- Paperback: 356 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; New Ed edition (5 May 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006530095
- ISBN-13: 978-0006530091
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
201,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Australasia & Pacific > Melanesia
- #11 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > South East Asia > Indonesia
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘Dan Start has a rare story to tell. That he has relived his nightmare with such clarity and brought to it such understanding suggests that we have here the emergence of someone special.’
Benedict Allen
‘A mixture of reportage and descriptive writing that has the flavour of a novel. The author has succeeded in portraying his personal nightmare, yet at the same time describing the environment in which he was held hostage with the eye of a natural writer.’
The Times
Product Description
‘A powerful story of captivity and courage’ John McCarthy
‘There was no fury in these men, no dancing or ceremony as there had been when we had first been kidnapped. Coolly and calmly they were preparing our execution.’
In January 1996 four young British scientists were taken hostage by Papuan tribesmen in the remote mountainous province of Irian Jaya. Swept up in the rebels’ violent political struggle against the Indonesian military, they learned to admire and respect their captors and grew to fear the government forces that would become their only hope for survival.
Daniel Start gives a harrowing personal account of the terrors of jungle captivity as well as the inhospitable beauty of the landscape and the gentle spirituality of the Papuans. The Open Cage is a haunting tale of a forced journey through mountainous forests and makeshift prison camps, and of a desperate escape from captors whose peaceful nature has been turned by the forces of war to hatred and murder.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
.
This is one of the very best books ever written about West Papua!
This is one of the very best books ever written about West Papua!
The author was the leader of a British-Indonesian zoologist expedition into the remote highlands of the Lorentz Nature Reseve. The entire team was kidnapped by OPM guerillas fighting for West Papuan independence, and held hostage for several months until being freed by the Indonesian army - minus the two Indonesian male members of the expedition who were executed by the OPM.
This could easily have been turned into a shallow account of hardship and horror, but instead the author has used the experience to give us probably the most interesting and insightful account of West Papua ever. Rather than just concentrating on how the hostages themselves felt during their ordeal, he is painting a thorough picture of the background to the kidnapping, and excellent descriptions of the Papuans' psyche and motivations. His observations are sharp and balanced, and instead of pointing fingers at any party, he leaves us with an understanding of the tragic circumtances that lead to the kidnap, and the hopeless situation that continues in Papua to this day.
We also get to "experience" the down-to-earth lifestyle that was a horrible ordeal to the hostages, but is in fact the everyday reality of life in the extremely isolated Papuan highlands.
Having spent months in West Papua myself, I also found the book entirely free of factual errors, hype and exaggrations that abound in other travelogues of this "exotic" place.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone planning a longer trek through the mountains of Papua.
Don't let it put you off visiting - there has been no similar incident ever since. Read it for its description of life in this singular, remote part of the World.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book because I enjoyed Daniel Start's book on wild swimming and was curious to see that he had written something so different.
I'm really glad I read it, because this is an extraordinary book. The tension cranks up and relaxes in unpredictable cycles, so that we really share the ordeal of utter helplessness and frustration at not knowing what might happen next. The daily banality of captivity is punctuated by moments of horror, as well as by occasional experiences of serenity. Relations among the captives and their captors develop unremarkably, so that the final meltdown is truly gut-wrenching.
It's a credit to the author not only that he can write about this so clearly, with total honesty and directness about all aspects of his own feelings and reactions as things unfold, but also that he can record the struggle that he was swept up in with such compassion and attention to detail.
I'm really glad I read it, because this is an extraordinary book. The tension cranks up and relaxes in unpredictable cycles, so that we really share the ordeal of utter helplessness and frustration at not knowing what might happen next. The daily banality of captivity is punctuated by moments of horror, as well as by occasional experiences of serenity. Relations among the captives and their captors develop unremarkably, so that the final meltdown is truly gut-wrenching.
It's a credit to the author not only that he can write about this so clearly, with total honesty and directness about all aspects of his own feelings and reactions as things unfold, but also that he can record the struggle that he was swept up in with such compassion and attention to detail.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
An Outstanding, Excellent Account!
9 Feb 2005
Format:Hardcover
This is one of the very best books ever written about West Papua!
The author was the leader of a British-Indonesian zoologist expedition into the remote highlands of the Lorentz Nature Reseve. The entire team was kidnapped by OPM guerillas fighting for West Papuan independence, and held hostage for several months until being freed by the Indonesian army - minus the two Indonesian male members of the expedition who were executed by the OPM.
This could easily have been turned into a shallow account of hardship and horror, but instead the author has used the experience to give us probably the most interesting and insightful account of West Papua ever. Rather than just concentrating on how the hostages themselves felt during their ordeal, he is painting a thorough picture of the background to the kidnapping, and excellent descriptions of the Papuans' psyche and motivations. His observations are sharp and balanced, and instead of pointing fingers at any party, he leaves us with an understanding of the tragic circumtances that lead to the kidnap, and the hopeless situation that continues in Papua to this day.
We also get to "experience" the down-to-earth lifestyle that was a horrible ordeal to the hostages, but is in fact the everyday reality of life in the extremely isolated Papuan highlands.
Having spent months in West Papua myself, I also found the book entirely free of factual errors, hype and exaggrations that abound in other travelogues of this "exotic" place.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone planning a longer trek through the mountains of Papua.
Don't let it put you off visiting - there has been no similar incident ever since. Read it for its description of life in this singular, remote part of the World.
Note that while it is marked out of print here, this book is more readily available on Amazon's UK site!
The author was the leader of a British-Indonesian zoologist expedition into the remote highlands of the Lorentz Nature Reseve. The entire team was kidnapped by OPM guerillas fighting for West Papuan independence, and held hostage for several months until being freed by the Indonesian army - minus the two Indonesian male members of the expedition who were executed by the OPM.
This could easily have been turned into a shallow account of hardship and horror, but instead the author has used the experience to give us probably the most interesting and insightful account of West Papua ever. Rather than just concentrating on how the hostages themselves felt during their ordeal, he is painting a thorough picture of the background to the kidnapping, and excellent descriptions of the Papuans' psyche and motivations. His observations are sharp and balanced, and instead of pointing fingers at any party, he leaves us with an understanding of the tragic circumtances that lead to the kidnap, and the hopeless situation that continues in Papua to this day.
We also get to "experience" the down-to-earth lifestyle that was a horrible ordeal to the hostages, but is in fact the everyday reality of life in the extremely isolated Papuan highlands.
Having spent months in West Papua myself, I also found the book entirely free of factual errors, hype and exaggrations that abound in other travelogues of this "exotic" place.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone planning a longer trek through the mountains of Papua.
Don't let it put you off visiting - there has been no similar incident ever since. Read it for its description of life in this singular, remote part of the World.
Note that while it is marked out of print here, this book is more readily available on Amazon's UK site!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Anthropology and Abduction
18 Feb 2009
Format:Hardcover
This is the true story of the kidnap and survival of scientists by freedom fighters opposed to the Indonesian government. The story is written in an active and engaging style of "reportage and descriptive writing." Start was the British biologist leading a scientific expedition investigating and cataloguing various plants and animals, and specifically focusing on the fish in an isolated region of the island's mountain jungles.
He had taken an expedition of zoologists from Britain to Indonesia, after months of negotiation with the government and excruciating paper work and delays at various bureaucratic levels. They were stationed in Irian Jaya, on the island of Papua, on the Indonesia side near the border with the independent Papua New Guinea.
High on the mountainous spine of this island shared between the two countries, this international troupe of scientists were taken hostage by Papuan rebel warriors in Irian Jaya. The author has a lot of good information on the cultural characteristics of the various tribes in Irian Jaya. The group was working primarily in the Nduga tribal lands, the village of Mapnduma.
Smart writes the book in diary format, but with the full discussion and background, carrying us with him through the halls of the government mazes, then finally along the ridges and through the jungles of the region he has wanted to explore and catalogue. Likewise the daily details of the ordeal he and his colleagues endured are recorded in clear, scientific detail.
But though clinically clear, the pathos is not missing. We feel the stress Smart and his colleagues experienced, the injuries, the insults, the uncertainty. This is truly an adventure story. Its excitement is only heightened by the chilling realization that this really happened.
He had taken an expedition of zoologists from Britain to Indonesia, after months of negotiation with the government and excruciating paper work and delays at various bureaucratic levels. They were stationed in Irian Jaya, on the island of Papua, on the Indonesia side near the border with the independent Papua New Guinea.
High on the mountainous spine of this island shared between the two countries, this international troupe of scientists were taken hostage by Papuan rebel warriors in Irian Jaya. The author has a lot of good information on the cultural characteristics of the various tribes in Irian Jaya. The group was working primarily in the Nduga tribal lands, the village of Mapnduma.
Smart writes the book in diary format, but with the full discussion and background, carrying us with him through the halls of the government mazes, then finally along the ridges and through the jungles of the region he has wanted to explore and catalogue. Likewise the daily details of the ordeal he and his colleagues endured are recorded in clear, scientific detail.
But though clinically clear, the pathos is not missing. We feel the stress Smart and his colleagues experienced, the injuries, the insults, the uncertainty. This is truly an adventure story. Its excitement is only heightened by the chilling realization that this really happened.
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