Dee Lestari's Reading List

"This is a poetry book from a prominent Indonesian poet. Sapardi’s poems were very influential in my early introduction to literature. They taught me a lot about perusing nature as a source of metaphors. Yes, his is a household name in Indonesia—he’s known as the ‘Robert Frost of Indonesia.’ (Frost is also one of Sapardi’s favourites.) I think one of the special qualities of Sapardi was how his work managed to resonate with younger readers. He’s been writing poems since 1960s, but his poems are still quoted by the millennials up to this date. Sapardi is also still very productive, even at his age. He just released another book with Gramedia. He’s also quite active in social media. ‘Aku Ingin.’ It captures love so accurately and beautifully."

"The book came out at the right time, right after the collapse of the New Order regime. The story broke many barriers of various taboos and sensitive topics, including the rise of women authors. To me, Saman was a mark of a new era in literature. Politics, sex, and religion. Even though there may be books that talk about those three topics separately, with different degrees of subtlety, the way Ayu combined them and wrote about them quite straightforwardly in Saman was fresh and exceptional. ‘Fragrant literature’ was initially a media gimmick, written in an article on our national newspaper, Kompas . The term was used to depict the rising of new Indonesian female authors, including myself. Even though these authors came from different genres with various topics, it was undeniably apparent that female authors became a trend in Indonesian publishing. ‘Fragrant literature’ was a term to oppose the old image of Indonesian literature that had been dominated by male authors who were poor and unkempt. I didn’t find it controversial in the beginning. But then, ‘fragrant literature’ was later used in many discussions as a general term for new female authors to question the quality of their work—whether or not they were mere instant sensation."

"It’s about a boy, Margio, who was raised in poverty and a dysfunctional family. He later takes revenge upon a man that had hurt his mother. This book depicts familiar facets of Indonesia, and yet those facets can be totally unique for an international audience. Eka’s writing has a distinct, masculine voice. I admire his seriousness in crafting his story. The supernatural phenomenon of half man, half animal (we call it ‘jadi-jadian’), poverty, rural setting. These are tales we hear via our oral tradition. That’s what I meant by familiar ‘facets’, for most Indonesians."

"With ancient Indonesia as its setting, fuelled with Yusi’s explosive, verging to chaotic, unapologetic, humorous style of writing, I’m interested to see if this book will get translated. I think Raden Mandasia would be an interesting and refreshing window to peek into the richness of Indonesian literature. The book received a Khatulistiwa Literary Award in 2016. It’s published by an independent publisher. I’m not sure about sales figures, but from buzz and reviews, I can tell that Raden Mandasia was received quite well among Indonesian readers. I think it’s particularly interesting because the story was set in ancient Javanese time. There aren’t many recent works of literature that explore that era. Raden Mandasia is one of the few."

"She’s one of the most prominent Indonesian female poets. I like the way Harry Aveling, the translator of this book, worked with Dorothea’s original poems. There was a debate about this. Some say Aveling took it too far, but some say what Aveling did was a “trans-literation”. Instead of merely translating, Harry was giving another breath into Dorothea’s poems. And I enjoy the result. I guess with Supernova , with its form as a novel, there are clearly more binding rules in its translation, while poetry in general can have more flexibility. Working with Harry in Supernova , I feel he managed to stay true to the original words and meaning. The author’s voice, however, is something that is not easily bridged in translation process. I don’t know the exact theory, because I’m not a translator myself. But I think it’s the trickiest part of any translated work: to go beyond the words and manage to capture the voice of the author. I guess it depends. I can see that Dorothea often uses rather nonconventional voices for women: they are stronger, more aggressive, and outspoken. For those who are mostly used to perceiving women from a more patriarchal point of view, it may be shocking. I don’t follow all her work. But some recurrent themes I’ve found are spirituality—often relating to her Christian background—and humanity. I do hope so. I think by being the ‘country focus’ at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2015 and the ‘market focus’ at the London Book Fair in 2019, Indonesia has slowly and gradually built a path towards an international stage. I hope there will be more translated works, good ones, that will help to showcase Indonesian literature to the world."