The Green Iguana offers twenty one vignettes of life as an Australian expatriate in Java and Bali, covering all kinds of topics: the future of Kuta, Indonesian attitudes to nature, the perils of crossing the street, the amusing misuse of English in Indonesian advertising, and so forth. Goodfellow combines an ability to bring people and places alive with insight into the underlying structural features of Indonesian society. His themes are not always novel (once or twice I felt he laboured unnecessarily to highlight corruption and massive inequalities of wealth), but the stories are thought-provoking and in some cases, such as a description of the tricks used by crooked moneychangers, practically useful. More importantly, they are entertaining: complemented with ten pages of vibrant colour illustrations by cartoonist Weldon Neville, they will provide a pleasant hour's reading for anyone who has travelled in Indonesia.

5 March 2000

Related reviews:

- Rob Goodfellow - Api Dalam Sekam: The New Order and the Ideology of Anti-Communism
- books about Indonesia + Indonesian history
- books about Java + Javanese culture
- books about travel