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The Mute's soliloquy : a memoir / Pramoedya Ananta Toer ; translated by Willem Samuels.
Van Pelt - Zilberman Family Center for Global Collections PL5089.T8 Z4713 1999
By Request
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Toer, Pramoedya Ananta, 1925-2006
- Standardized Title:
- Nyanyi sunyi seorang bisu. English
- Language:
- English
- Indonesian
- Subjects (All):
- Toer, Pramoedya Ananta, 1925-2006.
- Toer, Pramoedya Ananta.
- Toer, Pramoedya Ananta, 1925-2006--Imprisonment.
- Authors, Indonesian--20th century--Biography.
- Authors, Indonesian.
- Imprisonment.
- Political prisoners--Indonesia--Biography.
- Political prisoners.
- Indonesia.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Autobiographies.
- Physical Description:
- xxii, 375 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Hyperion, 1999.
- Summary:
- From one of the greatest writers of our time comes The Mute's Soliloquy, a remarkable literary achievement that will take its place beside the works of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Jacobo Timerman.
- In 1965, Pramoedya Ananta Toer was a hero of the Indonesian revolution and widely regarded as one of the best writers the country had ever produced. That year, however, as Indonesia embarked on a period of intense social unrest, Pramoedya and tens of thousands of others were detained and eventually exiled to the remote island of Buru. Imprisoned on Buru for eleven years without trial or formal accusation, Pramoedya and his fellow prisoners were forced to clear dense tracts of jungle, build camps, and forage for food. They died by the hundreds of starvation, brutality, and disease.
- Only in rare moments of leniency was Pramoedya allowed to write, yet he managed to produce works including four novels that make up the now classic Buru Quartet. He also wrote journal entries, essays, and letters, many of which were confiscated and destroyed. What survived of these is collected in The Mute's Soliloquy, a harrowing portrait of a penal colony and a heartbreaking remembrance of life before it.
- Whether he is narrating the story of a fellow prisoner, remembering the dead and the missing, discussing what it means to be a citizen, or giving advice to his children in letters he knew they would never receive, Pramoedya's courage, integrity, and commitment to social justice are in powerful evidence. With a resonance far beyond its particular time and place, The Mute's Soliloquy is Pramoedya's crowning achievement--a passionate tribute to the freedom of the mind and a celebration of the human spirit.
- Contents:
- I. The Mystery of Exile 1
- Natant Ruminations (A Letter for Pujarosmi) 6
- Changing Commands 21
- When the Gods Came Down to Earth 48
- The Back Side of the Mirror 65
- In the Midst of It All 78
- A Confluence of Coincidences 85
- II. Fragments of My Life 97
- One Link in a Chain 103
- Flowers for Mother 125
- Death in a Time of Change 153
- Working for the Japanese (A Letter for Rina) 174
- For Better or for Worse (A Letter for Anggraini) 192
- A Home to Live In (A Letter for Astuti) 216
- III. Lessons for My Children 233
- Science, Religion, and Health Care 237
- The Caste System and the Revolution (Fragments of Two Letters) 249
- Geography 259
- Music, Sports, Self-Defense, and a Story 272
- Languages, Social Science, and Nutrition 283
- Physical and Spiritual Well-Being, Career Choices 292
- IV. Deliverance 311
- The First Release 317
- The Dead and the Missing 344
- Maps (Indonesia, Buru Island, Buru Island Penal Colony) 365
- Epilogue by Joesoef Isak 368
- A Note on the Translation by Willem Samuels 372.
- ISBN:
- 0786864168
- OCLC:
- 40052332
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