Book Reviews
by Otto Steinmayer, in
the
New Straits Times,
New Sunday Times, &c.
[
back]
- 10 Apr 1991: "Anti-historical novel of
unrelieved misery."
Charles
Palliser, The quincunx .
- 31 May 1991: "An insight into
Brooke's raj." Henry Keppel, The
expedition to Borneo of HMS Dido.
- 24 July 1991: "It's love that
will make the world go on."
Nicholas
Mosley, Hopeful monsters . [novel]
- 28 July 1991: "Hollywood
hacks and schmucks." Ian Hamilton, Writers
in Hollywood.
- 11 Aug 1991: "Their majesties'
'secret histories.'" Elizabeth
Longford, The Oxford book of royal anecdotes.
- 23 Aug 1991: "The future as we will
suffer it." Alvin Toffler,
Powershift .
- 28 Aug 1991: "Seven of the best from
Argentina." Raul Galvez, From
the ashen land of the virgin: conversations with Bioy Casares, Borges,
Deveni, Etchecopar, Ocampo, Orozco, Sabato in Argentina.
- 30 October 1991: "Marquez makes history
into magic." Gabriel
García Márquez, The General in his Labyrinth.
Penguin.
- 28 December 1991: "The best reads of the year/" Gabriel
García
Márquez, The General in his Labyrinth. Penguin.
- 15 Feb 1992: "Continuity and kinks,
from Mosley's point of
view."
Nicholas Mosley, Imago Bird. [novel]
- 1 Mar 1992: "Thanks for these
reprints." William O. Krohn, In
Borneo jungles , and Carl Lumholz, Through central Borneo.
- 29 Mar 1992: "The master of pun and
fun." S.J. Perelman, The
most
of S.J. Perelman.
- 11 Apr 1992: "Quantum
leap for the 'experimental' novel."
Nicholas
Mosley, Catastrophe practice and Judith .
- 2 May 1992: "Wrong views of the
Balinese corrected." Gordon D.
Jensen
and Luh Ketut Suryani, The Balinese people: a reinvestigation of
character. OUP
- 13 June 1992: "History as it
should be written." Graham
Saunders, Bishops and Brookes: the anglican mission and the Brooke
raj
in Sarawak 1848-1941. OUP
- 15 August 1992: "Early Sarawak
sketched with style and
sensibility."
Harriette McDougall, Sketches of our life in Sarawak, OUP
- 2 January 1993: "More best reads of 1993." Brian Vickers, Bali,
a Paradise Created. Periplus.
- 3 April 1993 [Business Times ] "A
guide to state of local
arts
in the 80s." Kee Thuan Chye, just in so many words.
Heinmann.
- 24 April 1993: "In search of the monkey with the big snout."
David
MacDonald, Expedition to Borneo . S. Abdul Majeed.
- 8 May 1993: "Borneo before
good human things got lost." Victor
King,
comp. and ed., The Best of Borneo Travel . OUP.
- 15 May 1993: "A major 'event' in
Borneo studies." Charles Hose,
The Pagan Tribes of Borneo. OUP.
- 25 Sept 1993: "OCD is OK but is it
VFM?" The Oxford
Dictionary
of Abbreviations.
- 4 Dec 1993: "Post-modern
satire on real life." Malcolm Bradbury,
Doctor Criminale . Penguin.
- 22 Jan 1994: "Borneo before the
deluge." Eric Hansen, Stranger
in the Forest.
- 19 Feb 1994: "Hornaday's hunt."
William T. Hornaday, The
Experiences of a Naturalist in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo.
- 5 March 1994: "Photos say it all
for Borneo's living beauty."
Max
Lawrence and Paul Chai, Borneo Alive.
- 21 May 1994: "Antiquity for the
Common Reader." John Boardman et
a;., The Oxford History of the Classical World.
- 30 July 1994: "Iban way to cope
with change." Peter M. Kedit, Iban
Bejalai .
- 29 Oct 1994: "Ritchie's ragout."
James Ritchie, Bruno
Manser: The
Inside Story .
- 8 April 1995: "One of the noblest
of men." Spenser St. John, The
Life of Sir James Brooke.
- 12 April 1995: "Poets, by all means get worked up." Letter to
editor,
Literary Page.
- 13 May 1995: "Great guide to
paradise." Adrian Vickers, Travelling
to Bali.
- 30 Aug 1995: "Tough act
following a tougher one." Joseph Heller,
Closing Time.
- 18 January 1996: "Elegy in memory of the late judge Eustoffe."
[English translation]
- 8 February 1996: "Elegiac verse to the memory of the ex-judge".
[Latin text]
- 28 April 1996: "In defence of Abdullah Hussain." Letter to
editor,
Literary Page.
- 22 Oct 1996: "Understanding the middle voice."
- 16 Nov 1996: "Chances are you
will like this book." Peter L.
Bernstein, Against the Gods: the Remarkable Story of Risk.
- 11 Jan 1997: "Truth duller than
fiction." Robert M. Gates, From
the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How
They
Won the Cold War.
- 8 March 1997: "Getting a grip on shadow
play." David Irvine, Leather
Gods and Wooden Heroes: Java's Classical Wayang.
- 26 April 1997: "The best book on the
subject." Robin Baker, Sperm
Wars: the Science of Sex.
- 2 August 1997: "Postcards
from the past." Rajah Brooke's
Borneo .
- 9 August 1997: "Dyeing that's certainly not
dead." Kim Jane
Saunders, Contemporary Tie and Dye Textiles of Indonesia.
- 1 April 1998: "Charged with grand larceny." Poking a little fun
at
Amir Muhammad.
- 3 Februaru 1999: "Poignant and
panoramic." Bob Reece, Masa
Jepun:
Sarawak under the Japanese, 1941-1945.
- 19 January 2000: "Burma: Suffering
is part of life." Rory
Maclean, Under the Dragon: Travels in a Betrayed Land.
- 31 May 2000: "Champion of Iban
self-sufficiency." Vernon L.
Poritt, Bapak Guru Orang Bisaya, A Pioneer in Social
Experimentation
in Sarawak: Ro Bewsher,1910-1998.
- 9 August 2000: "The Most
Offending Soul Alive." Judith M.
Heimann, The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and his
Remarkable
Life. New Reality , vol 3. no. 3 (May/June 2000), 8.
- 7 January 2001: "Useful and
beautiful." Heidi Munan, Sarawak
Crafts: methods, materials, and motifs.
- 7 March 2001: "The Orang
Asli as they really are." Colin
Nicholas, The Orang Asli and the Contest for Resources: Indigenous
Politics,
Development and Identity in Peninsular Malaysia.
- 1 April 2001: "Dennis
Lau--images that capture the soul."
Dennis
Lau, Borneo: a Photographic Journey.
Review of Yong K.T., Tan Sri Datuk
Amar Stephen : A Life Twice
Lived:
A Memoir and Ong Kee Hui, Tan Sri Datuk (Dr): Footprints
on
Sarawak: Memoirs... Journal of the Malaysian Branch,
Royal Asiatic
Society vol. lxxiii part 1, 2000, 126-129.