An intelligent, compelling tale of political turmoil in mid-twentieth-century Indonesia. "Well conceived and beautifully executed."—Larry McMurtry.
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About the Author
Christopher Koch is of Irish, English and German ancestry. For a good deal of his life he was a broadcasting producer, working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney. He has lived and worked in London and elsewhere overseas. He has been a full-time writer since 1972, winning international praise and a number of awards for his five previous novels - many of which are translated in a number of European countries. In 1995, Koch was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contribution to Australian literature.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By Renee Thorpe
Format:Paperback
Intriguing thriller set in one of Indonesia's most turbulent times follows the basic plot of most of that country's shadow puppet fables. Viz: The earthly balance of good and evil has lapsed, and the clueless but good-hearted hero finds himself aided by the unexpected attentions of a bold dwarf.
There is so much going on, it's to be enjoyed on several levels. Innocence lost, cloak and daggery, true political intrigue, guy meets girl, expatriate sleaze, lessons in Indonesian culture: it's all there. Very nicely written with a perfect pace and memorable characters; Koch seems to be a great observer and decent researcher.
So nicely composed was this book, the subsequent film (featuring breathtakingly fresh performances by youngsters Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson) captured the best dialogue and the steamy atmosphere with apparent ease. Destined to be a classic, YLD is a story that takes hold and stays with you a long time.
De rigeur reading for the expats of Indonesia, but also a great book to have along if traveling in Indonesia (the twenty year ban on this book has been lifted by the government, so you can bring it in legally now)!
There is so much going on, it's to be enjoyed on several levels. Innocence lost, cloak and daggery, true political intrigue, guy meets girl, expatriate sleaze, lessons in Indonesian culture: it's all there. Very nicely written with a perfect pace and memorable characters; Koch seems to be a great observer and decent researcher.
So nicely composed was this book, the subsequent film (featuring breathtakingly fresh performances by youngsters Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson) captured the best dialogue and the steamy atmosphere with apparent ease. Destined to be a classic, YLD is a story that takes hold and stays with you a long time.
De rigeur reading for the expats of Indonesia, but also a great book to have along if traveling in Indonesia (the twenty year ban on this book has been lifted by the government, so you can bring it in legally now)!
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
You will be transported to the steaminess of the equator. This is a wonderful story full of unique characters in the midst of one of the most turbulent times in Indonesia. Sukarno's Indonesia is an edgy place in 1965 and the group of western journalists Koch assembles as his main characters can sense the tragedy ready to erupt. Guy Hamilton, a television correspondent, is joined by Billy Kwan, a Chinese-Australian cameraman who determines that he should "assist" Hamilton. Theirs is an uneasy friendship, enhanced by the remaining cast of characters, whom you will meet when you read the book. Much is made of the fact that Billy is a dwarf, but that is what makes him so interesting. It enables him to get away with things typically sized people would not. He is a fascinating, multidimensional character who is far more an intellectual than people give him credit for, much more political than casual acquaintances would guess, and passionate about Indonesia, something he keeps mostly to himself. Koch weaves a great tale here: part mystery, part political espionage thriller, a little bit of romance (but not enough to put you off), and all of it packed into 300 pages of Indonesian atmosphere. It is a carefully crafted masterpiece of storytelling that I highly recommend. While readily available on shelves in Australian bookstores, it is likely less well known in the states. Too bad, Koch's books are worth every penny.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Not in a long time have I read a seemingly little book so slowly. I must confess I bought the paperback for fifty cents at a used book store for the romantic title (I love travelogues), a picture of a young Mel Gibson (but the
cover was the only piece of fluff in the book!) and because I was too cheap to rent the movie. I knew little about
either the 1982 movie (also featuring a younger Sigourney Weaver) or the poetic Australian author and
journalist, C. J. Koch.
Friendship, romance, idealism, obsession and ultimately betrayal are woven amongst historical and political intrigue as a group of foreign correspondents is stationed in Indonesia during turbulent 1965. Indonesia? I knew little more about this country since the time I lived in Kingston, Jamaica and one of my letters mistakenly posted to the capital city of the NEXT tiny island nation on the equator: Jakarta, Indonesia.
Let me leave you just enough detail about some of the characters to spark your curiousity: There's Billy Kwan, a half Chinese-Australian cameraman who happens to be a dwarf. His eccentric political philosophies loom large in comparison to his tiny stature. Billy's partner and idol, Guy Hamilton, is a Western journalist and an ambitious, solitary soul desperate to make a name for himself. Jill is an expatriate embassy secretary, suspicious, vulnerable and still naive after a succession of mismatched romantic involvements. Wally O'Sullivan, or "The Great Wally," as he is called, is the group's unofficial leader and respected news veteran. He is enormously fat and harbors his own secret sorrows despite the numerous parties he hosts.
Before the war in Vietnam consumed the world's attention, Indonesia had it's brief moment in the international
spotlight. The dictatorial, charismatic, Western-hating President Sukarno called upon his small, bitterly poor nation to defy U.N. convention and invade neighboring Malaysia. What happens to Indonesia's future if his plan succeeds is the crucible in which the fates of Koch's colorful characters are depicted. Intricately laced with many fascinating and unfamiliar elements, The Year of Living Dangerously is told in such a way that the reader can feel as if part of the tightly knit circle of "international press corps" who gather every day for Happy Hour in the Wayang Bar at the Hotel Indonesia to discuss the day's events or Sukarno's latest propaganda speech. Not a single character was ever who they seemed and exposing layer after articulate layer was half the pleasure of the trip. I was able to sightsee a little on that "other" island, one continent east, along the equator. Kochs describes it as the "Gate of the World. . . the most crowded island on earth [yet] as you fly into Java from Sumatra, over the Sunda Straits, [Indonesia] appears mysteriously devoid of human settlement. Indigo cones of volcanoes rise into the clouds from jade territories which seem as empty as those of the world's dawn. But these are the paddy fields and terraces the people cultivate to the very rims of the craters. President Sukarno tells us in his speeches that Java's spirit is the terrible volcano Merapi, which seems to sleep, but is always ready to explode in violence."
A few of my favorite passages follow: (in the opening pages) ... I awaited the appearance of a successor with
some interest. Kwan jerked around suddenly and squinted across the doorway where a tall man in a well-cut
tan suit had made the obligatory blind halt to adjust to the Wayang's night. 'This'll be Hamilton,' he said, and
dropped like an acrobat from his stool to the floor. Fists slightly clenched, elbows out from his sides, he
hurried off, with a ghost of that rocking motion peculiar to the large-headed dwarfs one sometimes passes in
the street. The newcomer's face, caught in the glow of the nearby candle, looked startled when he found
himself confronted by Kwan. The cameraman extended his hand, tilting his head back and offering his broad
Chinese grin. As he came with Kwan towards the round bar, Hamilton's tallness was fantastically
exaggerated. The spiky head only just reached his elbow; it was as the new man walked with a strange child.
(Later in the book) A silence fell in which they stood and looked at each other, as though trying to decide
something. A panel of sun lay between them on the glazed ochre titles of the floor; the dusty quiet took on an
illusion of tenderness as the blades of the aged fan gestured above their heads. After they became lovers,
they would look back on this brink, and admit that each had guessed the other's awareness. Despite past
affairs, they were both still young enough for the excitement which springs from sensing that a story has begun
whose end can't be foreseen; and they were both old enough to know that life could offer them few if anymore
such beginnings. ******************************************************** This as well as most of Koch's books may
be hard to find, but I assure you they're worth the wait and adventure.
cover was the only piece of fluff in the book!) and because I was too cheap to rent the movie. I knew little about
either the 1982 movie (also featuring a younger Sigourney Weaver) or the poetic Australian author and
journalist, C. J. Koch.
Friendship, romance, idealism, obsession and ultimately betrayal are woven amongst historical and political intrigue as a group of foreign correspondents is stationed in Indonesia during turbulent 1965. Indonesia? I knew little more about this country since the time I lived in Kingston, Jamaica and one of my letters mistakenly posted to the capital city of the NEXT tiny island nation on the equator: Jakarta, Indonesia.
Let me leave you just enough detail about some of the characters to spark your curiousity: There's Billy Kwan, a half Chinese-Australian cameraman who happens to be a dwarf. His eccentric political philosophies loom large in comparison to his tiny stature. Billy's partner and idol, Guy Hamilton, is a Western journalist and an ambitious, solitary soul desperate to make a name for himself. Jill is an expatriate embassy secretary, suspicious, vulnerable and still naive after a succession of mismatched romantic involvements. Wally O'Sullivan, or "The Great Wally," as he is called, is the group's unofficial leader and respected news veteran. He is enormously fat and harbors his own secret sorrows despite the numerous parties he hosts.
Before the war in Vietnam consumed the world's attention, Indonesia had it's brief moment in the international
spotlight. The dictatorial, charismatic, Western-hating President Sukarno called upon his small, bitterly poor nation to defy U.N. convention and invade neighboring Malaysia. What happens to Indonesia's future if his plan succeeds is the crucible in which the fates of Koch's colorful characters are depicted. Intricately laced with many fascinating and unfamiliar elements, The Year of Living Dangerously is told in such a way that the reader can feel as if part of the tightly knit circle of "international press corps" who gather every day for Happy Hour in the Wayang Bar at the Hotel Indonesia to discuss the day's events or Sukarno's latest propaganda speech. Not a single character was ever who they seemed and exposing layer after articulate layer was half the pleasure of the trip. I was able to sightsee a little on that "other" island, one continent east, along the equator. Kochs describes it as the "Gate of the World. . . the most crowded island on earth [yet] as you fly into Java from Sumatra, over the Sunda Straits, [Indonesia] appears mysteriously devoid of human settlement. Indigo cones of volcanoes rise into the clouds from jade territories which seem as empty as those of the world's dawn. But these are the paddy fields and terraces the people cultivate to the very rims of the craters. President Sukarno tells us in his speeches that Java's spirit is the terrible volcano Merapi, which seems to sleep, but is always ready to explode in violence."
A few of my favorite passages follow: (in the opening pages) ... I awaited the appearance of a successor with
some interest. Kwan jerked around suddenly and squinted across the doorway where a tall man in a well-cut
tan suit had made the obligatory blind halt to adjust to the Wayang's night. 'This'll be Hamilton,' he said, and
dropped like an acrobat from his stool to the floor. Fists slightly clenched, elbows out from his sides, he
hurried off, with a ghost of that rocking motion peculiar to the large-headed dwarfs one sometimes passes in
the street. The newcomer's face, caught in the glow of the nearby candle, looked startled when he found
himself confronted by Kwan. The cameraman extended his hand, tilting his head back and offering his broad
Chinese grin. As he came with Kwan towards the round bar, Hamilton's tallness was fantastically
exaggerated. The spiky head only just reached his elbow; it was as the new man walked with a strange child.
(Later in the book) A silence fell in which they stood and looked at each other, as though trying to decide
something. A panel of sun lay between them on the glazed ochre titles of the floor; the dusty quiet took on an
illusion of tenderness as the blades of the aged fan gestured above their heads. After they became lovers,
they would look back on this brink, and admit that each had guessed the other's awareness. Despite past
affairs, they were both still young enough for the excitement which springs from sensing that a story has begun
whose end can't be foreseen; and they were both old enough to know that life could offer them few if anymore
such beginnings. ******************************************************** This as well as most of Koch's books may
be hard to find, but I assure you they're worth the wait and adventure.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Movie is Better
The story centers on the lives of foreign journalists living in Indonesia during 1965, when the communists are trying to take over Indonesia. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Laureen Kelley
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Novel of Frames
Koch's The Year of Living Dangerously is a cleverly structured novel, using the time honored, modernist technique of frames to tell the story. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Eric Maroney
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Year of Living Dangerously
Events leading up to the downfall of Sukarno in Indonesia as backdrop for an eerie tale of romance, hero worship, and human disappointment. A thoughtful read.
Published 10 months ago by Laza
5.0 out of 5 stars
A memorable read
In my late 20s, I traveled solo to Indonesia. The day I arrived in Denpasar, Bali, I fell ill with fever, possibly a reaction to a typhoid shot. Read more
Published on May 24, 2010 by Shane Wong
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great insight and wonderful story
It is obvious the author spent a good deal of time in Indonesia and is a professional writer. The characters are well-rounded, the city of Jakarta is described in good detail, and... Read more
Published on October 26, 2009 by World Traveler
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling
"The Year of Living Dangerously" is a thoroughly absorbing thriller set in Indonesia in 1965. This was Sukarno's Year of Living Dangerously. It was a time of great tumult. Read more
Published on September 12, 2008 by Andrew Desmond
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting read especially if you're traveling in SE Asian
I grew up in SE Asia and I was enthralled when I first saw the movie. Two decades later I finally got to reading the book. Read more
Published on March 27, 2007 by sf_funkster
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engrossing
I loved the movie with Mel Gibson and the book is just as good if not better. You're able to sense the danger and the mystery of the main character's situation and Billy becomes a... Read more
Published on November 4, 2006 by Tamara L. Mellett
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad
Not a bad read at all actually. The hero is a half-Chinese dwarf named Billy. The other characters treat him quite shabbily at times, but things never descend to the level of dwarf... Read more
Published on June 13, 2005 by shtetl druid
5.0 out of 5 stars
Third World Primer
Keeping the politics of this book aside; I can really recommend it for anyone who wants to feel what it's like to live through a coup and martial law. Read more
Published on May 9, 2004 by Miran Ali
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