CATEGORY

Is Kirk Coningham just another bule choked by the black, leaded hands of the third-world city he lives in? Who, gasping for air, and getting more black fingers stuck up his nose, thinks he can write a book about the city and the black wounds it left in his head?

Yes.But Coningham has conscience. His stories are angry at the misogyny of the white expats The Expats, sad at the nearly-doomed love between a motorbike-taxi driver and an office worker

Ojek Driver and equally exasperated and excited by the streets of Jakarta he explores gonzo journalist-like on his Vespa Jakarta Streets.Its this conscience that lets him see through the black and paint the city in all its gaudy colors.And apart from these stories about Jakarta you get strange tales of a woman buried alive by her husband like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Vol. 2, a dog who goes walkabout and then wishes he didnt and a child who gets a strand of his hair abducted by aliens.