I was less impressed with the book. It tries to be many things but is not enough of one thing. The book is (1) autobiography of the late Pendekar Herman Suwanda r.i.p. (2) history of Pencak Silat Mande Muda (3) Description of the various styles that make up Mande Muda (4) homage by Mande Muda students to their late teacher.
Low points:
* Pages 3 - 90 offer a chronology of Indonesian History detailing kingdoms and their relations with other areas, the arrival of European powers, etc...
I thought this space could have been better utilized.
* The styles compromising Mande Muda each have 1 (one) photo sequence showing only one technique. I would have liked this section to be bigger in order to show more techniques.
* Some photographs do not have captions. I mean, there are lots of pictures of older people striking wicked poses, but the reader isn't told who they are. It would have been a good idea to add a description such as "Bapak X, teacher of Silat X from Village/city x"
* There are plenty of grammar mistakes. I think these were left in intentionally because Pak Herman's 'voice' is in a way carried through the written word: reading the book, one gets a sense of how this individual spoke everyday.
But still, it could be confusing when, for example, the section is titled "Pamcan" and later referred to as "Pamacan"
All in all, I'm satisfied with the book and I hope it creates more public awareness and interest in Pencak Silat.
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