The Ten Thousand Things

Enchanting story that swirls with a gently mystical appreciation for Ambon in the colonial era, full of observations of local mystical culture and a deep, sometimes ambivalent love for the island.

Much has been said in praise of this book before, so I would only like to add that not only is it beautifully written, but it also reflects a deep understanding of the place where the story unfolds. Thus the author paints a realistic (though sad) picture of the Moluccas and their people, rather than just using them as an exotic background to her story.

"They let themselves drop, their fins upright, as if they were drowning, rose again; they kept together, swam over and under each other, carefully, not touching, with a strangely thoughtful yet casual grace. "Then, as unexpectedly as they had risen, they dropped down into the deep and did not reappear."I am glad my sister recommended this book to me. It goes to show the best books are in many cases the least popular. With one eye on passage above (read the book to find the wild Proustian metonymical link symbolized by the turtles) , I wonder why The Ten Thousand Things is not more popular. The book is thoroughly steeped in the rhetorical tones of Hemingway; yet the effect is unearthly enough to elude any categorization. Time will reveal the books timeless appeal: in a just literary world this masterpiece would be in every bookstore. Thoroughly weird, thoroughly normal, the book is a lamented reflection of time and death through an irridescent mirror.

The Ten Thousand Things is an uncommonly odd book. Yet there is an undercurrent of almost suffocating pressure that "betrays" the sometimes modest exposition. It fits into no particular category - magic realism would be the first term that springs to mind - yet the wonderful review on the back flap makes allusions to Hemingway.... It cannot be pigeonholed. " I fear the man of one book," (to paraphrase St. Augustine) and I feel his statement corroborates well with Dermout's gorgeous novel. The exposition is odd yet simple. Her descriptions are so sharp that at times, at the risk sounding silly, they flash off the page. There is no doubt in my mind that this book has been overlooked. I would feel no remorse in suggesting this book to anyone. The "inner bay," "the outer bay," and the garden near the old woman's house are presented in a robust and intriguing manner, far more gut- wrentching than "The English Patient" for my tastes. The Ten Thousand Things is a dreamy fairy tale with a savagely imaginative moral that is far more subliminal than I feel most people, on a haphazard reading, might suspect