New Book: Pencak Silat Through My Eyes, By: Pendekar Herman Suwanda

[JBolton]

To the Indonesian Martial Arts Community:

There is a new book coming out in the next few weeks entitled "Pencak Silat: Through My Eyes." It was put together by Tony Somera from the writings and personal notes of Pendekar Herman Suwanda with the blessings of his family. A copy of the cover of the book is attached.

Johnathan Bolton

[Tant01]

Cool... I've heard rumors and been waiting for this. Thanks for the heads up!

[SuperToe]

Book

Can't wait to read that book...

Will it be avaible off his website?

[JBolton]

I know that the release of the book has been delayed significantly from the original release date. It is supposed to be available publicly in the next few weeks in stores. I will find out if it will be available for sale online and post the details about it here.

Johnathan

[jeff5]

Johnathan. Thanks for the heads up. I'm certainly going to buy this.

[JBolton]

I just got an advanced copy of the book this past Friday. It is very good. A lot of history about Pak Herman, the Suwanda family, the make-up of Mande Muda, a discussion of techniques and training methods, and a lot of pictures never before published. I will try to find out when it is going to be available in stores and post the information here.

Johnathan Bolton

[Tant01]

$29.95 - 7 x 10 - 376 pages
ISBN: 1-933901-03-9

Still looking. This seems to be an exclusive release?

[zchaos]

i've heard of it coming out. how is it? is it worth buying?

[Gajah Silat]

Yes, definitely worth buying.

I bought mine from Tony Somera on ebay. I hope this doesn't break T&C but....

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/gironescrima

[nasigoreng]

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.