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Beauty Is a Wound

Beauty Is a Wound 1

by Eka Kurniawan
Paperback
Publication Date: 26/08/2015
4/5 Rating 1 Review

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The English-language debut of Indonesia's rising literary star.

Compulsively readable, Beauty Is a Wound combines history, satire, family tragedy, legend, humour, and romance in an astonishing epic novel, in which the beautiful Indo prostitute Dewi Ayu and her four daughters are beset by every monstrosity. Kurniawan's gleefully grotesque hyperbole is a scathing critique of his young nation's troubled past- the rapacious offhand greed of colonialism; the chaotic struggle for independence; the 1965 mass murders, followed by three decades of Suharto's despotic rule.

Drawing on local sources - folk tales and the all-night shadow puppet plays, with their bawdy wit - and inspired by Melville and Gogol, Beauty is a Wound is passionate and ironic, exuberant and confronting. Hailed as 'the next Pramoedya', Eka Kurniawan is an exciting new voice in contemporary literature.

ISBN:
9781925240238
9781925240238
Category:
Contemporary fiction
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
26-08-2015
Publisher:
Text Publishing
Country of origin:
Australia
Pages:
384
Dimensions (mm):
234x153x38mm
Weight:
0.67kg
Eka Kurniawan

Eka Kurniawan was born in 1975 and is the author of novels, short stories, essays, movie scripts, and graphic novels.

He has been described by the Jakarta Post as 'one of the few influential writers in Indonesia.' His first novel to be translated into English, Beauty Is a Wound, was released in 2015.

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“It’s true that oppressed people only have one tool of resistance: run amok. And if I have to tell you, revolution is nothing more than a collective running amok, organized by one particular party”

Beauty is a Wound is one of only two (so far) works by Indonesian journalist, writer and designer, Eka Kurniawan that have been translated into English. Twelve days after she gave birth to her fourth daughter (ironically named Beauty), Dewi Ayu, even at fifty-two still the most beautiful and desired prostitute in the Javan city of Halimunda, wrapped herself in a burial shroud and died. Twenty-one years later, she rose from grave, to the shock of the neighbourhood. Her reasons for doing so were not immediately apparent.

Kurniawan’s epic tale extends over almost a century and, against the backdrop of Dutch Colonial days and the Japanese wartime occupation through the struggles for independence to the modern day, tells the story of an extended Indonesian family: births, marriages, deaths and everything in between. There is plenty of humour and some sweet romance, but this family (like many in Indonesia) also suffers its share of tragedies, or perhaps even moreso. There is quite a lot of violence, again an accurate reflection of life in those times in that country: rapes, massacres, murders and beatings are described in a very matter-of-fact style.

Kurniawan’s tale demonstrates how corruption, propaganda, the power of petty despots, the impotence of the Police force and control of the media are all accepted aspects of everyday life in Indonesia. The attitude of those petty despots is summarised thus: “’Comrade Kliwon … is quite sympathetic and works hard to remedy the misfortunes of others….sometimes I think he’s the only person in this city who looks toward the future with hope.’ ‘That’s what communists are like. Pathetic people who don’t realise this world is destined to be the most rotten place imaginable. That’s the only reason God promised heaven, as a comfort to the wretched masses’”

This is a rambling story that is certainly reminiscent of Garcia Marquez and Rushdie, although, while Rushdie tends to never use two words when three or five will do, Kurniawan is much more succinct. Some elements of the supernatural feature: mainly ghosts and channelling of the dead, and of course, folklore and superstition are commonplace. The prose is quite basic, the dialogue often rather earthy: it is easy to read; a background knowledge of Indonesian history and politics is helpful, but not essential. Translation of this impressive work from the Indonesian has been achieved by Annie Tucker. An original and thought-provoking read. 4.5 stars

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