Land Below the Wind [Hardcover]

In 1932 Agnes Newton was an ambitious--and by all accounts rather fetching--reporter on the payroll of the San Francisco Examiner. "And then, just as I felt the world at my fingertips, I became involved in a violent scene which nearly destroyed me." That is to say, she was fronted by drug addict wielding a two-foot length of iron pipe as she stepped from the Examiner Building one spring day to collect her lunch. Newton was beaten about the head repeatedly. "He didn't kill me, but during the ensuing years I almost wished that he had." She sustained partial memory loss, and: "Owing to the severity of the skull fractures I had lost all power to concentrate and my thoughts shifted about like a kaleidoscope, and trying to grasp an idea was like trying to pick up a piece of wet soap." Recovery was haphazard, a patchwork of part-time employment, casual travel, and fluctuating physical and mental states. In 1934 she was reacquainted with Harold Keith, an English friend of her brother who she'd had sporadic yet evidently significant contact with since the age of eight. "Several times in the past we had almost married each other, but each time events which I thought at the time were more important had occurred to prevent us. But as soon as we met again in 1934 we both knew that nothing more important than marrying each other could occur to us." They were married the day before Harold returned to British Civil Service duty. "My husband has been in Government service here in North Borneo for fourteen years. As well as being Conservator of Forests and Director of Agriculture he is Honorary Curator of the State Museum, Game Warden, collector of strange beasts for distant scientists, patron of pauperized natives, and the repository for unwanted animals. He collects old Chinese porcelain, writes papers on scientific subjects, is recording a Murut vocabulary, speaks Malay well enough to be distressed by mine, and cites Oxford English Dictionary to the confusion of my American."

Land Below The Wind is a vigorous retelling of Newton Keith's four years in North Borneo, led off with a detailed introduction of the day-to-day living conditions in this outpost of a shrinking Empire. All aspects are wrought with lovingly applied ink: the house staff (two Chinese amahs, Arusap, the Murut houseboy, a Dyak-Murut small-boy, and a Javanese gardener), the social faux pas that dot the road to interaction with others in the North Borneo Civil Service (at that time about seventy men, their wives and families), the coterie of pets (a particularly endearing account of various gibbon and orangutan, a tarsier, and the literally heart-breaking fate of the otters Niffles and Sniffles), the oppressive climate, etcetera--in all, Newton Keith embraces with love and gusto.

Newton Keith on occasion breaks with first-person narrative to pass along the stories of others, mostly natives for whom she always has an attentive ear. Among these is the story of the prisoner Abanawas, and the 'other side' of the tale that until then had been heard only from the mouth of white men--that of the mystery of Walter Flint, a white man who married the daughter of a tribal leader, only to be found beheaded sometime thereafter. In an especially absorbing tract the journey of Saudin, a tribesman of an isolated Murut village of the interior, is relayed. Saudin had been employed by a party of American film-makers traveling through Borneo. Because of his work ethic and trustworthiness he was retained, and accompanied them, in the capacity of animal caretaker, to New York where he was to assist with the care of animals after their presentation to the Central Park Zoo. Saudin, who was to stay in New York for three months, is at first escorted to and from the Zoo by the head of the film-making party, but after some time is allowed to make his way alone, insured somewhat by a letter stating who he is and at which hotel he's staying that has been deposited in his coat pocket (a letter he later loses). At the height of Saudin's induction to New World living is his experience of Times Square on New Year's Eve, that being the point at which I imagine Saudin believes he can be no further away from his prior understanding of a man's life. It's but one of the circumstances from which he makes observations no less acute than that of the most learned modern social commentators. On his return to North Borneo he visits his one-time employers, the Newton Keiths, at their bungalow: "His manner retained its old native courtesy, and his attitude in presenting his tale of America was that of a Marco Polo who scarcely expects his words to be believed." His words are believed however, and translated by Newton Keith in a fashion so that none of Saudin's awe and bemusement are lost. Although only seven or so pages in length, it was for the reviewer the book's most enjoyable read.

The reviewer's interest waned during one chapter only, that titled 'We Eat The Wind'. Newton Keith joins her husband on an expedition to the interior; it begins tantalisingly enough, with plans afoot to traverse the last stronghold of head-hunters, but it soon becomes apparent that the savages have more pressing concerns and shan't be souveniring heads this time around. From there the trip assumes only as much value that largely incident-free jungle travel can.

LAND BELOW THE WIND was first published in 1939. The title is employed to this day as the unofficial motto for the state of Sabah, Malaysia, the successor of North Borneo.

***1/2 stars.

This book contains the early memoirs of Agnes Keith, wife of a British forestry specialist stationed in North Borneo in the 1930s. After graduating from UCLA, Agnes had worked briefly as a journalist, until a random violent attack had left her with severe brain damage. Towards the end of her several years of recovery, she was reacquainted with Harry Keith, they fell in love, were married, and headed straight for Borneo. In this book, Agnes Keith chronicles her experiences adjusting to life as the wife of a colonial government official in the Far East. She describes her house and its surroundings in Sandakan. She also writes about the members of her household, the domestic helpers, and their peculiar habits and histories. As part of his work for the Ministry of Forests, Harry Keith had to make periodic treks into the jungle to inspect the forests and delineate reserves. Agnes accompanied him on some of these trips, and learned to deal with the rigors of rain, river travel and leeches, all while enduring the sweats and shakes of malaria. By the close of the book, the Keiths are on their way back to the US for home leave (and preparing for Agnes' sequel, Three Came Home).

In this book, Agnes is very much a woman of her times. She likes to come across in her prose as being flighty, light-hearted and trivial, since such women were perhaps better liked than more serious types. By today's standards, many of her attitudes towards non-Europeans would be considered racist, but by the standards of her own day, her behavior was probably not very remarkable. She didn't flaunt her status as a Westerner, and did try to treat her domestic help decently. One of her biggest struggles was learning how to adjust her American customs to better fit in with the local colonial British society, of which she had suddenly found herself a member. Towards the end of the book, she has a run-in with the Japanese Consul, foreshadowing some of the horror to come that she was still blissfully unaware of when she penned this volume. All in all, this book is a light-hearted description of the leisurely life of a Western woman in colonial South East Asia in the golden pre-war era, yet at the same time, it is also the story of adventure trekking through the Borneo jungle.

Land Below the Wind by Agnes Keith is the first and one of the more famous books by this very successful author. Set in 1939 North Borneo (now the Malaysian state of Sabah) it autobiographically chronicles life of an American wife of a British official.

Keith relates the culture and circumstances of Sabah so well that my Sabah born and raised wife gives it two thumbs up. We have now read four Keith books between us and are awaiting the other three from Amazon Marketplace sellers. Good, clean, very humorous book. Even though written 65+ years ago it reads easy.

For my fellow Canadian readers - While Keith describes their nationalities as American and British, it seems that the couple might be better described as "Canadians" in modern thinking. They have a home in Victoria BC, to which they always return, and their son George later goes to school in Canada (during the Children of Allah years).

I have also read "Three Came Home" (the second book detailing the Keith family experience in several Borneo Japanese internment camps) and "Children of Allah" detailing the author's 9 years in Libya many years later. All three are excellent books.

The hardcover first editions all have very unusual fabric like covers printed to look like culturally significant fabrics. Therefore, the books look really good on the shelf too.