C. J. Koch Books

I grew up in SE Asia and I was enthralled when I first saw the movie. Two decades later I finally got to reading the book.

First thing is that Kock is a beautiful writer. Some of his sentences just blew me away. Especially when he describes Indonesia. He completely captures all the senses and you're right there on a hot Jakarta night with the aroma of clove cigarettes. He's a journalist so his knowledge of the underlying political event surrounding the novel are impressive as well. If you want to understand the unsteady and inscrutable world of SE Asian politics then this book will be a great introduction.

I think the book is weak in a few areas that prevent it from becoming a class. The critical failure is that the reader does not identify with any characters in the novel. The protagonist is Guy Hamilton and we're allowed to see his thoughts but I don't think we deeply relate to him. He's too shallow of a character. His main issues are that he's afraid of relationship commitment and he hasn't been able to succeed at work. Nothing too interesting here. Jill is also somewhat distant and I didn't feel the passion between them. The movie did a far better job of this. Billy, the dwarf, is the deepest character but he's too creepy to relate to.

The second issue is point of view. It's written from the point of view of another journalist, Cookie, who sees Guy and the other characters and writes the story. However we're able to get into Guy's brain and this switching between Cookie's view and Guy's internal thoughts is confusing.

The conflict never built up sufficiently either. We knew from what Cookie said that Billy would die and he would meet Guy in London later.

It's a good read especially if you want to be immersed in all that is SE Asia - mysticism, smells, poverty, riches, cruelty, passion. From that point I enjoyed reading it.

I loved the movie with Mel Gibson and the book is just as good if not better. You're able to sense the danger and the mystery of the main character's situation and Billy becomes a figure you never forget.

Not a bad read at all actually. The hero is a half-Chinese dwarf named Billy. The other characters treat him quite shabbily at times, but things never descend to the level of dwarf tossing. There is lots of atmospheric stuff about how hot and humid it is in Indonesia -- duh! -- which I could have done without. Otherwise, a pretty good read.

Keeping the politics of this book aside; I can really recommend it for anyone who wants to feel what it's like to live through a coup and martial law. No other book I've read can really make that smell of fear and random violence as alive as Mr. Koch.

The movie is best avoided. The nearest parallel movie to rival the atmosphere of this book would be "Power Play" with Peter O'Toole.

Funny thing, I'm yet to meet an Indonesian who's ever even heard of "The Year of Living Dangerously".

Intriguing thriller set in one of Indonesia's most turbulent times follows the basic plot of most of that country's shadow puppet fables. Viz: The earthly balance of good and evil has lapsed, and the clueless but good-hearted hero finds himself aided by the unexpected attentions of a bold dwarf.

There is so much going on, it's to be enjoyed on several levels. Innocence lost, cloak and daggery, true political intrigue, guy meets girl, expatriate sleaze, lessons in Indonesian culture: it's all there. Very nicely written with a perfect pace and memorable characters; Koch seems to be a great observer and decent researcher.

So nicely composed was this book, the subsequent film (featuring breathtakingly fresh performances by youngsters Sigourney Weaver and Mel Gibson) captured the best dialogue and the steamy atmosphere with apparent ease. Destined to be a classic, YLD is a story that takes hold and stays with you a long time.

De rigeur reading for the expats of Indonesia, but also a great book to have along if traveling in Indonesia (the twenty year ban on this book has been lifted by the government, so you can bring it in legally now)!

Christopher Koch writes about recent history in a way no other writer has done. He frequently is compared to Graham Greene, because they both write about espionage and moral confusion in exotic locales and because they both create unforgettable characters, but Koch approaches novel-writing from a different point of view. Both write beautiful, poetic prose. Koch, who rejects many contemporary literary vogues, nevertheless shows more interest in the structure of the novel than Greene. Greene was a troubled Catholic; Koch is a former Catholic, and either in spite or because of this, has a more clearly developed moral perspective. He uses it to lead his readers into one of the most ghastly moral cul de sacs of the 20th century, the triumph of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. His hero, Mike Langford, his greatest character, even greater than Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously, is a Christlike figure -- literally, as is revealed in the tremendous conclusion to this wonderful book. More fashionable Australian writers, like the former advertising copywriter, Peter Carey, have been more adept at selling their work than Koch, but his books will be the ones that endure. Koch originally conceived Highways as a longer work, which would have included the story of Mike Langford's ancestor. The other half was later published as Out of Ireland. The first 40 or 50 pages of Highways provides a bridge between the two novels, which might be confusing to readers who don't read them as a pair.

have read the book a few times and still holds my attention to the end . fictional people based about a very recent and lets face it ugly war!!!

After reading this book, I was fairly disappointed that i had spent my week's pocket money buying it. Koch's attempt at trying to create intrest in a theme (war) that is by now fairly tired is a sad effort. The book has no appeal, and on many occasions i was diverted for reading to something more interesting (like taking out the garbage). I strongly reccomend that you look at his earlier writing efforts if you are in search for a good read.

This is a big book, lumbering in structure, almost Victorian in the way it mucks about before settling into the yarn - but it winds up rich and troubling and moving and difficult to forget. Rather too obviously based on the life of famed war cameraman Neil Davis, it follows its hero from sylvan days in the hopfields of Tasmania to the warzones of Vietnam and Cambodia. The evocations of scented Asia, the journo/GI milieu, the chaos of battle are extremely strong.

Over time the hero's naive idealism is forged into - um, experienced idealism, as he comes to identify with the Cambodian people in particular. His ultimate fate is almost operatic in its awfulness.

The French have a word - sillage - which means the ineffable scent left in the air by a woman's passing. This book leaves a sillage. It is the gentle wash of sadness of the old survivors of those horrible South-East Asian wars, as they calculate the prices paid, and wonder at their meaning.

I recommend this book. It is like an old-fashioned Sunday roast - not necessarily the meal you'd choose, but richly satisfying at the end.

I take my hat off to Christopher J. Koch, and give five stars to the job he does in re-creating the ambiance of Saigon and Phnom Penh during the war. But when I average in the zero stars for the meandering 100 page introduction he gives his protagonist, the war correspondent Mike Langford, and the zero stars for credibility, he ends up with three. Credibility? NVA captains simply were not giving three day tours of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to war correspondents, then releasing them. And our protagonist's mad rush to return to Phnom Penh after it had fallen to anarchic, cutthroat barbarians? Sorry. But still, Koch evokes the "Sweet Bird of Youth" with his retrospective of Saigon street life. Memo to Christopher Koch: on your next book, please color code the pages containing the story, so we can more easily skip the filler.

Particularly interesting to those descendants of Irish emigrants who populated the Americas and Australia in the 19th century but also a very well told first person singular story of one "quality" revolutionary gentleman transported from the British Isles and the adventures he underwent in transit, on a hulk in Bermuda and in Van Diemen's land (Tasmania, Australia). Quite detailed and accurate almost sociological and political in its thrust as it traverses events that shaped the 20th century and the tragedies that resulted in that time. Atmospheric and memorable.