Birney, Alfred. De Tolk van Java.

In the Dutch-Indonesian writer Alfred Birney’s semi-autobiographical De Tolk van Java, the narrator -alternately called Alan Nolan and Alfred – unravels and criticizes the complicated war history of his violent Indonesian father. The widely acclaimed novel explores the relationship between father Arto and son Alan, the latter being unable and unwilling to forgive the former for all the beatings he had to endure when he was a child. Apart from being a piece of ‘Väterliteratur’ (albeit in the Dutch colonial context), the novel is also a double coming of age story. In different sections, Alan’s 1950’s childhood in the Netherlands  and Arto’s youth in the Dutch East Indies are discussed. The memoirs of Arto recall his youth and military actions in the Dutch East Indies. At first, he is a victim of the violence of the Japanese occupier, but he doesn’t shy away from taking revenge. However, after the Japanese capitulate following the end of World War II and a violent and chaotic phase of the Indonesian National Revolution starts, Arto chooses the side of the Dutch army that tries to reinstall former colonial relations and becomes a ruthless perpetrator. He especially flourishes as an interpreter turned interrogator and torturer. In a direct style that doesn’t refrain from brutal details, the novel illustrates the gradual normalisation of violence in war times and the multiple roles a person can take on: Arto is Levi’s ‘grey zone’ personified. In the fifth and last part of the novel, Alan discovers the memoirs his father wrote during the war, which are the same memoirs that make up several parts of De Tolk van Java. Through Alan’s critique on both his father’s character and his own violence-filled childhood, it also becomes clear how trauma can lead someone to become violent in other settings as well, basically making them a perpetrator. This becomes most visible when after he arrives in the Netherlands, Arto is unable to let go of his traumatic past and releases all the rage inside him onto his family.  Finally, the novel also offers a critique on Dutch memory politics by filling in the gaps that are glossed over in the public debate. Because of its combination of discussing the shameful parts of Dutch colonial memory and life in the Netherlands after WWII, the novel also lends itself very well for teaching.

Author of this entry: Lisanne Meinen

Birney, Alfred. De Tolk van Java. Amsterdam: De Geus, 2016.