With the notable exception of The Year of Living Dangerously (1978) by Australian novelist C.J.Koch (memorably filmed by Peter Weir in 1982), Indonesia has seldom featured in Western fiction. Which is strange considering its population (over 200 million people – 87% of them Muslim), its curious geography (17,508 islands) and its recent history (not least the brutal suppression of the independence movement in East Timor).
Numerous brownie points then for Black Country-born Alan Brayne (hence his publication by the newish Birmingham-based Tindal Street Press) who teaches in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and who sends this highly effective snapshot of the country at yet another crucial point in its history.
But don’t expect political analysis. Reform (or reformasi) may be in the air but Brayne’s concerns go deeper than the easy slogans of politicians with an eye on power. He’s more interested in the clash of cultures, the idea of commitment, and the necessity for redemptive action, no matter where you reside on the philosophical spectrum. At the same time he manages to deliver a stimulating and highly atmospheric thriller, reminiscent of both Ambler and Greene, though perhaps a mite skeletal of plot.
Brayne’s protagonist is Graham Young, a disillusioned expatriate working for an aid agency, and a bit of a soak. A casual nightclub conversation with another drunken ex-pat quickly comes to the notice of the Jakarta police and Young finds himself under interrogation. His night club companion has been identified as Doctor White, a key suspect in a series of sex killings around Jakarta.
What follows is a game of cat and mouse between Young and (whose side is he on?) the mysterious Suprianto, the Jakarta detective assigned to the White case. Suprianto is a fascinating character, an Agatha Christie-loving anglophile (favourite book Death in the Clouds, 1935), agonisingly torn between East and West. Meanwhile Young, bodies following in his wake and increasingly conscious of being manipulated by Suprianto, must come to terms with his adopted country.
As Young pursues the elusive truth, the background turmoil of a country on the brink of civil war cleverly suggested and forever present, Brayne uses his encounters (with other expats and tourists, a political activist, an Indonesian professor of musicology) to point up and lend philosophical weight to Young’s dilemmas (and those of Suprianto too). It’s ironic that, having made his choice in the final stunning chapter, Young must flee the place that he has come to feel most at home.
An auspicious debut, more substantial than at first it seems. I look forward to his next.