Maria DermoutThe Ten Thousand Things

"She knew that a bay and rocks and trees bending over the surf cannot relieve sadness -- can sadness be relieved, or can one only pass it by, very slowly?"In my reading over the past decade, I have really come to trust the reissues of the New York Review of Books -- works of fiction, predominantly foreign, that have undeservedly slipped out of circulation. They do for older literature what the Europa Press does for contemporary: open the reader's eyes to a wide range of geographical locations, subjects, and narrative approaches. There are many hits but few misses, and even the oddball books that are hard to classify are fascinating in their oddness.So it is with this unique novel by Dutch author Maria Dermoût, first published in 1958. How to describe it: a ghost story, a generation-spanning romance, a tropical idyll? It begins as a novel, then dissolves all the conventions in a series of apparently unconnected stories, only to pull it all together in a final chapter resonant with the echoes of old losses and present joy. But let's start with the beginning: "On the island in the Moluccas there were a few gardens left from the great days of spice growing...". On one of these, on the Inner Bay, lives a widow, an old Dutch settler, known as "The Lady of the Small Garden." She has a grand-daughter, Felicia, who grows up among the plants, shells, and animal life of the bay, an idyllic childhood full of discovery and imagination. Full, too, of the imagination of others: the beliefs of the island people, the visits of the old Bibi selling objects with special powers, the collections in her grandmother's curiosity cabinet, and the ghosts of three little girls in pink who died long ago on the same day.The book's presiding spirit is the 17th-century German Dutch botanist Georg Eberhard Rumphius, who first classified the plants of the Indonesian archipelago, but also published a book of curiosities which is as speculative as his herbiary was scientific. Dermoût also shifts from objective description to inner imagination, often within a single sentence. Fact and fancy intermingle in this book, time is dissolved, the Lady of the Small Garden even morphs from grandmother to granddaughter in the book's opening section, and nobody even notices.For Felicia, after completing her education in Europe and marrying a man who soon deserts her, comes back to the Island with her infant son Himpies. She lives in the Small Garden and grows old in her turn. Decades slip by in an eyeblink. Major happenings pass in moments; minor ones seem suspended in time. World events hardly seem to touch this outpost; it is hard even to put a date on the action, though it probably begins in the later 19th century. But Felicia is no hermit; even as an old woman, she welcomes the guests who sail their proas to her dock. One day each year, however, she keeps strictly for herself, as a vigil for all those who have been murdered on the island....Accustomed as I now was to the unpredictable aspects of this book, I was taken by surprise when, about half-way through, Dermoût suddenly takes leave of Felicia and embarks upon three stories which seem to have no connection with each other. There is the retired Commissioner at the Outer Bay, holed up in an old house with four women and a collection of gold and pearls. There is the cook Constance, with her parade of admirers and her fondness for dancing at the rattan tug-of-war. There is the Javanese prince who takes work as a clerk to a Scottish professor, revisiting Rumphius' work on the flora and fauna of the islands. Only at the very end, when we return to Felicia's annual vigil, do we see the connections between the stories, not merely in the deaths they contain, but also in the cycle of life, a vision of wholeness that embraces shells and pearls, a fleet of jellyfish and a tame cockatoo, memories of children and young men killed in their prime, and extending even to the murderers themselves.

I gave it three stars because I had a hard time following the plot. It could just be my issue. I did appreciate the beautiful writing.

what i find most striking about the other reviews of this book is their failure to comment on the fact that this is not a novel.it's a collection of fused fragments.there is a good novella here ,three pretty good short stories and a pair of bookends.the bookends are a literary device aimed at contriving a unity that doesn't flow from what you read.there is a rather boring "foreward" and a moderately more interesting "afterward".i suspect that either the author or an editor concluded rightly that there wasn't much of a market for the fragments of an unknown elderly writer . hence it was decided,this was going to be a novel even if it wasn't.what difference does it make ? well i was so bored by the"lovely","atmoospheric","foreward" that i almost stopped reading the book. i assumed this was an integral part of a novel and not a good portent. as it turns out you can easily skip this part and get on to the meat of the book.in most instances you'll be glad you did.dermout was a good writer.she wasn't a novelist.knowing that will probably increase most peoples pleasure in reading the book ,particularly those who are impatient with seemingly unending description.i almost hate to say it but dermout would have benefited from reading simenon.

A strange little book about life on a remote island in the Malaccas (Indonesia) years ago. Beautifully written, but at times hard to follow, I was transported to another time and place not familiar to me although I have traveled to a good part of the world. If you are looking for a fast paced action novel this is not it. If you are looking for something entirely new, written about a place you will never visit and a culture you might not be able to understand this is your book. It is a delicate story about a family over several generations who live on a remote island in southeast Asia. Enjoy.

Beautiful and elegantly written. The author made the island location turn into a picture of colors and textures.The characters were a diverse mix of beliefs. cultures and backgrounds. The story often highlights how different their thought processes were. Some were a bit difficult to understand and hard to empathize with. This book seemed to be written by the island, with its rich and very different culture that transcended time and the generations of people who lived there. The beliefs were interesting, mysterious and quite foreign to me .Overall, worth the read.

not as good as all the hype about it....I love good prose and a good story.. Strayed must have been so alone (of course she was) to have recommended this.

This book was outstanding. I literally could hardly put it down. I read it in two sittings! This author does not describe things, she paints you a clear and vivid picture. You are not an observer of the island, you are there. You are not hearing of the characters, you know them intimately. Just when you think she has taken you on to another story, she brings it all together and ties them together with a neat little piece of sea grass. You shiver with the foreshadowing. You rebuke, but forgive. You mourn and empathize. Your heart fills with understanding. And in the end, you reluctantly put the book down and "try to go on living."

This book flows like a dream, intermingling truth and fantasy in a web of multigenerational myths. Like memories and myths, the quality of the stories is incomplete, sometimes confusing. It is a book or feelings couched in fragments of tales and curiosities. None of the characters is what you would want and all are more than you expect. This book will stay with me for quite a while.

I was very intrigued by this book. The most curious book I have ever read. I agree with some reviewers that it can be difficult to follow, I found myself reading over some pages but still I couldn’t put it down. I had images and smells pop into my head throughout the book. The author is excellent at setting the scene, I found my mind transported to the past, a land I have never been to. I was sad to get to the end and plan to read the book again in a couple of months.

I loved this book. It painted such a rich tapestry of the life and people of the small garden. It took you into the heart and mystery of 'Ten thousand things'.I would recommend it to anyone searching to step on the shores and listen to the wash: Father, mother, child.

One of the most beautiful, unique, poetic prose ever! Loved it so much that trying to paint it now.... it's just about everything important in life and written in very visually appealing way. True feast!

I found this book difficult to follow though easy to read. Read it after reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed which I loved but am puzzled that this as the book she had to have with her on her journey.

My favourite book.