[In the following review, Coppola praises Footsteps as a worthy continuation of Pramoedya's Buru series but comments that the author's emphasis on “broad humanistic ideals” may be unattractive to some readers.]

Pramoedya Ananta Toer's “Buru tetralogy,” based on the life of the preeminent Indonesian nationalist and pioneering journalist Tirto Adi Suryo, was written on Buru Island, where the novelist was imprisoned without trial for fourteen years for his communist sympathies and alleged implication in the cataclysmic 1 October 1965 coup. This fictionalized account, starting in 1898, traces in bildungsroman fashion the story of Minke, the protagonist-narrator, a “Native” who, in the first novel of the series, This Earth of Mankind (1992), leaves his village to go to the port town of Surabaya, where, as one of only two “Natives” in the prestigious Dutch-language grammar school, he experiences firsthand the racial, social, and religious prejudices of the Dutch toward all non-Europeans. In the second volume, Child of All Nations (1993; see WLT 69:1, p. 226), Minke encounters the ruthless antics of powerful sugar planters, against whom exploited peasant workers eventually revolt; he also learns of a general nationalist awakening in the Philippines, Japan, and China.

In Footsteps Minke moves from provincial Surabaya to Batavia, or Betawi (today known as Jakarta), the political and intellectual center of the colony, where he attends a medical school, the only school of higher education for “Natives” in the East Indies. This move is a metaphor for the larger movement and growth which Minke experiences in the wider world of a major Southeast Asian society, which contains many of the contradictions and problems found in any society in transition. On the one hand, Minke seems strongly drawn to Western science, education, and notions of personal and national freedom; yet, on the other, he also realizes the alienation these features bring to colonized people. He remarks, “Modernity brings the loneliness of orphaned humanity, cursed to free itself from unnecessary ties of custom, blood—even from the land, and if need be, from others of its kind.” This observation encapsulates Minke's life quest generally, but is particularly applicable to Footsteps.

Minke does well in medical school, but because of writings the Dutch authorities deem seditious, he is forced to leave before completing his degree. He marries again (his first wife, Annelies, half “Native” and half Dutch, died in the first novel), this time to a princess, with whom he finds considerable personal happiness for a while. However, he learns the wrenching news that he is unable to sire children, a revelation that seems to release in him other kinds of creative energies, particularly those as a writer and editor, in which capacity he undertakes the arduous and seemingly impossible job of raising the political and social consciousness of his countrymen from all classes. At the end of the novel, with his parents' hard-won approval, Minke plans an extended tour of Southeast Asia, where he hopes to organize “Natives” into a political and social force in the country: the Dutch his target in the political sphere; conservative Islam, especially its attitudes toward women, in the social. At the same time, he also divorces his wife, whom he deeply loves, because he realizes that the public life he has chosen will leave little if any time for a private one. Their leave-taking is particularly poignant.

Footsteps, like all of Pramoedya's works, demonstrates a strong commitment to broad humanistic ideals. For some readers, these ideals may seem to appear too close to the surface and to be discussed too lengthily, giving the writing in some places the tenor of a political tract. However, Pramoedya's skillful characterization and abilities as a storyteller more than compensate for such possible minor flaws. As with any good novel in a series, the story ends leaving the reader eager to move on to the next installment. One hopes the wait in this instance will be brief.