White Rajah

Rating:
Summary: A well written retelling of a legendary story.
Review: The book tells the life story of Sir James Brooke, the British-born rajah of the kingdom of Sarawak in Northern Borneo (today part of Malaysia). Brooke's life has been told many times and this retelling does not shed much new light to it, except for the unabashed recognition of the fact that, by all indications, Brooke was homosexual (probably not latent), and especially attracted to handsome young men. Otherwise, it's an easy-to-read, well written retelling of a story which, at a closer look, actually proves a lot less interesting and adventureous than you'd think if you only know the bare skeleton of it.