THIS EARTH OF MANKIND

The first US publication of a somewhat unsatisfactory second novel from Indonesian political dissident Toer (The Fugitive, 1990). Set during the last two years of the 19th century in then- Dutch-ruled Java (now Indonesia), Toer's story of Minke, a Javanese native and everyman of sorts (he has no family name by choice), was first told to the author's fellow political prisoners in the 1970's. Minke, a student and embryonic Javanese nationalist, has broken with his family, who seek advancement through the colonial system, and dreams of becoming a writer who will demonstrate to the world the great talents of the ``Native'' Javanese. But then, while he runs a furniture business on the side and studies, he is introduced to the mysterious Mellema family, who live in a splendid compound in the country. Here, he meets the delicate and beautiful ``mixed race'' girl Annelies, her boorish brother Robert, and their mother, the brilliant and forceful ``Native'' concubine Nyai. Prejudice against ``Natives'' is rampant, and as Minke becomes increasingly involved with Nyai's family intrigues and learns their history, he too becomes part of their tragic destiny. Victims of racial prejudice, Minke and Annelies—who defy convention and marry—are punished by the colonial authorities and must part when Annelies is banished to the Netherlands. A just indictment of the pettiness and cruelty of excruciatingly race-conscious colonialism—and Toer has vividly evoked a special time and place—but the story, unlike the far more subtle and universal The Fugitive, is too obvious a polemic.