Writing Words That Strain And Fail To Rhyme.

Why is it that writer’s come to Bali to pen a novel, a poem or a memoir?

I simply don’t know, is the answer for me, but I find myself spending upwards of ten months a year in this paradise, putting pen to paper with varying results.

Is it something in the air? The soothing trade winds that blow from July to November? The scenery? Or is it simply the wonderful nature of the people who provide the inspiration?

Each author has his or her own reasons, but whatever they are, Bali has been the setting and the venue for some remarkable books down the years. Apart from some of the stunning local literature and Eisman’s, insightful ‘Bali Sekala & Niskala’, books from some of the ex pats that have settled here, have told their stories and their times on this island well well.

William Ingram’s, “ A Little Bit One o’ Clock’ is a classic view of living with a Balinese family and is a must for anyone settling here. The easy flowing text gives the reader a unique insight, from a foreigner’s point of view of how the locals live out their days.

Colin McPhee

Who can forget Colin McPhee’s classic, “ A House In Bali,” the Canadian musician who introduced the magic of Gama lung to the west in the1930s. This little novel is a gentle tale of the land that Nehru referred to as “ the morning of the world and a classic tale of life lived in a different age.

Or indeed, Louise G. Kote’s “ Our hotel in Bali”, written in 1936 when Kuta was but a poor fishing village, a far cry from today’s traffic chocked region of the island so beloved by hard drinking Australian tourists!

The trend of writers creating magic on the page has never stopped when one thinks of Janet De Neef’s “Fragrant Rice,” a tale of passion, marriage and food, published in 2003 and a wonderful follow up to her ‘Stern Men’ from 2000.

Bali has lured writers, painters and indeed all associated with the arts to its shores like a siren calling from the sea. However, not all, methinks should be chaired around the island shoulder high. For my money, Elizabeth Gilbert’s “ Eat, Pray, Love, “ went a long way towards ruining Bali’s reputation.

This trite novel of one privileged woman’s quest for self –discovery, while at the same time romanticizing poverty and oohing and aahing over the locals was quite frankly embarrassing.

There are now scores of women from the west who flock to Bali to emulate Gilbert’s so called  “enlightenment,” with their expressions serene, their caftans expensive and their luggage Louis Vuitton.

Some of these devotees are themselves embarking on a tome or two, cataloguing their mystic experiences. One secretly hopes that these aspiring scribes lose interest in the novel and restrict their tales to their private journals. Bali surely does not exist solely so the rest of us can seek pleasure and find our true deep selves? Perhaps a better title for Ms Gilbert’s tome should have been “ Eat, Pray Leave!”

For me it is the pioneering writers like De Neef whom I admire the most.

Apart from being a whizz in the kitchen, raising four children, running two restaurants with her husband Ketut and crashing out the odd novel, she managed to dream up an event like the International Ubud Writers Festival. (In conjunction with Heather Curnow.) This extremely successful festival was started in an attempt to lure visitors back to the island after the tragic bombings of 2002.

This now well-established forum is a testament to the lure of Bali and an inspiration for would be novelists from around the globe.

If this is the sort of writer that Bali produces it is certainly her whom I wish most to emulate! This brings me full circle to the beginning of this piece about what it is that attracts writers to this Island.

(And now for a little shameless self -promotion.)

In 2010 I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend four months on Bali while my wife fulfilled a lecturing contract,

I had had an idea for a book and, with nothing to occupy myself, I decided to finally ‘have a go’. Thirty- Nine days later Final Diagnosis was written!

How could this be? Where did the daily inspiration come from?  I still ask myself that question as, at the time the words poured from me like water from a gushing tap. The two follow up novels, Blowback and Counterpoint have needed a touch of Bali when they faltered and stumbled in other climes. 

The next book was begun in Canada and stumbled along like a drunken guest at a wedding and I tried several other locations including South Africa and New Zealand with not much success. And so I returned to Bali and within a month Scimitar was winging its way to the publishers.

So in essence I am not sure what it is that inspires the writer here, but whatever it is, I will keep coming back for more!

Paul v Walters is the best selling author of several novels and anthologies of short stories. When not cocooned in sloth and procrastination in his house in Bali he scribbles for several international travel and vox pop journals. His latest novel Scimitar was released in late 2016.

(The Title is part of Paul Simon’s, Kate’s Song)