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FRIENDS AND EXILES: A Memoir of the Nutmeg Isles and the Indonesian Nationalist Movement. By Des Alwi; Edited by Barbara S. Harvey. Ithaca (NY): Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University, 2008. vii, 171 pp. (Maps, photos.) US$20.95, paper. ISBN 978-0-87727-744-6.
Des Alwi is a former Indonesian diplomat and "anak angkat" (adopted son) of Sutan Sjahrir, Indonesia's first prime minister (1945-1947). Now in his eighties, Alwi has devoted much of his retirement to revitalizing the cultural heritage of his home in the spice islands of Banda, 1,500 kilometres east of Jakarta. It is Alwi's childhood and early adulthood in Banda, Jakarta and Surabaya that are the subject of this memoir.
The book begins with a brief overview of Des Alwi's life by Barbara Harvey, followed by a chronological narrative set out in 14 short chapters. In the first two chapters, Alwi introduces an overwhelming cast of family members and friends, which, for this reader at least, effected confusion and disengagement from the text. Perseverance pays off with this book, however, as the entrance in chapter 3 of Mohammad Hatta (Indonesia's first vice president, 1945-1956) and Sutan Sjahrir as political exiles to Banda marks the beginning of a riveting read....