Invented Eden: The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday (review)

Invented Eden, Robin Hemley's first nonfiction book since the beautifully written Nola (Graywolf, 1998), artfully examines "the anthropological find of the century," the Tasaday, a group of 27 isolated people from the thick South Catabato rain forests of the Philippines. In the opening Hemley writes, "The more I investigated the Tasaday, the more fascinated I became, even to the point of obsession, like so many others before me. Inevitably, when I finish speaking about the Tasaday, someone always approaches me and asks, 'So, what was it? A hoax?' The following is my answer."

His fascinating answer is a comprehensive study of the opinions of all the others before him combined with the documentation of his own trips to the war-infested, southernmost island of the Philippines. Hemley takes into consideration every angle of the intriguing story of the Tasaday. He analyzes the points of view of journalists, political leaders, other tribesmen of South Catabato, linguists, activists, anthropologists, and anyone else who has chimed in with an opinion regarding the authenticity of the Tasaday as a "Stone Age" discovery.

Perhaps the greatest strength of Robin Hemley's prose is the way he at once makes his own presence felt and yet manages to step out of the way, leaving interpretation to the reader. In analyzing the deductions of John Nance, former journalist and present Tasaday enthusiast, Hemley writes, "So what do we make of all of this? Hoax? A cover-up? A conspiracy? . . . Take your pick from this lazy Susan of labels, but what you choose might say as much about you as about John Nance." This is where he creates a fully participatory book. Invented Eden is not just a study of an extraordinary group of people in an isolated region of Southeast Asia. It is also an impulsion for the reader to engage in self-analysis in the context of the media-frenzied modern world.

Early on Hemley writes, "The presence of any observer alters the landscape." Certainly, Hemley presents to readers the landscape of Invented Eden as it is altered by a myriad of complex personalities and circumstances. But the statement also applies to the reader, each of whom comes to Invented Eden with individual frames of reference, faiths, hopes, and dreams. Hemley counts on his readers to be diverse and varied in personal philosophy, so that the reading experience is as varied as the individual holding the book.

Hemley provides all the tools with which to come to draw individual conclusions about the meaning and authenticity of the Tasaday: a comprehensive but concise profile of the Philippines during the last 30 years, physically, politically, and socially; the intricacies of linguistic variations of the region in question; and an array of masterfully conveyed characters. The central character in the book may be the curiously nocturnal Manuel Elizalde Jr., the Marcos-appointed head of the Presidential Assistant on National Minorities (PANAMIN), a man who communicates as a passionate humanitarian in one instance and a corrupt political figure in the next.

Still, the Tasaday themselves emerge as a kind of central character, the subject of the controversy and powerful symbol of the innocence and passivity missing from many of our lives. In other moments the central character appears to be the reader: this entity who stands at the center of the book surrounded by the complex perspectives of the rich characters Hemley conveys.

I may not decide who the real central character is until I read the book again, because like all good stories, fiction or nonfiction, upon finishing a wonderful ride, the reader invariably wants to go back for more. Invented Eden is one of those rides and is representative of some of the best literary nonfiction on the shelves today.