A Cry in the Jungle Bar

by Robert Drewe

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0006160182
• ISBN13: 9780006160182
• Release Date: June 1982
• Publisher: Fontana
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Woes of the expat masterfully written

Having spent some time overseas as a bullish, big bloke in a strange land - and more than once - I think I was probably hardwired to like this book. For a couple of reasons, it seemed to really hit home with me. The story adeptly skewers the ex-pat community throughout Asia, and it captures the difficulty inherent in living in a place that's not your real home. The way Australia interacts with Asia - awkwardly, lumbering - is communicated curiously successfully through Dick Cullen, a beautifully melancholic Kim Beazley of a bloke. Cullen's traipsing through Asia - his attempts to fit into the culture, to fit in the different social circles, none of which appear to really work - and his relationship (or lack thereof) with his wife combine to provide a note-perfect portrait of a flawed, sad man. There's a lot to identify with, if you've experienced some of the things this contested character has. I've liked Robert Drewe's writing - particularly Grace and The Drowner - for some time, and have since been working my way through his back catalogue. And I have to say that A Cry In The Jungle Bar has exceeded any expectations. I think it's become my favourite of his works.

Australian classic

This is one of several Australian novels from the 1970s-80s which explore the plight of Australians in South-East Asia. Expatriate scientist and ageing rugby hero Dick Cullen has relocated to the Philippines with Margaret, his allegedly neurotic wife. Cullen works for the UN and is compiling a report about the use of the water buffalo in Asian agriculture. To complete the report, Cullen and two colleagues embark on a regional tour through an increasingly dangerous and Americanized Asia; a tour which, for Cullen, becomes ever more harrowing. Meanwhile, Margaret seeks relief in Eastern mysticism, fad diets and faith healing. Drewe's Asia is one of exotic-erotic charge and the danger of political unrest. He has constructed a very readable novel. It has action, psychological insight, intrigue and `seedy foreigners': everything you could want in this kind of book. Yet it also raises at least three deeper issues: the relationship between masculine anxiety and games of power; the misrepresentation of Asian women as exotic, sexually-available playthings; and the conflict between scientific and spiritual perceptions of experience. Cullen is a man whose size, science and masculinity are being systematically attacked by Asia, and in the particular challenges it makes to him (physical, sexual and epistemological) it becomes a projection of some uniquely Australian concerns. More complex than it seems.