The Year of Living Dangerously (novel)
First edition
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| Author | Christopher Koch |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | David Lancashire (jacket designer) |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Adventure novel |
| Publisher | Nelson, Michael Joseph |
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Publication date
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1978 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 296 |
| ISBN | |
The Year of Living Dangerously is a 1978 novel by Christopher Koch in which a male Australian journalist, a female British diplomat, and a Chinese-Australian male dwarf interact in Indonesia in the summer and autumn of 1965. Set primarily in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta, it also describes a partly fictionalized version of the events leading up to the coup attempt by the Communist Party of Indonesia on September 30, 1965.
The novel's title refers to the Italian phrase vivere pericolosamente. It is roughly translated into English as "living dangerously". Indonesian President Sukarno used the phrase for the title of his National Day speech of 17 August 1964.
The novel is narrated by "Cookie", a news agency reporter. Cookie is an older man who acted as a father confessor to many of the characters in the novel, and is telling the story several years after it happened. He is a stand-in for author Christopher Koch, and helps to illuminate the ways in which identity is mediated by other people's perceptions of an individual and by that individual's perception of him or her self.
Thematically, the novel explores the ways in which Australians began to conceptualize themselves differently from Europeans in the post-World War II era, and the way Eastern religions such as Shintoism and Buddhism offer new ways to approach old problems. Billy the dwarf's telling of the Indonesian wayang shadow puppet play of the Buddhist legend of Prince Arjun and Princess Skrikandi illustrates the Hindu belief that there is no right or wrong and there are no final answers—one of the ideas raised by Eastern religions.
The novel opens as Guy Hamilton, a neophyte foreign correspondent for an Australian radio network, arrives in Jakarta on assignment. He meets several members of the close-knit community of British and Australians in the city, which includes journalists and diplomatic personnel. Among them is Billy Kwan, a Chinese-Australian dwarf of high intelligence and moral seriousness who is a photojournalist. Guy's predecessor departed Indonesia before Guy arrived, and did not introduce Guy to any of his news contacts. Guy receives only limited support from the other foreign journalists in Jakarta, who compete for information from the Sukarno government, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), and the Indonesian National Armed Forces. Believing Guy to be a moral person, Billy (who is exceptionally well-connected) helps him obtain interviews. Guy's reputation as a journalist soars. Billy keeps photographs and notes about the people he knows, recording his observations of their character and their lives and making up stories about their possible motivations. Guy is alarmed to discover that Billy is keeping a file on him, too, but decides to trust Billy anyway.
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