Two Tales of the East

Bob Vuyk en H.F. Friedercy

Uitg. Perplus, softcover

THE LAST HOUSE IN THE WORLD
Beb Vuyk

THE COUNSELOR
HJ Friedericy

These two short works vividly bring to life the harsh realities of existence for colonists in the remoter corners of the former Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia.

The Last House in the World describes life on the remote eastern island of Buru, where the author and her husband made their home in the 1930s. They ran a huge kayuputih oil concession, a major export then. The family, their workers and myriad hangers-on eked out a living through good and bad times until a bureaucratic twist of fate deprived them of their livelihood. After the war the couple took up Indonesian citizenship, a brave act. Beb Vuyk finally returned to Holland in 1958 after a prolific career writing largely autobiographical works.

Friedericy's The Counselor relates the experiences of a young colonial officer working near Makassar on the island of Sulawesi in the 1920s. Life in the outer inlands in those days often erupted into violence for no apparent reason, as exemplified by Friedericy's graphic description of the strange phenomenon of running amok (a Malay word). Friedericy, like several contemporaries, began his literary career in a Japanese concentration camp. He produced five booksfiction as well as non-fiction?all describing the remote island region where he worked as a young man.