About the Book:
Minke is a young Javanese student of great intelligence and ambition. Living equally among the colonists and colonized of 19th-century Java, he battles against the confines of colonial strictures. The son of a noble Javanese, he moves easily among the Dutch and their ideas and language but is prevented from enjoying their rights. He also falls desperately in love with the beautiful Indo-European Annelies, and it is through her and her extraordinary family that Minke finds the strength to embrace his world—the world of Indonesia—and all its beauty and possibility, brutality and anger.
Praise for This Earth of Mankind:
"[Pramoedya] is a master, and a brilliant one, at setting out and intricate web of motivation, character, and emotion." - New York Times Book Review
My Thoughts:
Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s This Earth of Mankind is the second of eight novels in the Indonesian leg of my Reading Around the World project. Set in 1898, the novel offers a critical and nuanced illustration of Surabaya in the final years of Dutch colonial rule.
The racial hierarchy of late nineteenth-century Java heavily influences Toer’s writing. Dutch and white Europeans, known as Pures, occupy the upper echelons of the social structure. Indigenous people, known as Natives, occupy the bottom rung. Non-white foreigners and Indos (mixed-race, Indo-Europeans) exist between the two, rising or falling based on occupation, influence, and acknowledged relationships to Pures.
Minke, the novel’s protagonist, belongs to an influential Native family and, as such, is granted rare admission to the Hogere Burgerschool (HBS). His enrollment affords a unique elevation in status, allowing him to socialize freely across social classes. The privilege, however, is a double-edged sword that jumpstarts his political awareness and forever alters his worldview.
The novel’s description emphasizes Annelies, but the feminine energy of this piece resides in her mother, Nyai Ontosoroh. Nyai is a Native, sold in childhood as a concubine to Dutch businessman Herman Mellema. She has no social status, but quietly manages Mellema’s household, dairy operations, plantation exports, and personal finances. Self-educated and resilient, Nyai demonstrates resistance to the institutional oppression of the colonial system. She rejects social norms, ignores traditional gender roles, and in her own unorthodox way, serves as the driving force of Minke’s evolution.
Annelies and Minke’s relationship is understated, Toer's pacing is inconsistent, and the underdeveloped supporting characters leave several loose ends in the fabric of the narrative. These shortcomings, however, detract little from the novel’s thematic undertones and thought-provoking political commentary.
This Earth of Mankind is historically and culturally illuminating—highly recommended literary fiction.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer | Penguin Books | Novel Published 1980
Unsolicited Review from Personal Collection
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