Into the Heart of Borneo in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 09, 2012 Jason rated it liked it

My good friends Natalie and Dave gave me this book just before I left to live in Penninsular Malaysia, and it has really served to pique my interest in the country I now live in. I found this to be an informative and well-written book, and the author definitely knew his way around Borneo and its customs.

My quibbles with the book did slightly detract from my overall enjoyment of the narrative. O'Hanlon had the tendency to go on and on about different birds he encountered along the way, as well as ...more

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Aug 03, 2007 Kay rated it really liked it

Shelves: natural-histry, alfred-russel-wallace, travelogues, nonfiction, malay_archipelago

An enjoyable travelogue in the manner of Eric Newby, Bill Bryson, and other self-admittedly cack-handed travelers. The wonderfully ill-prepared O'Hanlon and his companion, the even more ill-prepared James Fenton (a poet), trek through Borneo, where countless dangers could befall them (but happily don't, thanks to the deft assistance of three native guides). True, there are leeches and dreadful food, not to mention some close calls, but O'Hanlon describes these misadventures with high humor.

Even An enjoyable travelogue in the manner of Eric Newby, Bill Bryson, and other self-admittedly cack-handed travelers. The wonderfully ill-prepared O'Hanlon and his companion, the even more ill-prepared James Fenton (a poet), trek through Borneo, where countless dangers could befall them (but happily don't, thanks to the deft assistance of three native guides). True, there are leeches and dreadful food, not to mention some close calls, but O'Hanlon describes these misadventures with high humor.

Even more humorous are accounts of the epic feasts and drunken parties at native villages along the way. O'Hanlon excels when describing the tribal people he and Fenton meet. And while it's clear that he really doesn't know what the hell is going on half the time, his three faithful guides - Leon, Inghai, and Dana - certainly do, and it's the portraits of these three in particular that stay with the reader. The guides are often amused, and more than occasionally irritated by O'Hanlon and Fenton's incompetence, and a sort of odd humor results from O'Hanlon's recounting of their solicitousness for their inexperienced charges. Here's Leon, for example, looking after 'Redmon':

"Redmon," he said, sotto voce, "I hopes you and Jams not go with hotel girls?"
"I haven't seen any hotel girls."
"They on top floor. Very naughties."
"Do you go with hotel girls?"
"No Redmon," said Leon with great seriousness, "there is new diseases here. Your spear it rots. You go to hospital, they look at your spear, you take medicine. We have a word for this diseases. I not know it in English. We Iban, in our language, we call it syphilis."

It's these exchanges and the relationship that develops between O'Hanlon, Fenton, and the three Iban guides that provides the richest material in the book, but to O'Hanlon's credit his humor is never the expense of the guides, though the two younger Iban clearly have something of the scamp about them. O'Hanlon even seems in awe of the older non-English speaking guide, Dana, an Iban of some stature who agrees to accompany them.

Of course, there's plenty of room for cross-cultural misunderstanding along the way, but O'Hanlon, to his credit, never slips into condescension. On the contrary, if anything his self-deprecation seems almost ingrained. Still, O'Hanlon's sharp eye for detail, whether it's flora or fauna or the customs of the people he encounters, give lie to his buffoonery, making this a fascinating as well as amusing travel tale.

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