IN the solitude of Buru Island, Pramoedya Ananta Toer watched a wayang shadow puppet performance. Or he watched those who were watching the wayang.

I imagine that night. There in the colony for political prisoners, on a stretch of ground, a screen was fixed and a banana log laid before it. The rows of wayang puppets were arranged right and left on the log. A coconut oil lamp (or maybe a 100-watt light bulb?) shone above the screen.

The crowd g