On Java Road by Lawrence Osborne

​I haven’t read Osborne until now and this was a fine introduction to the author.
On Java Road is a story of a British journalist whose career seems to be on a steady downward trajectory. It’s a story of a decades-long friendship hitting its largest snag ever, morally, ethically, legally. And most of all, it’s a story of a place on a brink of a radical change.
Adrian Gyle is an Englishman in a small faraway colony he’s come to love and call home for the past couple of decades, making a living by writing. It isn’t much of a living but then again, he doesn’t need much, and Java Road is cheap enough for him. Plus, he has his best friend, a local millionaire playboy who makes it possible for Adrian to experience all the finer things in life just by providing company, wingmanship, etc.
It’s a comfortable life about to be turned upside down through political and personal upheavals. And it’s told marvelously.
Osborne has that unique quality of a natural storyteller. There is a lovely rhythm to his narrative, a terrific elegance to his sentences – why, there are as elegant as a perfectly tailored suit and the analogy is apt for there is a strong (almost peculiarly strong) focus on sartorial matters in this novel.
And so, the characters come to life as you read this book…plus, you’ll always know what they are wearing and how good them look in it.
But more importantly so, the place comes alive. This novel is a stunning example of place as character and the author obviously sent some time there because he writes about it so vividly, with such attention to detail and colors, flavors, textures…it’s transporting. In a way only the finest literature can be.
This novel is, very much, a work of proper, fine literature. It’s a pleasure to read. And it has such a reasonable page count, demonstrating that the author likely knows he’s good at what he does but chooses graciously not to overstay his welcome. Will his protagonist overstay his in a place that may no longer be welcoming to his foreignness, ethics, morals, etc.? Read and find out.
Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.