Stories of Indian Pacific are three novellas, set in New Caledonia,
Australia and Indonesia, written in Dewi Anggraeni's engaging style
that moves easily from one location to the next.
To Drown a Cat explores racial tension in New Caledonia; Uncertain
Step is the story of an Indonesian bride in Australia; and in Crossroads
two artists, an Australian and an Indonesian, meet in Bali.
To Drown a Cat is set in 1988, shortly after the violent confrontation
between the French army and Kanak separists in the northern island
of Ouvea. The story explores the tensions that explode in bloody confrontation,
within a family divided by allegience to two sets of ancestors, the
French Caldoche and the indigenous Kanak.
Uncertain Step tells the story of Aryani, and her relatively late
marriage to Steve, an Australian teacher who already has two children,
and is still good friends with his previous wife. Aryani finds the
Australian scenery, Steve's hometown, Adelaide and people's response
to herself very different from everything she is used to in Bandung.
Her uncertain step into marriage with this warm but almost unknown
Australian is the story of so many Asian brides and their Australian
husbands.
In Crossroads, the young Australian rock singer, Justin is introduced
to a new world of art and life, when he meets the Balinese poet and
playwright, Nyoman. Justin sees for the first time, art as close to
nature and art as important for political and social change. |