Hailed by Indonesian record keepers as the world's thickest book,
"The Collection, Obama and Pluralism," was unveiled by local author,
director and artist, Damien Dematra to coincide with a visit by the US
president which ended on Wednesday. At 34 cm thick, the hardbound tome
chronicles snippets of Obama's life in Jakarta.
The US president spent about four years in Indonesia as a
child with his anthropologist mother from 1967 and during his visit spoke
fondly of those days. Jaya Suprana, curator of Indonesia's records museum in a
nation obsessed with record breaking, said the size of the book beats the
previous international title holder - Agatha Christie's "The Complete Miss
Marple," a relatively slender 4,032 pages. Author Dematra, who credits the
start of his "Obamania" to a dinner he attended at the US embassy,
has already completed seven books and a movie about the US president in less
than a year. Dematra good-naturedly shrugs off suggestions he is obsessed.
"I don't mind; for me, the crazier, the
better," he said. "He is someone I've been inspired by, giving me
more understanding on the potential of dreams and pluralism." Dematra's
book includes letters to Obama from students at his former school. One child
with leukemia wrote to Obama asking for help with medical treatment in the
United States.
Other letters expressed admiration - and sympathy for the
job.
"I think it's not exciting to become a president.
Just look at President SBY," said one, a reference to Indonesian leader
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
"Every
day he looks as if he has a headache. It must be even harder to lead the
American people."
