds between he and his died girlfriend? =___=
I am sorry this book is not my cup of tea :(
May 28, 2016
This book is written from a point of view of a foreigner living in Indonesia on his escape from a dark past. at first it seemed cliche to me but since it's an easy read, i kept reading. To my surprise it has a nice twist for the ending and it turned out to be not so cliche anymore...
September 26, 2016
A journey into the mind of grief and loss, set against the bewildering Indonesian culture and landscape. AS gritty, thought-provoking book that captures the contrasts of Indonesia well, but moreover the internal strife that afflicts when faced with personal loss of a loved one.
July 7, 2016
it's ok-ish
September 29, 2016
I finish the book... hardly.
November 7, 2016
An exceptional and surprisingly good first novel. For anyone who has ever done the Guru Bahasa Inggris thing in Indonesia, this is highly evocative - there are characters here you have already met.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews