Book Recommendations
Beauty is a Wound
By Eka Kurniawan
Fiction, General | 304 pages
1 recommendation
There's no curse more terrible than to give birth to a pretty female in a world of men as nasty as dogs in heatOne stormswept afternoon, after twenty-one years of being dead, the beautiful Indonesian prostitute Dewi Ayu rises from her grave to avenge a curse placed on her family. Amidst the orange groves and starfruit trees, her children and grandchildren have been living out lives of violence, incest, murder, madness and heartbreak. They are creatures of breathtaking beauty - all but one of them, whose ugliness is unparalleled. And Beauty is her name.Set in the mythical Indonesian town of Halimunda, Beauty is a Wound is a bawdy, epic tale of fearsome women and weak-willed men, communist ghosts and vengeful spirits, chaste princesses and bandit thieves. It is also a satirical portrait of Indonesia's painful past, journeying through almost a century of brutality, from Dutch colonialism and Japanese occupation to revolution, independence and dictatorship.Weaving together history with local legend, Eka Kurniawan spins a fantastical masterpiece in which tragedy and comedy, darkness and light, dance hand in hand.
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Jesse Lewis
"I've been fortunate to visit Indonesia many times and could never get bored in the kaleidoscopic diversity of this country, the largest archipelago on our planet. Each island and region is like a world unto itself - the ancient history and complex culture of Java, the steaming jungles of Borneo, the sleepy spice islands of Maluku and countless other islands drifting in time. The scale and diversity here make it both intoxicating, and overwhelming to grasp.
I discovered Eka Kurniawan's book, "Beauty is a Wound" while leading a three month study abroad program across Java, Sulawesi and Flores Island. Snatching time to read curled up in bed as a tropical rainstorm pounded on the tin roof, or under a shady palm tree on an island was to be transported to another world - a world of larger than life characters, ghosts and spirits, where the past and present are deeply and mysteriously intertwined. The storytelling and description of place in this book are top notch and very much in the style of magical surrealism, muddling reality with fantasy to create a wholly unique world to get lost into. What's more, I learned a lot more about Indonesia's chaotic recent history reading this book, as the storyline spans major events ranging from Dutch colonialism to the Japanese occupation to dictatorship.
This is a great read for anyone familiar with, or interested in visiting Indonesia, curious about the far east or discovering wholly original voices from this region. Highly recommended!"
I discovered Eka Kurniawan's book, "Beauty is a Wound" while leading a three month study abroad program across Java, Sulawesi and Flores Island. Snatching time to read curled up in bed as a tropical rainstorm pounded on the tin roof, or under a shady palm tree on an island was to be transported to another world - a world of larger than life characters, ghosts and spirits, where the past and present are deeply and mysteriously intertwined. The storytelling and description of place in this book are top notch and very much in the style of magical surrealism, muddling reality with fantasy to create a wholly unique world to get lost into. What's more, I learned a lot more about Indonesia's chaotic recent history reading this book, as the storyline spans major events ranging from Dutch colonialism to the Japanese occupation to dictatorship.
This is a great read for anyone familiar with, or interested in visiting Indonesia, curious about the far east or discovering wholly original voices from this region. Highly recommended!"
