A Shadow Falls: In the Heart of Java

by Andrew Beatty

Andrew Beatty gives us what no Western writer has been able to do: an intimate picture of how Islamic fundamentalism can displace older and more easygoing forms of belief. He has also written an unforgettably human story set in a beautiful place.

Andrew Beatty lived with his family for two and a half years in a village in East Java. When he arrived, he was entranced by a strange and sensual way of life, an unusual tolerance of diversity. Mysticism, Islamic piety and animism coexisted peacefully; the ancient traditions of the shadow play, of spirit beliefs and were-tigers seemed set to endure. Java appeared a model for our strife-ridden world, a recipe for multiculturalism.

But a harsh and puritanical Islamism, fed by modern uncertainties, was driving young women to wear the veil and young men to renounce the old rituals. The mosque loudspeakers grew strident, cultural boundaries sharpened. As a wave of witch-killings shook the countryside, Beatty and his family began to feel like vulnerable outsiders.

Set among Java's rice fields and volcanoes, this is the story of how one of the biggest issues of our time plays out in ordinary lives.

Genres: Islam, Nonfiction, Travel, Asia

336 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2009

Reviews

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Shadow Falls in the Heart of Java

Here is the review I wrote in my blog:

http://jgrayman.wordpress.com/2010/02...

The first paragraph:

Less than a few chapters into Andrew Beatty’s ethnographic travel memoir A Shadow Falls in the Heart of Java the two Big Bads in the book emerge: The State & Reformist Islam. Through efficient descriptive vignettes about the people in a mountainside village just outside of Banyuwangi in East Java where Beatty and his family lived for several years, these twin threats to village harmony are quickly boiled down to singular referents. To evoke state violence, Beatty needs only to mention the haunting specter of “1965,” while the ultimate symbol of intrusive Islamic orthodoxy is the blaring “megaphone” on village mosques and prayer houses. It’s a tidy and effective narrative strategy, but troubling in its over-simplification.

[Tim Hannigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Beatty describes travel writing, with its inherent risks of oversimplification and misinterpretation, as “a strange and remarkable art.” He prefers the alternative: instead of ranging widely and treading lightly, the author stays in one place to observe it closely, producing the kind of book filed on “travel” shelves only because of its exotic locale. These books can, of course, be every bit as banal as the traditional travelogue — as countless tales of years in Tuscany, Bali and Provence attest. But Beatty’s new non-moving travel book, “A Shadow Falls: In the Heart of Java,” is anything but banal — it’s one of the most sensitive and insightful books on Indonesia in recent years. Full review here

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating account of life in East Javanese village anthropological work written as a novel, works well but unlike a novel little development of plot and no denouement. In some ways Bayu shares features with Anatolian villages, in other ways it is uniquely Javanese and I feel it gave me a new way to understand the many hundreds of thousands of Jakarta people who still have strong ties to their native kampung and who regularly return "mudik" for the Eed (Idul fitri). Also explains the rich, pluralistic, tolerant, cultural heritage of Java: Hindu, Muslim, Christian & mystic which could co exist with blurred lines for centuries. Beatty was pessimistic in the late 90s (end of Suharto era) that fundamentalist Islam was displacing this diverse heritage. But as one villager said the village social order has withstood many tides of upheaval and change over the centuries.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting anthropology of a town in Java, and the changes that it undergoes with the advent of a harsh form of Islam. The author does a good job of capturing the essence of the place, and particularly its tolerant, syncretistic religious beliefs. However, the book is entirely a work of anthropology, and hence leaves out many of the background factors that led to the changes the author describes.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A British anthropologist lived in East Java in the 90s. He writes about the changes going on in the society especially related to religion and identity. It is frankly an outsider's point of view, but describes the complexity of the changes in that period.

[Ann Tonks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book capturing the richness of Javanese culture and the impact of "modern" Islam. A must read for anyone interesting in Indonesia