Take Me To Paradise

Set in the artisan hill town of Ubud, Bali, between bomb one and bomb two, Jan Cornall's witty and insightful novella explores notions of paradise and a modern womnan's quest for meaning and passion inn the twenty first century.

Marilyn finds her paradise . But is she prepared for the demands paradise will make of her?

"Performance writer, Jan cornalls fine observations and humorous monologues read like a theatre piece, film scriptand novel rolled into one. The atmosphere she creates is so vibrant you almost expect her characters to burst into song." Alison Nancye, Mermaid Books, "Jan Cornall can always be found leading the charge into the minefield of comedy about contemporary sexual and social mores." Wendy Harmer

Take Me To Paradise was launched at Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, and Teater Utan Kayu Jakarta in October 2006.

About the Author

Writer / singer / poet, Jan Cornall,(with over 10 produced plays, musicals and a feature film, under her belt), is a late arrival in paradise. She always meant to come but didn¹t get here until June 2002, when her ex partner treated her to a ticket to Bali, to accompany their daughter on the first leg of her trip around the world.

Like so many before her Jan fell in love, from the moment she stepped into the warm scented air at Denpasar airport.

Through the airport doors, out into the warm air bath, where palm fronds dance in the hot jet fuel breeze?

On a friend¹s recommendation Jan and her daughter headed straight for Ubud and found a room at a family-run guesthouse, close to the centre of town. Their host Ketut drove Jan and Cydra to all the usual attractions ­Kintamani, Tanah Lot, The Elephant Cave, Gunung Kawi, silver jewellery, weaving warehouses?

The last jewellery shop is the best. The young male assistants in traditional pink sarongs and woven shirts lolling about in the heat, jump to attention as we drive up, open my car door and treat me like a celebrity?.

As Ketut gave all the usual explanations about religious ceremonies, the caste system, Balinese names, the banjar, all the Balinese arts - carving, painting, dancing, and Jan immersed herself in the spiritually creative atmosphere of Ubud and its surrounds, she knew she would have to find a way to return.

Four months later the island was devastated by the terrorist attack on the Sari Club. Jan watched the drama unfold from her living room in Sydney and put her plans on hold.

She did return in 2004, running her first writer's retreat in conjunction with the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and to make up for lost time, travelled across every three months to run more retreats attended by aussies, expats, Indonesians and international visitors.

In January 2005, with plenty of material in hand and at the suggestion of poet Sitok Srengenge, (they met at the 2004 Ubud Writers Festival), Jan began writing her novel, Take Me To Paradise.

In October 2005, disaster struck the island again, This time Jan did not postpone and travelled to Ubud, four days after the Jimbaran and Kuta bombings, with a half full plane of very special aussies, all determined not to let a terrorist attack ruin their holiday plans. Jan kept taking notes.

By now Jan was also traveling to other parts of Indonesia; Jakarta and Yogyakarta, working on a poetry collaboration with Sitok Srengenge and catching up with the Indonesian artists and writers she had met in Ubud. She was invited to take part in the Utan Kayu International Literary Biennale performing with other poets and writers in Lampung, Bandung and Jakarta.

She extended this relationship into an Asia Link Residency with Teater Utan Kayu in 2006. Completing her novel while living in a kost (boarding house) in Utan Kayu, Jakarta, (see article, Jakarta Post). Jan took part in a number of other projects; recording a music/poetry CD Jan Cornall, Singing Srengenge, with jazz pianist Imel Rosalin; a performance poetry project: Mom and Her Bastard Sons, with Yogyakarta bands Black Ribbon, Sentimental A Go Go, and Phyto and Latex; and participation in Perfurbance, Yogya¹s annual performance art festival. To document her Yogya activities Jan produced a short film with Buta Buti, independent film makers called: The Friendship Between You and Me Depends on Art.

Jan continues to be inspired not only by the artists and writers she has met in Indonesia but by Indonesian people in general - a message she wants to take back to Australia, through her novel and other collaborative works. Jan says "the creative atmosphere in Indonesia is what keeps bringing me back. There has been a great upsurge of activity obviously since 1998 accompanying a new found freedom of expression, but the commitment and dedication of artists supporting each other in arts communities to produce incredible works with little or no funding, reminds me of Australia in the 70¹s."

Marilyn echoes Jan¹s thoughts about Bali in the her final chapter saying, "Bali is a paradise, I conclude, not because it has palm trees and sandy beaches and hotel resorts stretching for miles and miles, but because even in death, every day on that island, is a celebration of life."

Jan returns each year to run writer's retreats, attend Ubud Writers and Readers festival and take part in an annual Performance Art festival in Yogyakarta.

Review

Finding One's Paradise Within.

Features - October 08, 2006

Chisato Hara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Anyone who has made an impromptu, solo trip to a hitherto unknown country will immediately recognize themselves on the opening page of Australian writer-performer Jan Cornall's Take Me to Paradise, launched on Sept. 30 during the recent Ubud Writers & Readers Festival.

Walking out of the arrival hall, the protagonist finds herself amid a sea of welcoming and searching faces -- but they are not for her. In fact, even her family back home in Australia don't know where she is.

Marilyn is a 40-something divorcee with children who is lost in her newfound singledom, although it has been several years since she left her marriage. A librarian who aspires to become a writer, she feels like a walking cliche. So she packs a suitcase on a whim and takes a Monday morning flight to Bali, a place to which she has always longed to go.

While many travelers may choose Bali as a destination, Marilyn's motivation is simply escape -- an escape from her life, her responsibilities, her current and past relationships. Most of all, she is escaping from the person she has become, molded in large part by circumstance and obligation. The central character stumbles through much of her five days in Bali, and the reader often watches through her eyes as she looks at events and people from outside of herself, detached and in limbo.

While Cornall's first work of prose -- she has previously written plays, poetry, songs and a screenplay -- explores underlying themes of abandonment, self-denial and loss, it is never pedantic nor forced in their treatment, and at times borders on self-effacing. Instead, what stands out is her sense of humor, one that finds the comic in all encounters, especially the absurd and awkward.

At one point, Marilyn bursts into tears in a highly public area. Uncomfortable as this scene may be (particularly for those who have had a similar experience), it does not induce embarrassment or pity. As Marilyn tries to recover and fails, somewhere within she is also laughing at herself, and so urges readers to compassion and companionable laughter. Cornall's humor is particularly apparent in Marilyn's imagined monologues, whether to explain why she is going to Bali to the passenger beside her on the plane, or as she ponders over her past and relives experiences in full view of the reader -- such as her fumbling experiment with Internet dating. These monologues are so honest, genuine and stark in their effortless delivery that one begins to suspect that Take Me to Paradise is semi-autobiographical. They also provide clues as to Marilyn's development, as her monologues evolve in perspective from "should have been" to "could have been", then to "could be" and finally, "will be".

The "paradise" Marilyn visits is "Schapelle's Bali" just before the second bombing, yet she demonstrates a distinct lack of expectation that makes the telling of her visit fresh. Readers familiar with the island will perhaps recall, through Marilyn's impressions, their initial trip there and how the clash of modern and traditional, Balinese and Western, and other such seemingly incongruous elements appeared vibrant, rather than jarringly kitsch.

Certainly, Marilyn is enchanted by the Bali she enters through her chance meeting with a caring and generous driver, Bagus -- and her final destination is the artisan village of Ubud. And while she might be immersed in a magical enchantment as she tries to pick up some Indonesian terms, tastes her first snake fruit (salak) and purchases a kebaya blouse and sarong at a local market, the source of this "magic" is her free and happy, child-like curiosity and appreciation -- even for the mundane symbols of modern tourism/Bali that weave seamlessly into a temple celebration.

Cliches do abound, mostly in the people surrounding Marilyn: the yoga women who are "experts" on Bali; the middle-aged American couple; the young Balinese man who's into reggae; the young Japanese women with their Balinese holiday beaus.

But Marilyn does not have a cynical bone in her; she is not jaded, so she does not judge, but readers can definitely laugh at the caricatures of these species of tourist.

And in the end, her escape is one that turns into a journey, not so much of self-discovery as one of self-awakening -- of senses and sensuality, independence and individuality. Paradise, in this sense, exists within oneself.

Marilyn is a dreamer who discovers her strength (and courage, though she might only reluctantly attribute such a trait to herself) to make some part of her dream come true -- whether this realization is by chance, accident, or circumstance.

Part travel journal, part diary, Take Me to Paradise is a gem of a novella likely to become a well-worn travel companion.