The Wind Monkey: And Other Stories

Eastern mysticism meets the West in an uneven but appealing collection of tales set mostly in contemporary Indonesia. ``The Pact'' portrays a Canadian travel writer, working on a guide book to Java, who learns about a mysterious legend concerning a holy grave site. A Javanese man visiting a California sequoia forest anticipates disaster in ``Last Stand.'' The title story could be subtitled ``Monkeys in the Mist'': the character who resembles Dian Fossey is an American graduate student whose study of Indonesia's berangat monkeys is ruined by villagers convinced that the primates possess magical powers. Berenstain, who spent two years as a field ecologist in Borneo, writes about nature with genuine love. He opens a window onto Indonesian culture, in which poor families sell their daughters as ``contract brides'' to Western men and ``dukuns'' cast spells to protect villagers. If Berenstain's appreciation and understanding of the material were matched by a strong narrative gift, this collection would be extraordinary. Not quite at that level, it still manages to intrigue. (Mar.)