Journalist James tells a tale of Bali

Bruce Emond, Contributor, Jakarta

The journalist in Jamie James keeps up his guard for potential verbal missteps, wary of the flip side that comes with sounding off in print.

He will start an anecdote and then do an abrupt mental rewind, suddenly realizing that it's better not to go there. "Sound pompous, don't I?" he asks wryly at least twice during an interview at a popular Jakarta coffee shop.

Yet, when it comes to talking about the favorable reception to his first novel, Andrew & Joey -- A tale of Bali, James does not hold back in expressing his delight. The irony is not lost on a freelance writer who acknowledges feeling "creepy...I didn't write it for them", when he receives thank-you messages from the subjects of his travel reports and book reviews.

While there were the expected congratulations from friends and acquaintances, Andrew & Joey has also been the subject of a glowing review in TIME magazine. James recognizes, however, that the Bali bombings gave the work unexpected timeliness and a news angle.

"It's been thrilling. ... Stories can really move people, and that's what a writer wants. ... When the (TIME) review came out, it was like little Tiffany getting accepted at Harvard; we were all celebrating," he said.

Andrew & Joey is "small" novel, just shy of 300 pages, consisting of the flurry of e-mails that go back and forth between a handful of characters as one of the protagonists, New York-based choreographer Joey, is intoxicated by the pleasures of life among the lotus eaters in Bali.

As Joey's 15-year relationship is torn asunder as he descends into reckless self-indulgence, the messages are often funny and ironic, sometimes cruel, and at times searingly personal and poignant. Ultimately, they show that while we may make our own reality, selectively donning or lifting masks for others, our words often belie the pretense.

"With e-mails, you can get into the minds of the characters, and I guess I was trying to go deeply into the psycho-sexual lives of the characters and finding out things they would never want you to know," James said.

Although the novel centers on the relationship between two men, James does not want Andrew & Joey to be neatly shunted aside as simply gay studies material.

"I don't really like this term 'gay novel'. I can certainly understand why publishers use that term, but while the main characters are gay, is the novel `gay'? That wasn't the point of it. It's just a book about those people and they happen to be gay," he said.

James, 51, is familiar with other Southeast Asian countries from his work as an art critic, and his depiction of the Ugly Expatriate Abroad rings as true for Bali's watering holes as for the crowded girlie bars of Manila or Patpong. In a new land far from the conventions that keep them in line in their own societies, some people really do let their desires get the better of them.

As Joey succumbs to the temptations of paradise, his life shows parallels with that of Walter Spies -- the German artist who made Bali his home in the 1930s, but was imprisoned on moral charges -- whom Joey makes the subject of a dance performance.

It would be a mistake to consider the book a piece of unbridled expat-bashing. Some of the Indonesian characters, especially the young dancer, Wayan, whom Joey falls in lust with, are also sharply drawn. When Wayan is basking in the adoring stares in New York bars, he is, like Joey in Bali, an exotic object of desire.

"A novel isn't much good to write, and therefore not much good to read, unless the characters come alive. And that's true when you're writing it -- the characters have to take a life of their own and they can surprise you," he said.

James's journey to Joey's haunts in Bali and Jakarta, where James now lives, has been a long and interesting one. Raised in suburban Houston, he studied at Williams College, Massachusetts, doing an internship at Interview, the ultra-hip New York magazine run by artist Andy Warhol and his cohorts from the Factory.

He moved into journalism, with an early highlight including a profile of Deborah Harry for Rolling Stone magazine. He has since contributed pieces to the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, and Conde Nast Traveler, among other publications.

James also worked as a staff art critic of The New Yorker in the mid-1990s, traveling around Europe and Southeast Asia, writing about traditional cultures and civilizations, such as the Angkor in Cambodia. It was while he was in Jakarta writing a profile of novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer that he met his partner, Rendy (the book is dedicated to him), and eventually decided to relocate to Jakarta.

Travel writing does not present too many opportunities today -- "That's completely dried up, not just in Southeast Asia, (because) one of the worst aspects of what is happening in the world is that international travel is an endangered species" -- and James is spending his time in his Central Jakarta home, writing freelance articles and working on a second novel.

The latter is about a Javanese in England, in some respects an Andrew & Joey in reverse.

"The new novel has a lot of characters, but the principal characters are not gay, and that surprises me. In the beginning, I thought that some of the main characters may be gay, but it turned out that they weren't."

For the time being, the much-traveled James is making Jakarta his home. He said he loved the diversity of the country -- "In many ways, it is like the United States: all these ethnic groups brought together" -- and is comfortable living here.

However, unlike his main character, his love of the country is not about sampling the exotic as a hedonist abroad.

"Joey's view of Indonesia is oversimplified. There is a lot of moralism here, just as there is anywhere. But, generally speaking, if you're polite and mind your own business, people will leave you alone and respect you."