Review by Antares,
Sunday Star, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
My trusty Britannica describes Ophir as “an unidentified region, famous in Old Testament times for its fine gold.”
In the time of King Solomon (circa 920 BC), “Ophir was thought of as being overseas…the Jewish historian Josephus…evidently understood that India was the location of Ophir…”
How does this relate to Mount Ophir (now known as Gunung Ledang) which straddles the border of Malacca and Johore, states on Peninsula Malaysia ?
Was this landmark peak named after an original Mount Ophir located in the Pasemah Highland of Sumatra—where English mining engineers found ancient gold mines dating back at least three thousand years? Could this have been the legendary mines?
Far-fetched as it may sound at first, the notion isn't altogether preposterous. Wayne Stier's rambunctious but highly readable romp through Malacca town's intriguing past and present could simply be dismissed as a darn good yarn spun by a Texas gunslinger-turned-pun stringer who happens to write “in a hammock with a laptop on the veranda of a house in a coconut grove on the beach of an island in the Gulf of Thailand .”
This might explain Stier's “swinging” style—which gleefully combines swashbuckling adventure with historical romance with a dash of mystery, treasure-hunt travelogue and a generous dollop of vaudeville comedy. He is the rare historian who humorously mixes maverick scholarship (guaranteed to annoy the dour academic) and straight-talking in–your-face satire....
