Footsteps by Pramoedya Ananta ToerMy review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Footsteps by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Third book in the Buru Quartet. Minke who we have followed from a teenager in "This Earth of Mankind" and "Child of All Nations" grows to become a man and a political being in this book. This book synthesizes the plot structure and the politics of the first two books and adds on a great historical emphasis to bring these two aspects closely together. Though dense at times, because of historical reference, it is not an unbearable weight, but more so a corridor with many doors asking to be opened and explored more, especially for those like me that do not have a good background in Indonesian history. Central themes of the book on the political level are; rebellion through modern organization, the role of media to unite and legally fight oppression, and the conflict of ethical structures between generations due to "modernization."
I can't wait to start the last book in the series; "House of Glass."
Some quick favorite quotes:
Minke describing his role in the modern organization of the Sakerat Dagang Islamiyah, which he is using to "advance" his people, which is to save his people from being "free slaves," but to do this he must sacrifice part of their heritage:
"In any case our business is not the past but the present. The modern present. A time where people calculate what is useful and what is not, and discard what is not useful…And his, and mine, a people who have been conquered now for centuries, as a people who have lost land and sea as well as ourselves. All that is left is our history, which we still carry. And now I come along and want to steal that too" (377).
Critique of modernism:
"In the modern world, everything is specialization. People will become alienated from each other. People will have cause to meet only because of business or they will meet by accident. You will no longer be able to tell if the person you are treating is a good man or not"(129)
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