Indonesia got a little out of control. There were thirteen books on my list, so I started to do a little research to see if I could knock a few of them off, and ended up adding eight more. I did manage to take three off the list: Indonesia, etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation by Elizabeth Pisani (even though a friend recommended it, because it’s non-fiction and the author is not Indonesian); Pain and Suffering by Merari Siregar because it doesn’t seem to have been translated into English; and Oceanic Mythology by Roland B. Dixon because I read the first two sections (on Australia and Polynesia) and hated it. I started working my way through the list of 19. Along the way I dropped The Outcast and Kei, because I was ready to move on from Indonesia (and because I started reading Beauty is a Wound-—out of order, as I’d already read everything but the two aforementioned works—and it was so much better than the last six books I’d read that I thought I should probably quit while I was ahead). There is no way I’m going to finish this reading list before I die, but hopefully if there’s an afterlife there will be books there, I guess.
Indonesia is an archipelago, and there are many distinct cultures between and even within islands. I’ve included the settings of each work in parentheses.
- The Ten Thousand Things, Maria Dermoût, 1955 [Maluku]
- Beauty is a Wound, Eka Kurniawan, 2002 [Java]
- The Black Lake, Hella Haasse, 1948 [Java]
- The Rainbow Troops, Andrea Hirata, 2005 [Belitung (Sumatra)]
- This Earth of Mankind, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, 1975 [Java]
- The Birth of I La Galigo, Mohamad Salim, John H. McGlynn, Sapardi Djoko Damono, 2005 [Sulawesi]
- Blossoms of Longing: Ancient Verses of Love and Lament from the Old Javanese, trans. Thomas M. Hunter, 1998 (texts from 12th-14th c.) [Java]
- Saman, Ayu Utami, 1998 [Sumatra]
- Jazz, Perfume, and the Incident, Seno Gumira Ajidarma, 1996 [Timor/Java]
- Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company, Multatuli, 1820 [Java]
- Earth Dance, Oka Rusmini, 2003 [Bali]
- Daughters of Papua, Anindita S. Thayf, 2009 [Papua]
- Sitti Nurbaya: A Love Unrealized, Marah Rusli [Sumatra/Java]
- Desawarnana, Mpu Prapanca, 1365 [Java]
- The Weaverbirds, Y.B. Mangunwijaya, 1981 [Java]
- Potions and Paper Cranes, Lan Fang, 2013 [Java]
- The Original Dream, Nukila Amal, 2003 [Maluku/Java]
Not read:
- Oceanic Mythology (Indonesia Section), Roland B. Dixon, 1916
- Pain and Suffering (Azab dan Sengsara), Merari Siregar, 1920
- The Outcast, Okky Madasari, 2012
- Home, Leila Chudori, 2012
- Kei, Erni Aladjai, 2013
- Indonesia, etc.: Exploring the Improbable Nation, Elizabeth Pisani, 2014