Writer James to launch new book at Ubud writer's festival

Briony Kidd, Contributor, Jakarta

The inaugural Ubud Writers and Readers Festival this October looks set to attract a diverse group of writers from Indonesia, Australia and around the world.

The idea for the ambitious event, which will be held Oct. 11- 17, originated with Janet De Neefe, an Australian who has lived in Bali for the past 20 years (the festival's coordinator in Australia is Tasmanian writer Heather Curnow).

De Neefe and Curnow hope the festival will encourage cultural exchange, while raising awareness of literature in Bali and assisting Ubud's development as a tourism destination.

More than 60 writers, including American Jamie James, have confirmed attendance and anywhere from 500 to 750 delegates are expected.

"The book business in Asia is very small," explained James, who has been based in Jakarta for the past six years.

"This is bad in a way but also good -- in terms of being a big fish in a small pond. It will be stimulating to meet other writers from around the region and hopefully publishers as well."

An experienced journalist, James has volunteered some of his PR expertise to the festival. He also invited some of the writers -- "like Amitav Ghosh, whose wife is a friend of mine".

But his main contribution will be as a writer. Along with celebrated Indonesian writer and editor Goenawan Mohamad, James will take the opportunity to launch his latest book.

The Java Man,James' second novel, was inspired by a night at the theater in London -- Euripides' The Bacchae.

The premise of a stranger coming into a small community and wreaking havoc appealed to the writer: "What if you had an Indonesian in the Dionysus role?"

And so the title character, Noor, came into being. Taking place in England, Singapore and Yogyakarta, the story sees Noor encounter Tildy, a 60-year-old woman who oversees the management of a gloomy historic mansion in England.

Why would an American who lives in Indonesia choose such a setting?

James explains that his friend, Robert Woof, runs a small museum in the Lake District. He has visited often and was struck by the complex politics involved.

But he is quick to point out that the Wordsworth Trust is not the basis for his fictional organization. It is an extrapolation, something absurdly chaotic; James describes a romantic comedy that's intentionally a little old-fashioned. In fact, he says, it's "the kind of story Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant might have been in".

A heady mix of influences indeed, and surely the result will be nothing if not unique.

James is keenly aware of the sensitivities of writing from within a culture other than one's own, and agrees that his perspective will is necessarily that of an outsider.

His first novel, Andrew and Joey, was an epistolary work consisting of e-mails between two Americans in Bali and assorted friends and acquaintances around the world.

"They are foreigners observing Indonesian culture and getting it very wrong," James said.

"The Java Man takes a different approach to the problem. The narrative, while in the third person, provides the reader with multiple viewpoints.

But Noor himself remains enigmatic. Like Dionysus, he is different things to different people; it's only toward the end of the story that his thoughts are revealed.

So is it easier to write a novel the second time around?

"The hurdle you have to overcome is to first prove to yourself that it can actually be done. Confidence is the hardest part about fiction writing."

But James takes heart from his literary heroes.

"If you've read Conrad, Maugham, Graeme Greene, you are enthralled by their vivid images and great stories. They bring alive both conflict and the kind of rapture that some foreigners feel when they come to Asia -- the feeling of having found my place in the world.'

Clearly, Jamie James has not finished with this theme. His next novel will be a story of expat life spanning several decades, beginning with the Vietnam War.

Meanwhile, James is about to move to Seminyak in Bali, where he and his partner have recently opened a restaurant, Waroeng Bonita, with a mix of Indonesian and Western styles.

http://www.ubudwritersfestival.com