IN SEARCH OF THE DREAM PEOPLE

by Richard & Dennis Holman Noone ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 29, 1972

In the '30's, Noone's older brother Pat, a young English anthropologist, validated and described the Temiar, a hitherto enigmatic tribe in the remote highland jungles of Malay whose chief scientific interest is the culture's use of dreams as a socializing instrument. Noone, also an anthropologist, recapitulates the ethnologic data, culled from Pat's letters, field notes, published work, etc. This alone makes the book of interest to social scientists. But there is more -- Noone, not incorrectly, calls this ""a mystery story."" During the Japanese invasion of the Malayan Peninsula in the early '40's, Pat disappeared. Did the Japanese capture and kill him? Did the incipient Communist insurgency with which Pat was tenuously associated turn on him? Or did the Temiar who had so completely accepted him -- he was an engaging and delicate researcher -- do him in? And what of his handsome native wife Anjang and his strange factotum Uda? For years conflicting tales seeped through the trees, each investigated by Noone who was himself coping with the Red ""Emergency"" after the war (yet another poison dart in this plot). Eventually the facts came out -- Pat was blowgunned by the perfidious Uda who was sleeping with Anjang. Uda was never apprehended, but Noone's desire for revenge has passed. Besides, Pat's accomplishments are now on record, the Communist menace has been eliminated in that part of the world, and the little dream people are content. You might not agree with Noone's Kiplinesque notions, but seldom are politics, science, and suspense so puissantly and readably linked in memoir.

Pub Date: Nov. 29, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION