JCTES
Joseph Conrad, The Eastern Stories – Penguin has compiled the stories that Joseph Conrad wrote about his seafaring in Southeast Asia and put them in a single volume, which concludes with “The Secret Sharer”. There are six stories, ranging from 18 pages to 158. Many of them are quite dull, but all of them are well written, and many was the time I drifted out of my boredom and realised that I was reading a really awesomely well-written piece of English fiction! Many of the pieces are semi-autobiographical, especially the first one, “Youth”, which tells the tale of a near-disastrous voyage carrying coal from Newcastle to Bangkok. Ah… youth! Recounted by an old man around a table in the public house with fellow company directors, it’s a man vs nature tale of romance and majesty. “The End Of The Tether”, the longest tale in the book, is probably the best, recounting the tale of a washed-up seaman who takes on a contract with a despotic ship-owner, also the ships chief engineer (who therefore accompanies every voyage and hampers the captain’s work), who comes to a disastrous decision. It’s also the only tale in the book to drift into Singapore, with some scenes around the Padang and the Esplanade. Crazy stuff. “The Secret Sharer” is also a strange, nearly homoerotic tale of a man and his double. “For The Dollars” is a tale of tragedy and sacrifice deep in the jungle, very nice stuff. “The Lagoon” is an interesting tale of a man who betrays his brother for the love of a woman, while “Karain: A Memory” is another tale of revenge gone wrong. At the beginning is an 18-page introduction by Ban Kah Choon, whom I know nothing about, but I suppose he’s some sort of a historian specialising in the history of 20th century Southeast Asia.