Customer Reviews

On the Edge of a Dream: Magic and Madness in Bali

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Sorry, it just seemed like a second rate screenplay. For how bad it was, it was suprisingly stonger on its coverage of Bali than you would expect, but in the end, it indulged in a tone too much like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

An insightful look at Bali and the Balinese people before thetourist boom. Anyone who has been to Bali or who plans to travelthere should read this book to begin to understand the culture of Bali and how the Balinese balance their their beautiful, unique culture with the demands placed on them by tourism on their island. This is a novel, yes, but anyone who reads it will recognize the realities.

This is a good read for a variety of reasons.

Wisie was ahead of the curve in opening up the question as to what kind of economic models are sustainable for us to inhabit the earth positively. Implicit in this quest for meaning and purpose detailed in the novel are key questions for our time in the 21st century.

Unlike novels that point to Bali as a source of vast spiritual depth and practice yet use the Island to perpetuate romantic love as the Holy Grail of spiritual attainment this novel is broader in what the many facets of love entail. This novel registers as well what spiritual Magic, friendship, faith and respectful honoring can be about. The turmoil and challenges faced by the many characters from both the East and West are still relevant today and even more poignantly so as we collectively reconstruct the earth with new technologies and emergent spiritual paradigms of value to our age.

Surely, this is not Saramago deftly revealing personality and motivation with a handful of words yet the characters in the novel are evocative enough for the readers to infuse their own imagination into the visage of the protagonists' being. Perhaps, Murakami is the closest comparison at the moment for me yet without the poly genre complexity of the Japanese author. This is a novel more in the line of spiritual quest across cultures and time.

In the right hands this novel could translate nicely to a good film as well.

I read it in one sitting.

Unfortunately, I found this book to be NOT very authentic as to the Balinese experience either from the native or tourist side. The plotline and dialogue are laughable and the characters very unlikeable and too broadly drawn.