Real Balinese Stories.
ByJean Couteau et al . Specktra
Communications. Denpasar. 1999

Astuti Aswadi Snacks on a sweet and sour selection of stories

Sometimes a carefully chosen display of tasty morsels can be more satisfying than a substantial feast. You can nibble at this, dip into that, savour something spicy, piquant or bland. Think of nasi campur, smorgasbord and sushi; but don't even consider the usually tasteless 'full international buffet', which lacks distinctive flavour. If you're looking for taste and variety with a uniquely Balinese flavour, Jean Couteau's collection, Real Balinese Stories, serves up a delightful menu to suit every reader's palate.

These bite-sized pieces were originally published in the now defunct English Corner of the Bali Post. Mr Couteau and his team assemble ingredients from the multi-layered aspects of daily life in Bali, giving us new insights on familiar and more unusual topics in an easily digested form. By turn thought-provoking, humourous, controversial and charming, there is always an unmistakable flavour of authenticity throughout. The introduction describes these pieces as "windows of reality" (sic.), and it is this quality of capturing the genuine that makes this book a welcome addition to the ever-hungry readers' diet. The general theme running through this volume, the first in a series of

three, is the critical encounters Bali faces in dealing with the challenges of modernity and the impacts - positive and negative - of tourism, migration and intercultural conflict. This is, however, no academic treatise or 'Bali is ruined' polemic, but a more personalised portayal of how the rapid rate of change dynamically affects real individuals. Whether describing poor Javanese farmers searching for gold on the streets of Denpasar or jaded Australians seeking enlightenment or love in paradise, these are real people's stories.

What happens when cultures collide ? When the ancient meets the modern? When ritual is packaged and sold to order ? Bali has been a magnet for migrants for many years: the hopeful, the curious and the plain desperate are drawn here from the poverty-ridden villages of other islands or the skyscrapers of New York. These perceptive pieces explore small slices of such lives and let us into a world way beyond the tourist guide cliches of 'ageless ceremonies' and 'the island of the gods'.

Topics are wide-ranging, encompassing haircuts, dogs, mattress sales, motorbikes and sex - to name just a few. Pithy and precise, these articles sometimes raise a smile or sometimes raise your hackles as the authors do not shy from depicting the darker sides of the so-called paradise island - prostitution, poverty, prejudices old and new. Mr Couteau, as his alter ego, the Balinese Kadek Adnyana, certainly stirs the pot and heats the chilli factor up to fiery in his strongly worded observations.

Sample 'Crazy Tourists in Bali' for his powerful argument in support of the village authorities who refused to cremate a French tourist (a non-Hindu). This particular piece provoked considerable outcry when first published and Mr Couteau clearly derives plenty of wry pleasure at the expense of one of his respondents.

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