Review
As readers peruse
The White Mary, they will find
themselves continually wondering where Kira Salak has drawn the line between
fact and fiction. Salak, a journalist who reported from war zones for many
years, used her travels in Papa New Guinea (PNG) as a basis for
The White
Mary. In her introduction to the book, she writes, "Like Marika, I went
there alone. I journeyed through its remotest jungles in a dugout canoe, or
followed a native guide, hacking my way through the dim, tangled rainforest. I
met indigenous people who were so isolated that they had never seen a white
person before." Salak does a remarkable job of depicting those experiences
throughout
The White Mary. Indeed, the jungle and its people are so
vividly described it's impossible to imagine they could have been written by
someone who hadn't experienced them.
Beyond the Book
A Short History of Papua New Guinea
Geography
New Guinea, the second largest island in the world*, is situated approximately
150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Australia.
The
Independent State of Papua New Guinea (aka Papua New Guinea or PNG)
comprises the eastern half of the island. (The western half is the Indonesian
state of Irian Jaya.) PNG has an area of 178,703 square miles (462,860 square
kilometers) – about the size of California – with a population of 6.3 million
people (2007).
Early Exploration
Archeological evidence suggests the island was inhabited approximately 50,000
years ago by Asian settlers. The first recorded contact with Europeans didn't
come until Portuguese explorer Jorge de...
