Review by halftimelord - This Earth of Mankind

halftimelord 's review for:

This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

4.0

challenging informative tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Reading the note on the author on the first page of this book was eye-opening. All the books in this quartet were written in prison, and were banned in Indonesia until 2000. From the first page, I knew I'd picked up an important book.

I didn't know anything about Indonesia's history and this specific period of time under Dutch rule. I enjoyed the amount of different characters and stories that the story covered without overloading the reader or feeling too complicated. The hypocrisy of the Dutch colonists is a theme throughout but really comes to the forefront at the end of the book -

The reveal that Annelies was being forceable taken to the Netherlands without any of her family was horrible, and that the struggle of Minke, Mama and the other characters was ultimately in vain.

I'm interested to read the rest of the quartet and find out what happens to our characters. Minke was a frustrating main character at times but I enjoyed seeing his development throughout the book and am looking forward to seeing how he changes throughout the rest of the series.

Content Warnings