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Kalimantaan: A Novel

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Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co.
List Price: $25.00
Our Price: $1.98
You Save: $ 23.02 ( 92% )
(prices subject to change)

Average Customer Ratings:




DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780805055337
ISBN: 0385257546
Label: Henry Holt and Co.
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: 1998-04-15
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Studio: Henry Holt and Co.


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• The Debt to Pleasure: A Novel
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• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• Sepharad
• Last Samurai, The


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, unforgetable, but not for everyone
Comment: Borneo is somewhat familiar to me, and maybe that's why I didn't have the amount of difficulty that some reviewers here described. They are correct, the glossary is ridiculously inadequate, and it's very hard to keep the characters straight because there are so many (they disappear and then reappear 100 pages later with barely a hint of who they were). But those admitted flaws aside, it's a beautiful and lush book, complex, mysterious, beautiful and frightening -- much like Borneo itself. It's not an easy place to visit, let alone to know.

If you have a little knowledge of the history, as I do, I think you will go deep into this book, like the jungle, and succumb to its charms and incantations. If you would first read about the White Rajahs (maybe the Wikipedia article) and the Iban (who used to be called Dyaks), and if you like the idea of pirates and a clash of cultures being woven into a complicated story from the mid-1800s, then I think you will appreciate this novel.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Exquisite, despite flaws
Comment: First, the flaws. Entirely too many characters, most inserted seemingly at random to perform perfunctory actions. Entirely too many untranslated terms. I would suggest to Ms. Godshalk that she either include a glossary of all necessary terms or none at all. The frustrating experience of finding widely known terms translated and more obscure ones not was disheartening.

Despite these flaws, I found Kalimantaan to be a stunning read. Godshalk's language is elegant and lyrical. In the context of the story and its overwhelming sense of place, her florid language could almost be described as economical. Incidentally, I would not have believed this myself until finishing the book.

The story of a Englishman creating a private Raj in Borneo in the latter half of the 19th century, Kalimantaan is bursting with restrained vitality and morbidity. Births, deaths, and violence seem to collect rather than get swept away, leaving an aggregate of emotion that I couldn't help but share.

Not an easy read, but highly rewarding.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fascinating look at the failure of a long bright dream
Comment: This rich, reflective novel tells the story of a hard-headed Englishman's establishment of a private raj in Borneo.
Plot summary: In spite of antihero Gideon Barr's misplaced attention to detail, the kingdom survives attacks by pirates, headhunters, cholera and the weather, and even Barr's tragic marriage, only to finally be undone by revolution and misplaced trust.
Details of plot and place are wonderful here, but what really stands out is the characterization and the tensions of the many private and public relationships in this kingdom. More tension: the tropical environment consistently resists "civilization" or even comprehension from its European residents.
Kalimantaan doesn't put characters with modern sensibilities in front of a quaint backdrop; it's a "historical" novel only in the sense that it interrogates history and historiography.
Customer Rating:
Summary: kalimantaan
Comment: great book. challenging, reminding me of when i was attempting to read my father's _tales of washington irving_ when i was in 2nd grade. at first, i was finding my feet, getting the jist of _kalimantaan_, and then i found myself immersed. piercing insight into flawed humans in relationships in a 19th c. exotic setting. very real characters, horrific death scenes (not written in order to make us squirm, fortunately--and originally), and exact portrayals of love in many, many forms. a broad, swashbuckling adventure story, and those involved are tragic, memorable, and deeply affecting in their humanity.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sadly Inaccessible
Comment: Before you begin reading this book, realize it isn't quite a novel; it's more a combination history and novel, but not in the usual "historical novel" sense. It briefly involves many real life characters, jumps from vignette to vignette about them, involves totally different groups of people over a large span of years, and confuses with frequent dangling pronouns which don't clearly refer to one person or another. The other reviewers obviously fall into 2 camps. I believe that the great divide between them is a matter of whether the reader could get over the hurdle presented by the book's basic inaccessibility.

Rather than 3 stars, I would have liked to give it 5 for beauty of imagery, especially for bringing this exotic locale to life, but one star for story. The book has been listed as a New York Notable etc.--several lists. I believe it received these kudos because it presents a new slant on how to present historical fiction, as described above. But characters aren't cohesive and don't come to life in a three-dimensional way. The joy of the read is all setting.

Finding any cohesive tale here is hard work--note that Amazon.com sells a "reader's guide" to Kalimantaan. I don't know what to make of the fact that such an obviously talented writer did not present a cohesive story. Just a failing when writing a first book? Self-conscious writing? Poor editing? I only know I was very eager to start this book, and am bitterly disappointed. To me, the book is the equivalent of a beautiful body without a skeleton.

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