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jessrock's review against another edition
5.0
I really, really liked [b:Five Star Billionaire|16071831|Five Star Billionaire|Tash Aw|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1364179694s/16071831.jpg|21865836] right up until the non-ending. I was worried this was a sign that [a:Tash Aw|140377|Tash Aw|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1243908136p2/140377.jpg] just can't write endings, but I wanted to give another one of his books a try because I loved his writing so much. I'm pleased to report that while Map of the Invisible World doesn't tie up all its loose ends in a completely tidy bow, it comes close enough that the reader can leave feeling like they've read a complete story.
In Map of the Invisible World, two brothers are orphaned and then separated into different adoptive homes. We learn about little pieces of older brother Johan's life in Malaysia, but the story focuses on Adam during the civil unrest in 1960s Indonesia. We also learn about Margaret Bates, a white woman who was born in Indonesia and grew up all over the world and is now a university professor; her assistant, Din, who is heavily involved with a radical communist group; and Adam's adoptive father, a Dutch painter named Karl.
The book manages to tell very personal stories against a very political backdrop - the reader gets a sense of what was going on in Indonesia in the 1960s as they asserted themselves as a free country apart from Dutch rule, even while the main focus has to do with the connections between each of the characters and Adam's search both for his brother and for his father, who has been arrested for being Dutch.
Map of the Invisible World isn't a perfect novel, but it's very, very well done, and I'm excited to read [b:The Harmony Silk Factory|239897|The Harmony Silk Factory|Tash Aw|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388352802s/239897.jpg|232385] and anything else Aw writes.
In Map of the Invisible World, two brothers are orphaned and then separated into different adoptive homes. We learn about little pieces of older brother Johan's life in Malaysia, but the story focuses on Adam during the civil unrest in 1960s Indonesia. We also learn about Margaret Bates, a white woman who was born in Indonesia and grew up all over the world and is now a university professor; her assistant, Din, who is heavily involved with a radical communist group; and Adam's adoptive father, a Dutch painter named Karl.
The book manages to tell very personal stories against a very political backdrop - the reader gets a sense of what was going on in Indonesia in the 1960s as they asserted themselves as a free country apart from Dutch rule, even while the main focus has to do with the connections between each of the characters and Adam's search both for his brother and for his father, who has been arrested for being Dutch.
Map of the Invisible World isn't a perfect novel, but it's very, very well done, and I'm excited to read [b:The Harmony Silk Factory|239897|The Harmony Silk Factory|Tash Aw|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388352802s/239897.jpg|232385] and anything else Aw writes.
lyla89's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
arian_isreading's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.0
zaelle's review against another edition
2.0
I'm surprised that I didn't like this book more than I did. Maybe I've just read too many like it to have loved it. It was an okay read. I finished it quite quickly and I believe that it dealt with important issues like nationality and I enjoyed learning some history. Indonesia is imagined by many to be a magical world, especially as compared to the apparent shallow life in Kuala Lumpur (as presented in the novel), and I appreciated how the author brought the country alive.
However, there's just too many of these 'ethnic identity' novels these days. I'm a huge fan of them, but they're all starting to sound the same. (Aka, this nation is bad, but it's our bad and there's nowhere else to go...oh, look how vibrant and alive it is!).
However, there's just too many of these 'ethnic identity' novels these days. I'm a huge fan of them, but they're all starting to sound the same. (Aka, this nation is bad, but it's our bad and there's nowhere else to go...oh, look how vibrant and alive it is!).
afahmy's review against another edition
3.0
Well, it was a very long and almost boring read for me, the first 150 pages have a really slow pace, or really fast that I can't grasp it, however, the last few chapters were quite exciting. It was a good read after all.
rachaelmcgovern's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
syafiqha's review against another edition
3.0
Maybe 3.4 stars out of 5.
So much things that i learn.
About politics in Indonesia, a pair of siblings split up since kid, about betrayal, love, the writer really brings the sensation of Indonesia also a bit Malaysia also about American & Dutch people live in Indonesia.
Writer's writing is like when you wanna talk about this than you flashback or thinks about something else related. Which i love but its too much for me especially in the middle.
One chapter contain almost 20 page (4th Estate publisher)
So much things that i learn.
About politics in Indonesia, a pair of siblings split up since kid, about betrayal, love, the writer really brings the sensation of Indonesia also a bit Malaysia also about American & Dutch people live in Indonesia.
Writer's writing is like when you wanna talk about this than you flashback or thinks about something else related. Which i love but its too much for me especially in the middle.
One chapter contain almost 20 page (4th Estate publisher)
garseta's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Something of a bait-and-switch. Seems like the focus will be on the two Indonesian brothers but it ends falling more on a European man and woman.
heteroglossia's review
"Because to be ignorant of one's true history is to live in a void. It's as if you're floating aimlessly in the sea, being dragged every which way by currents and waves. You get pulled underwater: there's nothing there. No people, no trees, no air to breathe. It's another world, a place your body occupies but where you don't really exist. So what's the problem? You ask. You're here, aren't you? As long as you're not dead, it's OK. Well, look around you, look at those babies sitting by the road, staring into space. Life has just begun for them, and already it is empty. Is that really better than death? Do you think they're poor but happy?"
This book is set mainly in the tumultuous independence period of the 1960s for Indonesia and we are given glimpses of Malaysia as well. We follow the trajectory of the orphan Adam who is adopted by a Dutchman Karl, who is captured by soldiers when the country is attempting to rid itself of any vestiges of its violent colonial past. Adam is a boy who marooned with little knowledge of who he really is, not just due to being an orphan with little knowledge of his biological parents, but also because his memories in the orphanage have been lost due to trauma. One particular person he struggles to remember is his beloved brother Johan, who had been adopted into a family in Malaysia.
The book deals in part with Konfrantasi, when there was a call for Malaysia to be "returned" to Indonesia in a kind of nationalistic fervour. What's interesting to me is to actually look to the characters of Adam and Johan as representations of these two countries. Adam is facing an identity crisis, is being sought after to do the violent work of revolutionaries who want to bomb buildings, who is trying to convince him of their own ideologies through shame & guilt, & Johan himself is riddled with guilt for leaving his brother alone & even as he is surrounded by wealth, does not feel at peace.
This book is set mainly in the tumultuous independence period of the 1960s for Indonesia and we are given glimpses of Malaysia as well. We follow the trajectory of the orphan Adam who is adopted by a Dutchman Karl, who is captured by soldiers when the country is attempting to rid itself of any vestiges of its violent colonial past. Adam is a boy who marooned with little knowledge of who he really is, not just due to being an orphan with little knowledge of his biological parents, but also because his memories in the orphanage have been lost due to trauma. One particular person he struggles to remember is his beloved brother Johan, who had been adopted into a family in Malaysia.
The book deals in part with Konfrantasi, when there was a call for Malaysia to be "returned" to Indonesia in a kind of nationalistic fervour. What's interesting to me is to actually look to the characters of Adam and Johan as representations of these two countries. Adam is facing an identity crisis, is being sought after to do the violent work of revolutionaries who want to bomb buildings, who is trying to convince him of their own ideologies through shame & guilt, & Johan himself is riddled with guilt for leaving his brother alone & even as he is surrounded by wealth, does not feel at peace.
kevinhu's review
3.0
MOTIW magnifies the complications of post-colonialism in Indonesia as it wrestles in defining itself as a nation after the Dutch were run out. Aw documents the lives of a hodgepodge of characters, all with differing origins, running away from a past where all they felt was displacement. Each of them dove forward, almost blindfolded, into invisible forwards, with hopes that what was to come was where they could find a home. Each person, whether orphan, vagabond, or passerby, moved in the rhythm of lostness with the country of Indonesia. Each of their hearts were stitched together. None of them ever fought the tides of change during the transition because each were rivulets meandering out to sea.
It is in itself also a critique of how post-colonialism births displacement, the separation of families, and pulls people out of their roots. Children being most vulnerable to be exploited, whether it be by good-willed families of imperialist countries with horrendous savior complexes or by radical movements that seek only to weaponize children and leaving them out for dead after all has been squeezed out. Aw shows that sometimes it is the unanchored who are able to love the most expansively; offering to one another what they've always sought and not found.
It is in itself also a critique of how post-colonialism births displacement, the separation of families, and pulls people out of their roots. Children being most vulnerable to be exploited, whether it be by good-willed families of imperialist countries with horrendous savior complexes or by radical movements that seek only to weaponize children and leaving them out for dead after all has been squeezed out. Aw shows that sometimes it is the unanchored who are able to love the most expansively; offering to one another what they've always sought and not found.