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Location: Home» All Books » General » OUTCASTS OF THE ISLANDS: THE SEA GYPSIES OF SOUTH EAST ASIA

OUTCASTS OF THE ISLANDS: THE SEA GYPSIES OF SOUTH EAST ASIA

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Author: Sebastian Hope
Publisher: FLAMINGO
Category: Book

Buy Used: $4.99

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

2 reviews
Sales Rank: 4838694

Format: Import
Media: Paperback
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5

ISBN: 0006551998
EAN: 9780006551997
ASIN: 0006551998

Publication Date: 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Some slight wear on book from reading, binding and pages are in very good shape.

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - The Outcasts of the Islands

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars

A waste of time December 13, 2005
Orlando De Guzman (Philippines)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

"I know of no place in the world more conducive to introspection than a cheap hotel room in Asia." Thus begins a 285 page journey in search of the Sea Gypsies of Southeast Asia, in which the author does suprisingly little introspection. Instead, he wanders from guesthouse to guesthouse, seemingly unable to win the hearts of the people he is supposed to be studying. He is captivated by a romatic fantasy of meeting Southeast Asia's last boat-dwelling people, much the way that 19th century anthropologists looked far and wide for the "Primitive Other". He is disappointed when he finds that they wear normal clothes, live in regular houses, enjoy most of the modern conveniences that Asian societies now have, and (God forbid!) they even speak English. Rather than explore the ambiguities and creative adaptation that comes when ancient ways meet modern influences, the author rebukes these as assaults on his own fantasies about who these 'gyspsies' should be. The author's knowledge of Malay, though commendable, is of little consequence. (In a region where people speak 3 or more languages, this is hardly something to brag about.) He doesn't gain the trust of the people he meets, and in the process he loses the trust of the reader. The prose sways between tedious and rambling, much like reading a blog from a young backpacker writing home about the novelty of geckos and "Asians" with thousand-mile stares. And the end of the book, you wonder how much introspecting the author was doing in those budget Asian guesthouses. Perhaps we was too busy digesting a phad thai and reading the Lonely Planet, planning the next cheapest way to get from A to B.

2 out of 5 stars

If nothing else, it's geographically accurate September 26, 2005
Paddington (Malaysia)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Sebastian Hope seems to be writing less about the sea gypsies and more about his opinions of the people he meets in his search for them. He is skeptical of the people he meets and devotes an entire page to writing about how a fellow writer also interested in sea gypsies is more interested in bragging about them. A lot of the book is spent talking about his views on the thoughts of the sea gypsies rather than on describing the actual thoughts or their lives. He comes across as a man who is desperately trying to avoid the label of an average tourist and incurring, instead the label of a man who talks too much about something he seems to know little about.

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