Missions Resources - Bibliography
This Earth of Mankind (Buru Quartet , Vol 1)
Authors: Toer, Pramoedya Ananta
ISBN: 0-14025635-0
Publisher: New York: Penguin, 1996 (Reprint)
Summary: This Earth of Mankind is the English translation of the first book in Toer's series following the life of a young Indonesian man around the turn of the century. Minke, as he is called, is a Javanese youth, the son of an old-guard feudal ruler, who goes to a Dutch-language school.
As he graduates, and in the following novels pursues a higher degree in journalism in Holland, Minke faces the complex racial and religious society of Urban Java. Bit by bit, he develops a nationalist sentiment - a fascinating story, because in his day, there was no Indonesian nation: just many diverse peoples under one colonial regime.
This is the story of how Indonesia became a concept, prior to becoming a state (echoing the theory of nations in Imagined Communities). It is the story of the moral justification for the move for independance (colonial abuse). Above all, it is a passionate story of one man's life, his love for his education coupled with his hatred of the Dutch; his love for his nation set against his hatred for his father.
Minke is Toer's device for this history, but it is hard to notice, because the writing is so beautiful. Toer spent several years in prison for this book. It was banned for nearly twenty years for "surreptitious communist ideology," surreptitious because the police couldn't find anything remotely communist in the book, but said Toer was good enough of a writer to hide subversive things. Today, Toer's books are selling like hotcakes in Indonesia (although they sold very well while they were outlawed). It is with good reason that TIME magazine has called Toer "Asia's leading candidate for a Nobel Prize."
-Paul Grant
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