House of Glass (Buru Quartet)

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Pramoedya Ananta Toer: House of Glass (Buru Quartet) (1997, Penguin (Non-Classics))

384 pages

English language

Published July 1, 1997 by Penguin (Non-Classics).

ISBN:
978-0-14-025679-6
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4 stars (3 reviews)

1 edition

The End of the Road

4 stars

Intense ACAB energy in this book.

Politically, I feel like this is sort of the driving thesis of the entire quartet. As a story, it's the least exciting to read, but you've gone on the journey of anti-colonial/national political awakening for 3 books, and this one here functions almost as a form of praxis.

We switch perspectives to a police officer for the Colonial government, and given the intensive context gained from the previous 3 books we understand how/why every action this cop takes is evil. Even mundane activities like reading a newspaper are filled with all the oppression of the colonial structures, and will be synthesized in a way to pit indigenous people against each other for the benefit of Europeans (and traitors, like the Narrator of this novel).

Probably a narratively unsatisfying way to end the series... but as an intellectual history, also probably the only way to …

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