"One afternoon on a weekend in March, Dewi Ayu rose from her grave after being dead for twenty-one years."- Eka Kurniawan, Beauty is a Wound

This book has one of the best, most memorable opening sentences I've ever read. And it definitely set the stage for one of the most compelling and engrossing stories I've read in a long time. Over 500 pages of prose and I enjoyed every page. Even without having any knowledge of the history of Indonesia, I loved it.

Indonesia seems to have had a turbulent history of colonization, first by the Dutch, then the Japanese. I find the same theme in a lot of novels that focus on colonized subjects who become involved in proxy wars: confusion over what exactly is happening:

"Look," she said to another woman next to her, "they must be confused by two foreign nations making war on their land."

I'm always a fan of anyone who writes compelling, multi-dimensional women. This book traces the history of Indonesian-Dutch prostitute Dewi Ayu and her four daughters and their characters are written so well. It's a complicated family history, complicated even further by wars, colonialism, communism, independence struggles, and love. In addition, fairy tales and legends are mixed in to this funny yet tragic story.

I stories that focus on small communities this. Imagine being part of a community that you were born and raised in, one where everyone knows you and makes room for you because they know they have no choice but to put up with you since migration isn't a common practice. Something Elizabeth Alexander wrote in her "The Light of the World" has always stuck with me, something regarding African societies (told to her by her late husband) about how the village always makes room for everyone, including the mentally ill, and I saw that in this book; people adapting to each other.

Kurniawan is a great writer, really exceptional. I enjoyed the way he presented Indonesia's history in a fictionalized account, making it accessible, as well as interesting and educational.. I had no idea, for example, that Indonesia had a history with communism:

"Comrade Salim admitted that he was not a good Marxist, that he didn't understand all that class theory yet, but he was fairly certain that injustice had to be fought in any way possible. There are no Marxists in this country, he said, but there are plenty of starving masses, who work more than what they get for it in return, who have to bend their knees every time a big man appears, who know nothing expect that the only way to be free from all of that is to rebel."

I already touched upon the compelling female characters in this book. Cynthia Enloe wrote a bit about brothels in Asia during World War 2 and the Vietnam war and it was something I'd never really thought about before but it was interesting to see that although war is often in the masculine domain , there is a lot about the involvement of women that isn't considered or that is glossed over. We know women and children are always the biggest victims in war and this book at least lends some warmth and a richer narrative to the stories that aren't often mentioned, those that are seen as peripheral to the war. This line, "The colonel came to believe that the brothel built up his men's morale and was good for their fighting spirit...", reminds us of how women are used in times of war.

Indonesia as a locale for this story was interesting: the dichotomies of native Indonesian vs. Dutch, interspersed with some magical realism, myths, humour and wit, bawdiness, as well as great insights, made the story really come alive. Also, to me the history seemed to be very much that of many countries where the needs of the people are quite basic, yet are still out of reach due to bad governance:

"Long ago he had heard an imam in the mosque talk about heaven, about rivers of milk that flowed at your feet, about beautiful ever-available virgins, nymphs, about everything being there for the taking and nothing forbidden. All of that seemed so beautiful, really too beautiful to be believed. He didn't need anything as grandiose as all that--it would be enough for him if everyone got the same amount of rice. Or maybe that wish was really the most grandiose wish of all."

Prepare to be shocked, outraged, and delighted.asia232 s Kevin AnsbroAuthor 5 books1,566

"One afternoon on a weekend in March, Dewi Ayu rose from her grave after being dead for twenty-one years."

Now that's the kind of beginning that will grab my attention!
If you the magical realism of Márquez (as I do), then this could be your cup of Colombian coffee - although it's set in Indonesia (I know. It's an idiom that I drove into a cul-de-sac).

Dewi Ayu, the village prostitute and local misanthrope, gives birth to a hideous little baby and dies twelve days later, without setting eyes on her unfortunate progeny.
There ensues a magical, folkloric riotous story that would be beyond the imagination of most writers.
Hilarious, cruel, bawdy, highly offensive and fantastically otherworldly.
I loved it!
Many will not.escapism funny-as-f human-imagery ...more111 s2 comments Sawsan1,000

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87 s Nicole~198 260

Eka Kurniawan, said to be following in the giant steps of Indonesia's most famous author, Pramoedya Ananta Toer (known for his anti-colonial and social realism tetralogy, Buru Quartet), is a popular literary young blood who could be as heavily influenced by a host of literary icons. His novel Beauty is a Wound is a 20th century Indonesian historiography told in the rich folklore of her culture; in gothicism that awakens memories of Lafcadio Hearn's chilling Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things; in magic realism reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's epic tale of Latin America, One Hundred Years of Solitude or Salman Rushdie's mesmerizing novel of India, Midnight's Children; and in the taut rendering of wartime atrocities, it is more explicitly a depiction of abuse and violence against women as similarly narrated in Mo Yan's hallucinatory novel of China's history, Big Breasts and Wide Hips.


Far off at the edge of the South Seas, lies the port city Halimunda - the Land of Fog, so named by the beautiful, mythical princess Rengannis who pledged to marry the first person she saw at her window...

But there was no one as far as the eye could see, no one except a dog who was looking back over his shoulder in her direction after hearing the sound of the window creaking open. The princess was stunned for a moment but, remember, she never went back on her word, so from the bottom of her heart she promised she would marry that dog.

The novel represents 'Beauty' in both binary and opposing stories of Halimunda - a hypnotic land possessively controlled for 3 centuries by the Dutch; savagely violated by the hands of the Rising Sun; betrayed and abandoned by her two-faced 'friendly rescuers', and left exposed a carcass to be devoured by homegrown wild dogs known as aka; and the multi-generational saga of Dewi Ayu - an exotic beauty of Dutch and Indo mixture, abducted and forced into the role of comfort woman for the Japanese, eventually becoming the most intoxicating prostitute in the village. The 'demon seed' took root four times in Dewi Ayu's womb, the result was four 'beautiful' daughters.

I should open my own whorehouse....There’s no curse more terrible than to give birth to a pretty female in a world of men as nasty as dogs in heat.

Through the daughters' lovers evolve Halimunda's post WWII violent political and social struggles. In 'Beauty's' presence, they are irresistibly drawn in, but, the creature in a Venus fly trap, to touch the treasure could be fatal, may be scarring and mutilating, excruciatingly painful, unendurable or gruesomely deadly.

In Halimunda (thought to be Jakarta ), Kurniawan explores and resurrects his nation's bloodstained past - her struggle for self identity in the aftermath of WWII and survival in the wake of Suharto's brutal genocidal massacre of thousands of Communists - blending with it Indonesian beliefs in the 'potent dead' who, thought powerful enough to influence the living, return as ghosts from the otherworld, for "the wretched don’t die easy" and ghosts have unfinished business; and so the commanding ghost of Dewi Ayu, rises from her grave 21 years after she died to contrast, it would appear, a mysterious and vengeful evil spirit - unknown until the last chapters - dead set to unleash its seething wrath upon her family. War, it seems, plays out on many realms in Halimunda.

Kurniawan delivers a compelling tale ripe with Southeast Asian folklore, supernatural horror and the explicit violent history of a region beaten down by the heinousness of war and a corrupt, murder-driven regime, urging the reader - who might otherwise equate Indonesia with devastating earthquakes or the explosive volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 - to be more informed of her political past. Kurniawan is already setting a blazing path and a brilliant future as a notable writer of Indonesian fiction, and has completely slain me with this novel of 'Beauty.'
dutch-colonialism historical-fiction indonesia ...more77 s Karen672 105

**Content advisory for discussion of multiple rapes.**

My enjoyment of this book followed a kind of reverse bell curve, with a really weak back end. :( I started out really digging it--a magic realist family fable about a Dewi Ayu, a Dutch-Indo woman who comes back to life twenty-one years after she died (and after she gave birth to her fourth daughter, a monstrously ugly girl she named Beauty.) The prose felt solid and the voice was coming from an interesting, unusual place--the story had the feel of folklore.

I hung with it for a couple hundred pages, following Dewi Ayu through the early years of her life and the chaos of war, in which she and other Indonesian women were forced into prostitution (aka, systematic rape under the guise of "comfort women") by occupying Japanese soldiers. Rough stuff, and hard to read, but the narrative voice seemed to understand that these were war crimes, and that the women suffered--and the story still felt it was following a through-line. Indonesian history, between the Dutch and the Japanese, isn't always pretty.

Then things got weirder. The story skipped around, visiting different characters related by blood or marriage to Dewi Ayu and her daughters, and while there was still some historical context (the rise of Communism, the massacre of Communists, power struggles through the 1960s and 1970s), the voice seemed to get repeatedly distracted by minor household stuff. There were some entertaining myths and some stories that seemed retellings of myths, and they mostly wound back around again, sooner or later, to the Dewi Ayu clan--although I couldn't always tell why we'd taken that particular tangent.

About three-quarters of the way through the book, the story seems to fall apart. We drop into the lives of a handful of different men who marry Dewi Ayu's daughters or otherwise get involved in her family life--and Dewi Ayu herself disappears almost completely from the picture. Instead, we spent pages and pages dwelling on these men's obsessive lust-relationships with young girls, complete with meticulous, extended sex-fantasy descriptions of the girls' bodies.

And then we get tons and tons of rape. Men are tempted by women, obsessed by women, driven wild by their lust for women. (And livestock. One guy goes nuts and repeatedly rapes chickens to death, as well as countless dogs and kine.) They drug, kidnap, and rape girls and women, rape their wives...it goes on and on. Women get pregnant from rape, are forced to marry their rapists, die of pain and regret and rape. And the rapes are often described in bizarrely explicit, extended, almost blissfully pornographic passages that in any other context would be meant for titillation. Phrases "make love" and "have sex" are used interchangeably with rape, albeit mainly through the perspectives of the rapists themselves. But honestly, it felt to me the narrative voice also conflated these things at some points, or at the very least was playing fast and loose with the ideas.

I almost didn't finish the book, because...what the #$!*? The latter third of the book (or thereabouts) reads a bizarre masturbatory rape-dream written by someone with serious sexual issues. I understand that colonization--the occupation and forcible exploitation of a region by a foreign power--is a kind of rape, although I take issue with the old-hat analogy of colonial occupation to actual rape of the female body. I understand the title of the book equates beauty with pain and injury. But given the execution, I don't understand what I was supposed to feel or learn from most of this book.

I was left feeling the author had taken a promising setup and driven it down a gross, personal back alley for his own purposes--or maybe to be more charitable, had lost control of what he was doing and gone way off the rails (and no one, including his editor at New Directions or his female translator, had told him.) I didn't feel the book ended with anything a justification for the bizarre saturnalia it indulged in for so long, or it ever adequately reassured me that it understood the distinctions between colonization and actual rape, or the problems of using graphic, extended, repeated depictions of rape to make a literary or political point.

This book started out feeling exciting and interesting and new. Somewhere in the middle it folded in on itself a crappy cake, and by the end what I had was something I mostly wanted to spit out.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review2016 abused_women bechdel_test_no ...more77 s Lena229 101

Exotic family saga from the place hugely known as popular tourist destination. I love this kind of books. European and American authors have dominated for so long that anything from eastern parts can absolutely blow my mind. Indonesian culture and history is so rich and eclectic. I could barely comprehend this crazy mixture of superstitions, Islam and Mahabharata. Through five generations we witness country's bloody history. From the fall of white colonialism, WWII, communism till gaining independence. All just to finally break the family curse and end chain of deaths and suffering. The book is compared much to the One Hundred Years of Solitude, and I also recognized the style from the first pages. So you'll this novel if you enjoined Marquez' book. But trigger warning: this story has very graphic descriptions of rape and sexual deviations.73 s Viv JM704 167 Shelved as 'dnf'

DNF @ 40%

This is a very rapey book and I really don't want to continue any further, specifically after a scene where a woman, after being gang raped on multiple occasions, is then consumed by lust for her "rescuer". No. Just no. I get that this book is satirical and allegorical and symbolic, but still. The author doesn't graphically describe the rape scenes but there are just so many and I am really not convinced that they are necessary to the plot. It's a shame, because I really d the beginning of this book - it has one of the best opening lines I have ever read - and I enjoyed some of the folkloric quality to the writing, but this kind of rape fantasy myth is just too far out of my comfort zone.65 s Perry632 565

Fascinating Allegorical Tale of Indonesia f/k/a Dutch East Indies
If you tales of political/social allegory, such as Animal Farm and One Hundred Years of Solitude, that exercise your brain, without overly challenging to the point of losing intrigue, the kind of story in which you delight in discovering (or trying to) the metaphorical meaning of actions, characters and things within, then I recommend you put this on your list of books to check out.

This brilliant novel reflects and criticizes the turbulent history of the world's 4th most populous country Indonesia, a country of more than 14,000 islands and of terrible tsunamis. Indonesia's native citizens suffered under three and a half centuries of Dutch rule, Japanese occupation for 3 years during WWII, the mass slaughter of possibly a million citizens after the failed Communist coup in 1965, followed by the despotic rule of Suharto for 3 decades.


Indonesia: Tsunami


1965 - Communists Being Led En Masse to Slaughter after Failed Revolution/Coup

Kurniawan tells the tempestuous history by means of an epic allegory which is, by turns, ridiculous, magical, hilarious and always captivating. The centerpiece is Dewi Ayu, the stunningly beautiful 3/4 Dutch and 1/4 Malaysian girl forced into prostitution in her late teens upon Japanese occupation, her four daughters (each with different fathers), their lovers and husbands, Dewi Ayu's 3 grandchildren, and the village of Halimundo, which is reminiscent of the village of Macondo in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Kurniawan also weaves in colorful, intriguing local folklore to make his points.


Suharto - Despot who Ruled for 30 Years

While the novel contains some scenes of the grotesque and of rapes, they did not seem gratuitous or unnecessary to reflect the tragedies befallen Indonesia and its residents.

It is haunting and has solidly stayed with me nearly 5 months after reading it. You can accuse me of being off my rocker but, I think this book is destined, 50 years from now, to be deemed a classic. Really.



Attempt at Representation of Protagonist: Gorgeous 3/4 Dutch, 1/4 Malaysian Dewi Ayu59 s Amanda1,147 259

This falls somewhere between a 2.5 and a 3.5. When I first started it I thought I was going to love it. It had many shades of One Hundred Years of Solitude. There were many things I did really . The historical backdrop of Indonesia was fascinating and I ended up googling lots of things to learn more about the history. A lot of this book is political satire which never really works for me. I found some of the characters to be fascinating and I loved their stories but in the end there was far to much "blah blah blah rape blah blah blah whore blah blah blah rape all the women etc" Oh and then there was the part where they killed all the dogs (yes I get the symbolism but no don't kill the dogs!) There were several places along the way where I considered a DNF. Despite my somewhat negative comments I am actually glad that I read this book and that I finished it. It's not a bad thing to a read a book that pushes you beyond your comfort zone.59 s Missy J596 98



"Beauty Is a Wound" is the debut novel of Eka Kurniawan, which was originally published in 2002. This is the second time for me to read a work by Kurniawan (earlier this year I read Lelaki Harimau). "Beauty Is a Wound” is a grand and quite over-ambitious satire. With the historic backdrop stretching from the end of Dutch colonialism of the Indies to the end of the 20th century, Kurniawan tells the story of an Indo (mixed Dutch-Javanese) woman called Dewi Ayu and her three daughters. The family is cursed and is struck by one catastrophe after another.

First of all, I think it’s important to clarify that this is more of a horror novel rather than magical realism. The first sentence of the book goes this: "One afternoon on a weekend in March, Dewi Ayu rose from her grave after being dead for twenty-one years." But pay attention to what happens next. People are terrified and run away from Dewi Ayu. If this were magical realism, people would glance at Dewi Ayu and then continue doing whatever they were doing. But no! People are running away because it’s a nightmare. The reader is about to come across a lot of rape, incest, bestiality, murder, male chauvinism and even more rape! This book is not for the faint of heart.

I think it’s justified that Kurniawan present Indonesia's history in a horrific manner. Indonesian history is permeated with sexual violence. It happened during 300 years of Dutch colonization, what the Japanese army did to the comfort women (throughout Asia and which most Japanese still won’t recognize), the killings and rapes of 1965 (which the Indonesian government still won’t claim responsibility for), the horrific invasion and rape of East Timor by the Indonesian army, the violence and rapes against ethnic Chinese in 1998… I don't even want to get started on the multinational corporations and their trickery raping the soil and natural wealth of Indonesia. Kurniawan really succeeds in weaving Indonesia’s turbulent history into this novel. I loved his description of communist ghosts haunting the murderers.

Unfortunately, the chronology of the characters’ stories and development is somewhat sloppy. Better editing could’ve improved the narration. But I can forgive the author because he was only 25-27 years old and his second novel has shown that his writing improved.

Finally, I appreciate the psychology behind this novel. The reader is outraged, angry and frustrated with the many rapes and how women are merely treated as sex objects. But that’s what we should feel. When we are enraged by these actions, it proves that we are still human and sane. Most of these horrific crimes were never recognized and will probably go unpunished. The eerie thing is that many Indonesians stay mum about this part of history. Most people want to move on, because it’s too painful to talk about the past and most victims are ashamed. I don’t know what term psychologists use, but it’s important to talk about this so that the oppressors won’t oppress again. So, I thank Kurniawan for writing this novel. Beauty is indeed a wound!2016-books asia-related historical-fiction ...more42 s Brianna65 27

There is so much rape in this book. I'm not necessarily averse to that but I have questions about how and why sexual violence functions as both plot point and constantly revisited method of characterization, as nearly all of the women in this novel - both primary and secondary- are defined and characterized by their brutal and repetitive violations.

The novel was often beautiful and really well written. I can understand why it has drawn so many glowing comparisons to One Hundred Years of Solitude, but un Marquez' book I think Beauty topples under the weight of its own ambition and its many narrative threads. I did not buy the ending nor the message the author seemed to underline as the moral heart of the story. It rang false to me, and, considering the amount of sexual violence and the emphasis on a certain type of femininity, left me somewhat disturbed. I can't really discuss it without spoiling the whole plot but this is a book that I feel I would need to revisit or discuss with someone else in order to parse out my complicated feelings. Probably one of the books I feel most conflicted about that I've read all year.41 s Repellent Boy518 556

Normalmente, a la hora de dar mi opinión sobre un libro, me gusta empezar por dar algunos detalles de la trama, a modo de introducción para luego hablar de mis impresiones y las cosas que me ha hecho sentir la lectura. En este caso, me ha cabreado tanto este libro, que tengo ganas de pasar directamente a enumerar todas las cosas que me han horrorizado de “La belleza es una herida”. Por empezar por algún detalle bueno diré que al inicio pensaba que me iba a gustar mucho, ya que tiene un toque muy parecido al realismo mágico latinoamericano que tanto suelo disfrutar. También creo que la pluma del autor parece bonita, y digo parece, porque lo que cuenta me ha dado tanto asco, que me cuesta ser objetivo en este punto.

¿Qué nos podemos encontrar en este libro? Principalmente mujeres siendo violadas, eso es lo que más tiene el libro. Prácticamente todos los personajes femeninos que salen, y son muchos, ya que es una saga familiar, son violadas en uno o varios momentos. De hecho, la violencia sexual hacia la mujer y sus efectos se minimiza hasta tal punto, que parece que nos estén contando chorraditas y no las barbaridades que están ocurriendo. También nos vamos a encontrar una romantización brutal de la prostitución, además de otra romantización más, esta vez de la pederastia.

Uno de los primeros temas de los que habla esta historia son las mujeres de solaz, todas estas mujeres de diferentes partes de Asia, que fueron raptadas por el ejército japonés antes y durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, a las que posteriormente violaban en grupo. Ya he leído unos cuantos libros que tratan sobre ese horrible hecho, algunos centrando mucho la historia en él, otros solo de pasada, y siempre he encontrado crudeza y realidad, pero con respeto y, sobre todo, empatía hacia las mujeres que vivieron algo así. Casualmente, todas estas obras estaban escritas por mujeres. No es casualidad que la primera sobre el tema que leo escrita por un hombre, Eka Kurniawan, sea la única donde encuentro una narración poco respetuosa, que invalida el relato de las mujeres que han sufrido y sufren esta violencia, y que incluso llega a tratar las agresiones sexuales como una cosita sin importancia.

Durante la primera parte de la novela me chocaba mucho ver una especie de desajuste entre lo que narraban las mujeres que eran violadas, con lo que la voz narrativa iba contando, quitándole “hierro al asunto”, invalidando la voz de estas mujeres y sus vivencias, e incluso, juzgándolas. Es una de las veces que más me ha chocado ver una voz narrativa que juzga tanto a sus personajes. No es un libro en el que pasan cosas malas porque sus personajes son malos, es un libro en el que los peores comentarios posibles son hechos por un narrador omnisciente.

Me resulta muy chocante ver tantísimas buenas críticas en un libro donde casi todas las mujeres son violadas en algún momento, donde se dice constantemente que la mujer bella provoca al hombre, o que ni uno solo hombre en la tierra, por bueno que fuese, podría resistirse y no violar a una mujer atractiva. De hecho, no solo todos lo personajes femeninos son violados, es que todos los personajes masculinos o violan a diferentes mujeres o se “enamoran” de niñas de 8 o 12 años. Y repito, todos estos comentarios asquerosos que tiene la novela, que son CIENTOS, son realizados a través de la narración. Es más, la historia tiene pocas escenas de sexo consentido, pero las pocas que tiene son descritas de manera escueta y rápidamente se pasa a otra cosa. Eso sí, las escenas de violaciones son descritas al dedillo, con un lenguaje muy soez, con símiles muy desagradables, e, incluso, con un tufillo morboso que me removían las tripas.

Y lo peor es como trata a las mujeres el autor. Hay cierto momento donde una mujer que es brutalmente violada en grupo, horas después se "tira al cuello" de uno de los protagonistas para mantener relaciones sexuales. Una madre casa a su hija de doce años con su amante de treinta. Hay otra que después de ser violada continuamente por hombre, acaba enamorándose de él. El autor llega a usar las palabras "sexo", "unión" o "follar", cuando está hablando de violaciones mientras nos narra la historia. Las mujeres son vejadas por los hombres durante toda la historia, desde la primera página hasta la última. Y también son vejadas por el narrador.

En fin, que no me voy a alargar más, porque es una historia que ni este tiempo gastado merece. ¿Peor libro del año? Sin lugar a dudas. Es una de las historias más desagradables que he leído en mi vida, y no porque sea dura, estoy acostumbrado a historias así, sino porque se normalizan y romantizan barbaridades continuamente, empezando por el mismo título “La belleza es una herida”. La mujer es violada “por culpa” de esta belleza, como bien se dice muchas veces en el libro. Los hombres son provocados por esta belleza y no pueden frenarse. Ni un solo hombre en el planeta. Ni uno. Valiente pereza de discurso rancio que tiene el señor Kurniawan.2000-2009 asia indonesia ...more38 s yun with books572 225



BUKU INI GILA. SAKIT JIWA. EDAN. NGERI. WAHHHHHH. WOOOOOWWWW
Gak bisa berkata apa-apa lagi, dan mau nge-review juga bingung harus mulai dari mana.
Cantik itu Luka benar-benar membuktikan bahwa Cantik Itu Luka, cantik itu membawa penderitaan.

Buku ini bercerita tentang kehidupan nan tragis dari anak-anak manusia, menurut saya karma menjadi "tokoh utama" dari alur cerita di buku ini. Karakter-karakter yang kuat, tragis, sadis, mesum dan tidak bersimpatik menjadi kekuatan dari buku ini.
Dewi Ayu, Alamanda, Adinda, Maya Dewi, Si Cantik, Sang Shodhancho, Kamerad Kliwon dan Maman Gendeng.Semua karakter itu "sakit".
Alur cerita yang membuat dahi saya mengrenyit berkali-kali, BERKALI-KALI! 100 halaman pertama memang banyak adegan mesum, perkosa sana sini, sangat amat eksplisit. Tapi itu lah manusia, tidak ada beda dengan binatang kalo soal berahi.
Kehidupan Dewi Ayu, sang pelacur terkenal yang tragis hingga turun temurun ke anak-cucunya.
Kisah cinta tragis antara Alamanda & Kamerad Kliwon.
Obsesi Maman Gendeng terhadap Rengganis.
SEMUANYA SAKIT JIWA

Tidak lupa dengan tragisnya akhir kehidupan masing-masing karakter; Alamanda, Adinda, Maya Dewi yang semuanya menjadi janda. Kamerad Kliwon yang bunuh diri. Sang Shodhancho yang meninggal dimakan anjing. Mungkin hanya Maman Gendeng yg kematiannya tidak tragis, hanya seperti Yesus dan Yudas Iskariot.

Cantik itu Luka buku karya Eka Kurniawan pertama yang saya baca, dan saya ketagihan membaca karya-karya beliau selanjutnya. Historical fiction dalam buku ini kuat sekali, walaupun nama kota begitu fiksi, yaitu Halimunda.
Tidak heran kalo buku ini sudah diterjemahkan ke puluhan bahasa dan Eka Kurniawan digadang sebagai penerus Pramoedya. Saya suka sekali dengan karya sastra ini dan beruntung bisa membacanya.

Buku ini sangat amat saya rekomendasikan untuk kalian baca, minimal SEKALI SEUMUR HIDUP.hardcovers historical-fiction indonesian-s-author ...more33 s Hugh1,274 49

I read this for a group discussion this month in the 21st Century Literature group, and I don't want to say anything that will preempt that discussion at this stage, so I'll try to keep this review fairly short.

This was the Javanese author's first novel, published in Indonesia in 2002. It is an epic magic realist story in which events in the small fictional coastal town are to some extent a microcosm of the history of Indonesia since the 1930s.

At its heart it is a family story, and at its heart is Dewi Ayu, a child of Dutch settlers who supports her family through prostitution. In the striking first chapter she rises from the grave after 21 years, and finds her youngest daughter Beauty, who was a baby at the time of her death, now a young adult. Beauty is the product of a wish, brought on by the tragic fates of Dewi Ayu's first three beautiful daughters, that her unborn baby should be as ugly as possible. After the first chapter we go back to Dewi Ayu's own youth under Dutch colonial rule, her experiences of the Japanese invasion that led her into prostitution, and the lives of her three eldest daughters and the men they marry.

The story is by turns funny and brutal, with many violent incidents, deaths and rapes. Supernatural elements abound - ghosts are everywhere and play a crucial part in the plot.

Not a book I would recommend to everyone without reservations, but overall I found it quite impressive.modern-lit read-2020 translations33 s merixien596 428

Kitap, bir zamanlar Halimunda’n?n en güzel fahi?esi olarak ün salan Dewi Ayu’nun, ölümünden 21 y?l sonra mezar?ndan kalk?p yine “güzelli?in” açt??? yaralar? kapat?p i?leri tekrar yoluna koymak için evine geri dönü?ü ile ba?l?yor. Dewi Ayu’nun hayat?n?n ?kinci Dünya Sava??’ndan itibaren günümüze kadar sürecini anlat?rken asl?nda Endonezya’n?n tarihini de takip ediyorsunuz. Endonezya’n?n bir Hollanda sömürgesi oldu?u dönemden itibaren, yerli halk?n ikinci s?n?f insan görülmesi, kad?nlar?n sömürülmesi, aile içi ?iddet, iç sava?, askeri darbe, toplu katliamlarla dolu korkunç tarihiyle yüzle?iyorsunuz. Ancak yazar?n büyülü gerçekçilikle kara mizah? harmanlad??? kitapta zaman zaman kahkahalarla gülüyor iki sayfa sonra da insanl?ktan nefret edebiliyorsunuz. ?iddet, tecavüzler, ensest, delilik, iradesiz erkekler, ac? çeken kad?nlar, kinci kötü ruhlar ve komünist hayaletlerle dolu yeti?kinlere yönelik, sarkastik bir peri masal?. Benim Endonezya edebiyat?ndan okudu?um ilk kitapt? ve çok be?endim. Bir aile tarihiyle ülke tarihini aktarmas? ve büyülü gerçeklikten dolay? Marquez’in Yüzy?ll?k Yaln?zl?k kitab? ile çok k?yaslan?yor ancak bire bir benzer oldu?unu dü?ünmüyorum. Zira Yüzy?ll?k Yaln?zl?k’tan ho?lanmayanlar?n dahi sevebilece?i bir kitap bence. Kapak sizi aldatmas?n, mutlaka okuyun.

“Çaresizlik içinde ‘Komünist mi oldun yoksa?’ diye sordu. ‘Ancak bir komünist böyle kederli olabilir.’
‘A??k oldum.’ dedi Kliwon annesine.
‘Daha kötüymü?.’ dedi annesi.”

“Öldükten sonra hat?rlanaca??n?z? ummay?n” dedi, “inan?n insanlar do?rudan kendilerine dokunmayan hiçbir ?eyi hat?rlamazlar.”


favorites indonesian-literature magical-realism ...more30 s ESRAA MOHAMED726 319

" ?? ??? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ??? ? ???? ???? ??? ?? ????? "
????? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ??? ?? ????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ???? ?? ?????? ??????????? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ?????? ..
??????? ?? ??? ???????? ??????? ?????? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ?????????? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ????????? ???? ???? ???? ?? ???????? ???????? ????????? ???? ???????? ?????? ????????? ?? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ????????? ..
?????? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ???? ??? ?? ?????? ???? ???? ???????? ??? ??? ?? ???? ????? ?? ????? ???? ??? ??????? ???????? ???? ??? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ???? ???? ???? ?????? ????????? ??? ??? ???? ???????? ?????? ?????? ????? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ???? ??? ..
?? ????? ?? ??? ????? ??? ????? ????? ??? ??? ??? ?? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ????? ????? ??? ??? ???? ???? ?????? ???? ?????? ????? ?? ?? ??? ????? ????? ?? ??? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ?????? ???????? ???????? ???? ???? ????? ????? ??? ??? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?? ???? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ?????? ...

??? ???? ???? ???? ????? ????? ???? ??? ?? ?????? ????? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ..
??? ???? ???????? ??????? ?????? ??? ??????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ???? ???? ????????? ...

????????? ..
???? ???? ??????favourite social ????-??????? ...more30 s Mobyskine986 144

Novel yang aneh dan gila. (mengucap panjang)
Aku tak gemar sangat baca benda-benda berkait hal perang, pemberontakan, komunisme apatah lagi hal pelacuran tapi jalan cerita buku ini disusun sungguh rapi dan teratur menjadikan ia satu bacaan yang tidak membosankan. Penulis sangat pandai mengolah setiap watak sehingga setiap watak dan karakter di buku ini sama penting dengan Dewi Ayu. Dari kisah Maman Gendeng ke Sang Sodancho terus ke Kamerad Kliwon juga perihal anak-anak Dewi Ayu sendiri malah sehingga ke cucu-cucunya- penulis sungguh teliti dan bijak mengemas alur cerita sehingga aku rasa buku ini tak perlukan seorang editor.

Recommended- walau endingnya pada aku kurang memuaskan, tapi ada pengajaran juga ya!indonesianliterature30 s cypt580 697

Turb?t pirma skaityta knyga iš / apie Indonezij?. Tuo svetimos kult?ros vaibu tolimai vis ataid?davo Jean Rhys ir "Wide Sargasso Sea", bet tik tokiu dekoratyviniu lygmeniu, nes ?ia n?ra - bent aš neatpažinau - nei dialogo su kolonist? kult?ra, nei didel?s priespaudos.

Knyga visam ?manomam pijare lyginama su Marquezu (100 met?), ir ne veltui. Sugeba b?ti labai panaši ? Marquez? (vietom net citat? lygmeniu), bet sykiu ir nesijausti gryna kopija ar m?gdžiojimas.
Pagrindinis iš panašum? - magiškas realizmas, ?ia sutraktuotas visai gražiai: jo n?ra daug ir didžioji dalis jo pasirodym? susij? su mirtimi - žmon?s tai, užuot mir?, išskrenda ? or?, tai bendrauja su vaiduokliais (nužudyt?j? šm?klomis), tai tuos vaiduoklius valgydina ar iš j? renka info, o kartais b?na išvis atspar?s mir?iai, kulkoms ir kitiems pavojams. O dar - mir? gr?žta kartu pab?ti su myl?tais žmon?m ir atsisveikinti. Tai ne visai markesiškas mag.realizmas, bet gražus. Gal labiau primena visokias El dia de los muertos.

Kaip ir pas Marquez?, ?ia - vienos šeimos saga (nuo pradžios iki galo); tiesa, ji vienaplaniškesn? - susijus su vienos šeimos moterimis ir j? likimais, kurie galiausiai visi suvienod?ja. ?ia panašiau ne tiek ? roman?, kiek ? koki? labai išpl?tot? sakm? ar legend?.

Kaip ir pas Marquez?, visas romanas persisunk?s ironijos ir linksmo, atsainaus tono. Nuo komunisto s?naus, kuris pats tampa komunistu, o v?liau - smulkiu kapitalistu, iki draug?, kurie kasdien lošia kortom ir dalinasi r?pes?iais, bet galiausiai vienas j? be galo džiaugiasi gav?s galimyb? nužudyti kit?. Ir tt tt tt.

Skaitydama galvojau du dalykus, nežinau, ar jie susij?.
1. Ant kiek šitoj knygoj yra visiškai easy pateikto prievartavimo. Jei kas nors susiparina - nub?ga paprievartauja žmon?/paž?stam?/vaik?/gyv?n?/šeimos nar?. Jei d?l ko nors nesutaria ar kas nors ?žeidžia - v?l ten pat paprievartaut. Galiausiai pagrindin?s personaž?s prostitut?s darbas ir likimas ima atrodyti pavyd?tinas ir labai patogus. Skai?iau ir m?s?iau: kaži, kiek tas gali b?ti kult?rinis dalykas? Ar gali prievarta ir smurtas tur?ti tiek kit? reikšm? kitoj kult?roj, kad skamb?t? taip...nebaisiai? Kiek tas yra realistiška? Mes šiurpstam nuo Lolitos, bet skaitom Kurniawan ir visai linksma. Nes juk visiems ir tikrai visoms (!!!) baigiasi laimingai. O gal Kurniawan - toks vietinis Tarantino (nenoriu sakyt V?lyvis), kuriam smurtas - visai gera medžiaga, provokatyvi, sykiu ir bauginanti, leidžianti pasijausti didžiuoju subversintoju? K? supratau - kad šito tikrai nesuprasiu ir, netur?dama ir tikrai netur?sianti platesnio konteksto, turb?t šitos knygos atžvilgiu liksiu tik egzotini? iškamš? muziejaus apži?rin?toja.

2. Ar magiškasis realizmas n?ra kažkoks postkolonializmo dalykas? T. y. ar tai n?ra tokia ne tik šiaip simpatiška ir linksma, bet ir šiokia tokia savisaugin? strategija? Tokia anti-mimikrija. Dar labiau save suegzotini ir tampi toks ?domus ir egzotiškas. Galvodama apie tai ir apie tiek daugel? panašum? ? Marquez?, prisiminiau, kaip univere viena d?stytoja analizuodavo Almodovaro film? ir baigdavo išvada: "tai receptas, kaip sukurti šedevr?, laim?siant? visokius apdovanojimus". Ar Marquezas, magiškas realizmas+egzotika = toks pat receptas? Nežinau, gal ne. Bet kažkoks tolimas jausmas, kad ?ia kažkas maždaug tokio, man liko.

Šiaip knyg? skaityt, man atrodo, verta, ji savotiška, galinti sunervuot, vietom plokštoka, o vietom graži, simpatiška muilo opera. Vertimas labai žodingas ir gražus.
Kalbant apie vertim? - JIS DARYTAS IŠ ANGL?, nors originalas n?ra angliškas. Suprantu, kad LT n?ra turb?t daug originalo kalbos žinov(i)?... Ir, matyt, taip neretai daroma, jei buvo su agentais susitarta, nusipirktos autorin?s, ir tt. (Plius angliškasis vertimas visoks toks premijuotas.) Bet..nžn. Ar nereikia to kažkaip aiškiau pažym?ti, aiškiau aptarti? Ar tik man vienai atrodo ?ia biški feikas? Gal prisigalvoju. Bet kažkaip užsijautrinau, galvodama apie visas kolonijines saviegzotizavimo praktikas, kuri? kontekste tas gal atsitiktinai, bet vis tiek truput? ironiškai atrodo.29 s I. Mónica del P Pinzon Verano209 76

3,5 estrellas

Una lectura que tenía que hacer con urgencia. No recuerdo cómo me llegó este título del cual ni siquiera hice el intento de desprenderme. “La Belleza es una Herida” para mi es de los títulos más seductores que he podido encontrar para una novela. Sentí que era un asunto prioritario leerla, y más cuando su autor Eka Kurniawan es de Indonesia, un país lejano y cuya literatura es territorio virgen para mí. Desde luego, también estaba el tema del género “realismo mágico”, más cuando ha sido comparada con “Cien Años de Soledad”.

La historia se desarrolla en una ciudad de la misma naturaleza de Macondo, Halimunda; y cuenta a través de las historias personales de las mujeres de una misma estirpe el paso de la violencia en Indonesia con sus diferentes actores; desde antes de la primera guerra mundial, hasta los noventa. El contenido histórico, es una promesa que hace E. Kurniawan en su preludio:

…”Dewy Ayu y sus hijas volvieron a ver la brutalidad de la que era capaz el hombre , vieron las calles de su pueblo convertidas en ríos de sangre y los ríos en fosas comunes.
Esta es la historia de nuestro país. Una historia de fantasmas…Pasen y disfruten”.

Y la novela arranca con uno de los mejores intros que he leído; la resurrección de Dewy Ayu, su protagonista:

“Una tarde, un fin de semana de marzo, Dewy Ayu se levantó de su tumba tras haber pasado veintiún años muerta” …

Y ya con esto para mí la novela tiene un despliegue épico, y pese a que parezca difícil, el ritmo y la solvencia no decaen. A mi juicio E. Kurniawan da lecciones soberbias de movimiento, fluidez, buena escritura y de creatividad. Nunca me aburrí, la novela es una mezcla de ingenio, violencia, humor, romance, mitología, ocultismo y fantasías. Pero esto no es suficiente para sostener esta historia.
El autor, al igual que en otras novelas de realismo mágico Latinoamericano (La casa de los espíritus, como agua para chocolate, cien años de soledad), le da voz y protagonismo a la mujer, siendo esta la que conduce la historia no de una forma pasiva, sino desafiando las normas sociales y teniendo una posición concreta ante la realidad que las rodea. Adicional a esto, en “La Belleza es una Herida”, la mujer es objeto de la violencia, no solo de la guerra sino también de los efectos colaterales de la misma, y así mismo se expresa. Concretamente “la mujer” son las mujeres de una estirpe familiar maldita, bellas, bellísimas, sobrenaturalmente hermosas, que no llegan a ser felices. Si bien, todas tienen participación en la novela, Dewi Ayu (quien me recordó a Pilatos de La Canción de Salomón de Tony Morrison), la prostituta más bella es la que lleva la batuta en la novela; no solo por ser la que empieza a narrar o la que termina el relato, sino porque con el paso de las páginas parece un fantasma omnipresente, que todo lo sabe. Y es que Dewy Ayu, resulta un personaje resabiado y mañoso, es la testigo, es la contadora, pero en su forma no se distancia de los otros personajes. Porque así son los demás personajes, parcos, mañosos y resabiados, los cuales no expresan emoción ni llevan al lector a la misma, generan más bien distancia. Y está todo lo demás…están los conflictos y las muertes en Indonesia, pero solo como parte de la ambientación de la novela, lo que creí que me iba a contar el autor se diluyó en el paso del tiempo y de las situaciones/representaciones fantásticas que tiene el libro por doquier. Porque es como escribí anteriormente, el libro está lleno de ocurrencias muy ingeniosas y creativas, pero su espectacularidad termina en mucho ruido, están bien integradas en la novela pero no logré integrarme yo a ellas, o verlas como algo maravilloso; más bien, llegue a asociarlas con una estrategia publicitaria…así de abrumadora puede ser la situación.
Si bien, esta novela se ambienta en un contexto histórico-social, tiene ficciones (lo sobrenatural lo percibo más como fantasias u ocurrencias, no como una realidad mágica) y evoca la mitología ancestral, no puedo ubicarla dentro del realismo mágico. Es cierto, no puedo definir el realismo mágico, pero otra verdad es que no puedo compararla con Cien Años de Soledad o La Casa de los Espíritus; más bien si encuentro similitud con el realismo mágico de Tony Morrison.


La lectura de este libro me deja inquietudes, como si será que estamos ante diferentes matices de lo que se llama el realismo mágico o si el realismo mágico también evoluciona ó está en plena evolución (?). Otra inquietud que me deja el libro es la obvia ¿por qué la belleza es una herida? No creo que Eka Kurniawan sea un tipo machista o misogeno, incluso estoy segura que no fue su intención; pero al final del libro el mensaje que llega a mí, es que la belleza es una herida porque las mujeres bellas son las que sufren, o por lo menos las que más.

Al terminar estas líneas no sé si tuve equilibrio entre lo subjetivo y lo objetivo, o si estaré siendo maniquea. El caso, es que si bien no termino de encajar en esta realidad de La Belleza es una Herida, me parece importante que la novela sea leída porque Indonesia es un país al que casi no recurrimos para leer y porque me gustaría conocer mas apreciaciones de este libro, porque eso si, el libro es múltiple en lecturas e interpretaciones, y eso me parece valioso.
contemporanea cultura ficcion-y-distopia ...more28 s Marianne3,658 255

“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 ( 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 . 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?s28 s Midori158 748

Không có tai h?a nào kinh kh?ng h?n là sinh ra ??a con gái xinh ??p trong m?t th? gi?i c?a nh?ng gã ?àn ông dâm d?c nh? b?n chó ?ang ??ng c?n

-- Cô c?n ??t cho con bé m?t cái tên hay
-- "À," Dewi Ayu nói. "Tên nó là ??p."
-- "?!" m?i ng??i kêu lên, b?i r?i tìm cách khuyên can bà . "Th? còn tên N?i ?au thì sao?"
-- "Thôi Nào, tên con bé là ??p."

H? b?t l?c nhìn theo khi Dewi Ayu quay tr? l?i phòng bà ?? m?c ??. H? ch? còn bi?t nhìn nhau, bu?n bã hình dung c?nh m?t cô gái tr? ?en nh? nh? n?i v?i cái ? c?m ?i?n chình ình gi?a m?t b? g?i b?ng cái tên ??p. ?úng là m?t s? s? nh?c.

Rating: 7.5/10
Genre: Fiction | Magic Realism
?? khó: 6.5/10

Dewi Ayu - m?t ? gái ?i?m n?m m??i hai tu?i, ?ã ch?t hai m??i m?t n?m, ??t nhiên ??i m? s?ng d?y. Bà là ? gái ?i?m ??p nh?t vùng, là khao khát h?ng ?êm c?a m?i gã ?àn ông ? Halimunda. Dewi Ayu có b?n ng??i con, ??u là gái. Ba ??a con ??u c?a bà ??u ??p, duy ch? có ??a con gái út là x?u - vì bà ?ã chán nh?ng ??a con ??p ?? r?i nên bà c?u xin ông tr?i ban cho m?t ??a con x?u xí.

Cu?n sách tr?i dài t? th?i niên thi?u c?a bà ?i?m xinh ??p Dewi Ayu, ??n khi s? ph?n ??a ??y khi?n bà ph?i làm gái ?i?m r?i h? sinh 3 ??a con gái xinh ??p tuy?t tr?n mà ch?ng ??a nào chung cha. S? ph?n c?a ba ??a tr? l?i ti?p n?i khi chúng yêu và sinh ra ba ??a con c?ng v?i v? ??p mê mu?i lòng ng??i. ??p là m?t n?i ?au k? câu chuy?n c?a ba th? h?, quanh qu?n ? vùng ??t h? c?u Halimunda, Indonesia. Tác gi? ?ã dùng l?ch s? ?au th??ng c?a ??t n??c mình ?? k? câu chuy?n c?a vùng ??t Halimunda.

?ây có l? là cu?n sách ??o l?n nhân sinh quan nh?t mình t?ng ??c, b?i mình ph?i ?ánh v?t v?i logic c?a b?n thân trong khi theo dõi câu chuy?n. Tác gi? vi?t nên ??p b?ng l?i k? hi?n th?c huy?n ?o (Magic Realism), câu chuy?n ?an xen và th??ng ??t ng?t chuy?n t? hi?n th?c sang nh?ng y?u t? huy?n h?o và ng??c l?i khi?n logic th??ng tình c?a mình khó mà theo k?p ???c. Su?t h?n 400 trang sách, câu chuy?n ???c ?an xen v?i r?t nhi?u câu truy?n huy?n tho?i dân gian, nh?ng chi ti?t hoang ???ng nh? l?n bi?n thành ng??i, ng??i nh?y xu?ng v?c r?i m?c cánh bay lên tr?i hay các chi ti?t qu? d? nh? h?n ma v?t v??ng ch?n v?n ng??i s?ng, con ng??i ch?t ?i s?ng l?i nhi?u l?n. Các chi ti?t 18+ nh? tình d?c, c??ng hi?p hay các chi ti?t gây khó ch?u trong cu?n sách c?ng là ?i?u mà b?n nên cân nh?c tr??c khi quy?t ??nh ??c.

??t nh?ng y?u t? ?ó sang m?t bên, n?u b?n có h?ng thú tìm hi?u ti?p thì ??p là m?t n?i ?au có ch??ng ??u ???c vi?t r?t hay và ?n t??ng:

"M?t bu?i chi?u cu?i tu?n tháng Ba, Dewi Ayu b??c ra kh?i ngôi m? c?a bà sau khi ?ã ch?t hai m??i m?t n?m. M?t th?ng bé ch?n c?u b?ng t?nh...

[Spoiler alert] - Cân nh?c ph?n d??i có th? ti?t l? n?i dung c?a sách

??p là m?t món quà c?a Th??ng ?? (ho?c gene di truy?n). ??p là m?t ph??c lành. ??p là m?t ni?m hân hoan.
??p c?ng là m?t n?i ?au,
hay cái ??p tr? thành th? thù ngh?ch, là th? cám d? nh?ng hi?m khích, nh?ng giành gi?t và b?o lo?n, ...

Ngay t? t?a ?? c?a cu?n sách, ??c gi? ?ã có th? m??ng t??ng r?ng r?i cái "??p" s? d?n bóp ngh?t t?t c? m?i b?n ch?t t?t ??p c?a nó. Trong ??p là m?t n?i ?au, cái ??p là ch?ng nhân l?ch s?, là ngu?n c?n c?a m?i giao tranh, là d?u tích c?a m?i t?i l?i.

Dewi Ayu xu?t thân là m?t cô gái gia giáo, vì chi?n tranh n? ra mà s? ph?n ??a ??y t?i ng?c tù. "Nh?" ??p, Dewi Ayu ???c ch?n ?? ??a t?i nhà th?, chính th?c tr? thành m?t ? gái ?i?m. Ch?p nh?n nh? s? ph?n ?ã an bài, m?i ?i?u t?i v?i cô dù là ni?m vui hay s? b?t h?nh, cô ??u th?n nhiên b??c qua. Cái ??p m? m? c?a Dewi Ayu nh? m?t ch?ng tích l?ch s? c?a Halimunda.
------------------------
Mình mu?n vi?t r?t nhi?u th? nh?ng ch?ng hi?u sao "t?c" ??n c? tháng nay r?i. Ý ?ã g?ch ra r?i v?n không th? vi?t n?t ???c. Thôi thì ?ành ??t ? ?ây m?t ?o?n l?ng l? :(

Cu?n bày không ph?i gu mà mình thích, nh?ng h?i có hay không thì mình v?n nh?n là nó có cái hay c?a nó. V?y nên c?m quan s? ?? 7.5, ?? th?y r?ng hay nh?ng không ph?i hay tâm ??c. Có khi tr? 0.5 n?a vì gi?ng Tr?m n?m cô ??n quá...26 s Cher 'N Books834 313

1.5 stars - I didn't it.

After an incredible opening paragraph, this one has begun to just disappoint and bore. DNF'ing around 75 pages / 15% in. I have had my fill of rape, incest and bestiality and am choosing to move on to another book on my never-ending TBR list. This one's just not for me.

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First Sentence: One afternoon on a weekend in March, Dewi Ayu rose from her grave after being dead for twenty-one years.
abandoned-dnf cultural25 s jeremy1,147 275

a beautiful, stirring, and powerful epic of indonesian politics and family, eka kurniawan's beauty is a wound (cantik itu luka) must surely be considered as one of the year's finest works of translated fiction. sweeping across decades and generations, beauty is a wound is a violent, enchanted saga, compelling on account of both its impressive breadth and storytelling verve. kurniawan, an indonesian journalist and author, published this remarkable novel when he was 27 years old (released in english concurrently with his 2004 novel, man tiger).

threaded throughout with traces of magical realism, beauty is a wound is a lively, vigorous work with a large, yet unforgettable cast of well-drawn characters. rape, incest, slaughter, massacre, brutality, war, and revenge loom heavily in the story (though never excessively so), but kurniawan tempers these darker elements with humor, rich history, and fantastical occurrences. exploring themes of fate, customs, heroism, loyalty, folklore, communism, cultural/national legacy, and a host of interpersonal relationships intimate, familial, and professional, beauty is a wound is a self-contained world established, perhaps, to make sense of the larger one it inhabits (or has descended from).

spanning the better part of a century in indonesian history, kurniawan's encompassing tale never dulls or languishes under its own ambitious weight. beauty is a wound, despite its copious violence, is somehow reminiscent of jorge amado's exceptional 1958 novel, gabriela, clove and cinnamon, replete as it is with multiple voices, brilliant intensity, and depth of imagination. beauty is a wound is a vibrant tapestry of village life, colonial rule, political independence, and generational drama. kurniawan's first novel translated into english shimmers with the luster of literary accomplishment, offering a gorgeous, at times harrowing glimpse into a country with a long, tumultuous past.
"do you believe in god?" asked kliwon tentatively.
"that's irrelevant," salim replied. "it's not man's job to think about whether god exists or not, especially when you know that right in front of your eyes one person is stepping on another's neck."
"so you are going to hell."
"i'd rather go to hell, because i have spent my whole life trying to eliminate any man's superiority over other men." he continued, "if i might share my opinion, this world is hell, and our task is to create our own heaven."
*translated from the indonesian by annie tucker (recipient of a 2013 pen/heim translation grant for her english translation of beauty is a wound)
fiction translation25 s Nhi Nguy?n967 1,304

Dewi Ayu - nàng ?i?m n?i ti?ng m?t th?i c?a th? tr?n ven bi?n Halimunda - ?ã ch?t hai m??i m?t n?m, nay ??t nhiên s?ng l?i. T? s? ki?n t??ng nh? hoang ???ng qu? d? trong cái th? gi?i c?a Halimunda ?y, “??p Là M?t N?i ?au” d?n d?t ng??i ??c ?i qua h?n n?a th? k? l?ch s? ??y bi?n ??ng c?a ??t n??c Indonesia b?ng câu chuy?n nhu?m màu bi k?ch c?a nh?ng th? h? ph? n? trong gia ?ình c?a Dewi Ayu.

H?n n?a th? k? l?ch s? ?y ?ã ch?ng ki?n m?t ??t n??c Indonesia là thu?c ??a c?a Hà Lan, r?i sau ?ó tr?i qua Th? chi?n th? hai v?i s? hi?n di?n kinh hoàng c?a phát xít Nh?t. ??n th?i k? ??c l?p, Indonesia l?i ti?p t?c ch?ng ki?n xung ??t gi?a th? l?c t? b?n ?ang n?i lên và nh?ng ng??i c?ng s?n kiên trung. L?ch s? v?i ??y nh?ng bi?n c? ?ó chính là ch?t li?u quan tr?ng giúp “??p Là M?t N?i ?au” khám phá nh?ng ngõ ngách ?au ??n và kh?ng khi?p nh?t c?a m?nh ??t h? c?u Halimunda. Nh?ng ?au ??n ?y v?n vào Dewi Ayu, vào nh?ng ??a con gái xinh ??p c?a bà, và th? h? nh?ng ng??i cháu c?a bà, nh? th? c? gia ?ình bà ngay t? ??u ?ã b? nguy?n r?a. L?ch s? trong cu?n ti?u thuy?t ???c kh?c h?a qua cái nhìn và s? ph?n c?a nh?ng ng??i ph? n?, nh?ng ng??i d?u có làm gì, d?u có b? ng??i ??i nhìn nh?n nh? th? nào, thì h? v?n là nh?ng ng??i ph? n? th?t ??p. Cái ??p c?a h?, nghi?t ngã thay, l?i bi?n h? tr? thành tâm ?i?m, thành công c?, thành nh?ng m?nh th?t da ?? ?àn ông giày xéo và c??ng hi?p. S? ph?n ?ã không ??i ?ãi t? t? nh?ng ng??i ?àn bà trong gia ?ình Dewi Ayu, ?ã ?áp l?i v? ??p c?a h? b?ng n?i ?au, b?ng nh?ng s? ki?n bi th?m nh?t.

???c xem nh? “Tr?m N?m Cô ??n” c?a châu Á, “??p Là M?t N?i ?au” ?ã v?n d?ng m?t cách hoàn h?o nh?ng hình ?nh, chi ti?t ??c tr?ng c?a ch? ngh?a hi?n th?c huy?n ?o trong v?n ch??ng, ??c bi?t là nh?ng chi ti?t huy?n ?o, phi th?c nh? ng??i bay lên tr?i r?i bi?n m?t, hay Dewi Ayu sau nhi?u ngày s?ng l?i, vi?ng th?m nhà c? c?a bà r?i hóa thành cánh b??m. T?t c? ???c l?a ch?n và vi?t ra nh?m t?o d?ng m?t thiên s? thi gia ?ình choáng váng và khôn c??ng, theo ?úng nh? cái cách mà Gabriel Garcia Marquez ?ã làm say lòng ng??i ??c trong “Tr?m N?m Cô ??n”. B?ng cách trao cho m?i nhân v?t m?t ch??ng truy?n, tác gi? ?ã có th? kh?c h?a hình t??ng c?a t?ng nhân v?t trong m?i t??ng quan v?i các nhân v?t khác. Nh?ng dây m? r? má, nh?ng m?i quan h? ch?ng chéo, ?an xen c?ng t? ?ó mà ???c ph?i bày.

Câu chuy?n trong “??p Là M?t N?i ?au” h?p d?n ng??i ??c không ch? b?i tính s? thi ??c tr?ng c?a nó, hay nh?ng chi ti?t v? tình yêu và tình d?c ???c miêu t? m?t cách tr?n tr?i mà không h? thô t?c mà còn cu?n hút ??c gi? b?i nh?ng chuy?n tình d? dang, nh?ng c?p tình nhân b?t h?nh, không ??n ???c v?i nhau vì s? nghi?t ngã c?a s? ph?n và s? b?o tàn c?a
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