Indonesia, Etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation

What I loved about this book were all the intimate insights into the daily life of rural Indonesians. It is not easy for an average traveler with no knowledge of Indonesian language to venture so deep into the rural parts, but thanks to Elizabeth Pisani we can get a glimpse! The book provides a ton of hilarious anecdotes about local traditions and customs, most of which warmed my heart towards the Indonesians, but also got me wondering if we are truly in the same century.

What I didn't love was the unnecessarily complex structure of the text, which made it a tedious and slow read. The narrative itself was easy to follow even with non-linear timeline due to woven-in references to Elizabeth's prior trips a decade or two earlier. But I felt like there were many unnecessary details and over-complicated language structures without which I would have enjoyed the book twice as much!