image of person or book cover 7463608335655153299.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon The Year of Living Dangerously single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1978... 1978 The Year of Living Dangerously
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'The charismatic god-king Sukarno has brought Indonesia to the edge of chaos - to an abortive revolution that will leave half a million dead. For the Western correspondents here, this gathering apocalypse is their story and their drug, while the sufferings of the Indonesian people are scarcely real: a shadow play. Working at the eye of the storm are television correspondent Guy Hamilton and his eccentric cameraman Billy Kwan. In Kwan's secret fantasy life, both Sukarno and Hamilton are heroes. But his heroes betray him, and Billy is driven to desperate action. As the Indonesian shadow play erupts into terrible reality, a complex personal tragedy of love, obsession and betrayal comes to its climax.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon The Year of Living Dangerously David Williamson , Peter Weir , Christopher Koch , ( dir. Peter Weir ) Australia : McElroy and McElroy , 1982 Z1684198 1982 single work film/TV

Set in Indonesia, The Year of Livingly Dangerously is based on the real events that occurred in the country in 1965. The story revolves around Guy Hamilton, who has arrived in Jakarta on his first overseas posting for the Australian Broadcasting Service. Having had no time to build relationships or contacts, he stumbles around the city, attempting to cover the political tensions that are daily increasing. He is eventually taken under the wing of a small but well-connected Chinese-Australian cameraman, Billy Kwan, who recognises great potential in Hamilton. Hamilton is groomed by Kwan, who then sets up exclusive interviews for him while also engineering a romance with Jill Bryant, the young assistant at the British Embassy. Bryant warns Hamilton that violence is about to break out between right-wing factions and the Communist Party of Indonesia, but he pursues the story anyway. Billy Kwan, disheartened by all the people he once believed in, decides to make a public protest against President Sukarno. When the situation eventually escalates into violence, Hamilton is caught between his career ambitions, his conscience, and his feelings for Jill Bryant.

The Year of Living Dangerously Dickon Oxenburgh , 1999 single work drama

Notes

  • Dedication: To my wife and my brother with love and gratitude.
  • Published simultaneously in Melbourne and London in 1978.
  • Study guides available.
  • Adapted for the 1998 stage production The Year of Living Dangerously directed by Andrew Ross. Adaptation by Dickon Oxenburgh.

Affiliation Notes

  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has been recommended as an Asia Literacy resource for young adults by the Dept of Education and Early Childhood, Victoria.


  • Writing Disability in Australia:

    See C.A. Cranston's dissertation 'Deformity as Device in the Twentieth-century Australian Novel'.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • West Melbourne, Melbourne - West, Melbourne, Victoria,: Nelson , 1978 .
      image of person or book cover 7463608335655153299.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 296p.
      Written as: C. J. Koch.
      ISBN: 0170052540
    • West Melbourne, Melbourne - West, Melbourne, Victoria,: Nelson , 1979 .
      Extent: 296p.
      ISBN: 0170057399
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Sphere ,
      1981 .
      Extent: 295p.
      ISBN: 0722152906
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Sphere , 1982 .
      Extent: 296p.
      ISBN: 017006185x
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Penguin ,
      1983 .
      image of person or book cover 264974681666115563.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 296p.
      ISBN: 0140065350 pbk.
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Grafton Books ,
      1986 .
      Extent: 296p.
      ISBN: 0586071032
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin ,
      1995 .
      Extent: 278p.
      ISBN: 0140065350
    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Minerva , 1995 .
      Extent: 296p.
      ISBN: 1863305017
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Minerva ,
      1995 .
      Extent: 296p.
      ISBN: 0749395087
    • Port Melbourne, South Melbourne - Port Melbourne area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Minerva , 1997 .
      Extent: 295p.
      ISBN: 1863306137
    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 1998 .
      Extent: 296p.
      Note/s:
      • Author's note to the 1998 edition: Some typographical and factual errors have been corrected in this edition.
      ISBN: 1863306137
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Vintage UK ,
      2001 .
      image of person or book cover 3933787830532170132.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 295p.
      Reprinted: 2003
      ISBN: 1863306137
    • Sydney South, South Sydney area, Sydney Southern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: HarperCollins Australia , 2012 .
      image of person or book cover 8688820904191822297.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 336 p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 8 December 2012.

      ISBN: 9781743098417
Alternative title: L'Annee de tous les Dangers
Language: French

Other Formats

  • Large print.
  • Sound recording.

Works about this Work

The Zwergroman : Literary Dwarfs under the Australian Gaze C. A. Cranston , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , vol. 36 no. 1 2023; (p. 78-93)

'Ubiquitous, highly visible, nonspecific to geography, history, race, or sex, dwarfism's connection with Australia's mythic and literary histories is remarkable enough to suggest here that it occupy its own subgenre in literature, the zwergroman (m). Australia's branding as the "Antipodes" geographically recalls its colonial past; mythographically the imaginative configuration was as an underworld of opposites ruled by the diminutive King of the Antipodes. Thus, the zwergroman is frequently fashioned from Celtic myths of the colonizing power along with the shaping power of colonial processes. In addition to introducing the conventions of the zwergroman and demonstrating the significance of dwarf characters to Australia's pre- and postcolonial narratives, this article gradually introduces concepts from disability studies (through the scholarly work of Erin Pritchard, David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder, and others) by examining representations and cultural meanings imposed on dwarf characters prior to the counter histories of twenty-first-century short-statured scholars whose demand for personhood required an engagement with subjective and experiential realities. The novels discussed (1970–94) represent a cluster of dwarf-centric novels by notable writers, all able-bodied at the time of writing (excepting Patrick White). They include C. J. Koch, The Year of Living Dangerously (1978; filmed 1982); James McQueen, Hook's Mountain (1982); Ruth Park, Swords and Crowns and Rings (1977); Peter Carey, The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith (1994); and Patrick White, The Vivisector (1970).' (Publication abstract)

Australia and the Post-Colonial Novel Helen Andrews , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Quadrant , October vol. 59 no. 10 2015; (p. 70-73)
Books That Changed Me : Geoffrey McGeachin Geoff McGeachin , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 24 August 2014; (p. 16)
Master Class Greg Sheridan , 2013 single work autobiography
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian Magazine , 9-10 November 2013; (p. 30-31)
'Greg Sheridan on his long friendship with Christopher Koch - and the writer's bitter row over the film of his greatest novel.'
y separately published work icon The Year of Living Dangerously by Christopher Koch Angie Barillaro , Essendon North : Radiant Heart Publishing , 2011 9026686 2011 single work criticism
Exploring the Territory : Some Recent Australian Novels Peter Pierce , 1979 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 38 no. 2 1979; (p. 225-233) Oceanic Literature , no. 5 1983; (p. 332-345)

— Review of An Imaginary Life : A Novel David Malouf , 1978 single work novel ; The Year of Living Dangerously Christopher Koch , 1978 single work novel ; Bitter Bread Ronald McKie , 1978 single work novel ; Idlers in the Land Keith Thomas , 1978 single work novel ; Tirra Lirra by the River Jessica Anderson , 1978 single work novel ; The Bitter Lotus Richard Beilby , 1978 single work novel ; Where the Queens All Strayed Barbara Hanrahan , 1978 single work novel ; Silent Reach Osmar E. White , 1978 single work novel
The Year of Writing Skilfully Laurie Clancy , 1980 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , July no. 80 1980; (p. 51-54)

— Review of An Imaginary Life : A Novel David Malouf , 1978 single work novel ; Passenger Thomas Keneally , 1979 single work novel ; The Year of Living Dangerously Christopher Koch , 1978 single work novel ; A Cry in the Jungle Bar Robert Drewe , 1979 single work novel ; 1915 : A Novel Roger McDonald , 1979 single work novel
[Review] The Year of Living Dangerously T. Bowden , 1978 single work review
— Appears in: The National Times , 23 December 1978; (p. 40)

— Review of The Year of Living Dangerously Christopher Koch , 1978 single work novel
A Struggle Between Light and Darkness Geoffrey Fairbairn , 1978 single work review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 26 December vol. 99 no. 5141 1978; (p. 39)

— Review of The Year of Living Dangerously Christopher Koch , 1978 single work novel
[Review] The Year of Living Dangerously J. Hodgkinson , 1978 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 2 December 1978; (p. 15)

— Review of The Year of Living Dangerously Christopher Koch , 1978 single work novel
Christopher Koch Speaking David Kerr (interviewer), Phillip Edmonds (interviewer), 1985 single work interview
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Magazine , 6-7 April 1985; (p. 4)
Return to Jakarta Christopher Koch , 2003 single work autobiography
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 23 February 2003; (p. 20-25)
Colonial and Postcolonial Images of Indonesia in Dutch, British and Australian Literature from 1618 to 1992 David A. Myers , 1995-1996 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Commonwealth Review , vol. 7 no. 2 1995-1996; (p. 46-77)
The article traces the changes in European and Australian images and perceptions of Indonesia.
The Metaphors of Quests, Labyrinths and the Dance of Kali in Christopher Koch's 'The Year of Living Dangerously' Satyabhama Daly , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Etropic : Electronic Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in the Tropics , vol. 1 no. 2 2002;
Marlow in Jakarta : Conrad's Narrative Voice in 'The Year of Living Dangerously' Ted Billy , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology , March vol. 25 no. 1 2004; (p. 89-93)
Discusses literary influences of Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Last amended 15 Jan 2021 14:11:53
Settings:
  • c
    Indonesia,
    c
    Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • Jakarta, Java,
    c
    Indonesia,
    c
    Southeast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
  • 1965
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X