Ouch!

Max Havelaar

You see it all begun with a statue. Out the back of our old office was this statue of a fellow named Multatuli, who was some Dutch writer, and whom I'd always promised myself I'd read one day. (I hoped Multituli didn't look like that in real life, because if he did he would have looked like he had been made out of half melted cheap candle wax. Luckily, this turned out to be Art, and not a terrible skin condition.)

Now seeing as we're leaving back to Australia within days, I decided to fulfill a least some of my dreams before leaving. So I bought a book by Multituli, and then I discovered what obsession really is. As someone who is unemployed, I feel the need to share even the pettiest most mundane things I did all day with Bruno when he comes home, since that is in fact what my life is made up of. Hence Bruno has been subjected to listening to 'How I washed the clothes', and 'What I saw out the window today, part 8'. But now I got to talk about Multituli, and specifically his invention of a character named Max Havelaar. I have talked about this subject for some days now, and Bruno has become quite adept at concealing when his eyes glaze over. (Though I do notice when he starts to snore.)

So Max Havelaar is a top book, a book that quite simply set society on fire. The book was written by Multituli, a pen name meaning 'Í have suffered much' for the real author Edouard Douwes Dekker. It is really a book about Dekker's life – it is autobiographical but with fictitious characters, and it often descends into one long justification, which is largely painful to read. I resolve that one day I will have a bookshelf – not arranged alphabetically, or even thematically – but arranged in weird categories only I could dream up. 'Max Havelaar' will go in the section called 'Books that set society on fire' Max is sent to a province in java called Lebak, mid 1850's, as a representative of the Dutch East India company, where he takes a vow to protect the native population from exploitation. Which he does, too zealously for the likes of the ruling powers, who conspire to get him suspended within a month. The book took a stab at the Dutch East India Company, consumerism, and the horrors of colonialism and exploitation, with mixed success. The book ends extremely strongly, with Multituli acknowledging that the book is badly written and lacking finesse – but ending with a screaming accusation of corruption against the state. Brilliant stuff, even Bruno's eyebrows shot up.

So since starting the book, I have rented the movie. I have also spied a brand of coffee called 'Max Havelaar', and found out that it is a chain that supports fair trade coffee production (GO Fair trade!!!) I also went to the book market held every Friday here on the Spui. Whilst walking around, I picked up books on Indonesisa and Java, especially the ones with early photographs. I dunno about you, but when I read I like to have an idea in my head about what the characters look like – I often chose well known actors to be the 'stars'in my head. I supplement this imagination with real photos of the time, so I can get a glimpse of the stately swish of the 1850's dresses through colonial plantation halls, or the costumes of the native population. I happened upon one book, which fell open at the page showing Dekker's original home in Lebak. It reminds me of the British Raj, another colonial empire with which Australians are more familiar.

Friend publishes book

Today I found out that my friend Jodie Brownlee has published her first book, called 'Ruby Rosemount & the Magic Carpet'

It's Ruby Rosemount's twelfth birthday. It's also the first day of the school holidays, and Ruby has just read a new message on her mother's lift of holiday instructions: Do not enter the attic along. As Ruby is puzzling over this new rule, she receives a letter from her exotic and much-loved grandmother, and learns that she'll find a special gift in the attic. Ruby can't resist. She goes into the attic, and to her amazement she finds that Granny McQuirky's gift is a magic carpet. So begins a magical adventure which sees Ruby travelling to an oasis in a far-off desert land. Here genies, villains, sand sprites and magic spells will test all her powers - including some she still doesn't know she has.
Jodie Brownlee

The full book can be ordered from Dymocks

I am so proud of her!!! A couple of us used to get together in the Rose hotel, Sydney, Australia, and tell a few stories every other Sunday or so for a while. It was great fun, and then I had to leave Sydney for Amsterdam. Jodie took some of the impetus from those days and turned it into this book. Again I have to say I am so proud of her, and someday I wish that I too will make something out of my alcoholic search for enlightenment. Go read her book!!