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A review by ayami
Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu
4.0
Bitter endings, mostly.
This translated collection of short stories by an Indonesian queer writer was a bit of a mixed bag but I quite enjoyed it.
The author likes to experiment a bit (yay!) – we get a one page prose poem, a piece of metafiction written in a second person, dystopian sf, etc. But there are also stories that are written in a more standard way and, to my surprise, those turned out to be the ones that resonated with me the most. Especially "So What's Your Name, Sandra" and "Our Descendants Will Be as Numerous as the Sky", both of which are told from the point of view of mothers, whose sons turn out gay and portray those mothers' struggle to accept and love their sons in the confines of their conservative and Christian surroundings.
Also, I liked how in "The True Story of the Story of the Giant" the character which unabashedly accepts his identity and a queer lifestyle is the one that doesn't have any bad shit happen to him. I was so worried for him!
Overall, I'll be curious to see what Norman Erikson Pasaribu writes next.
The translation by Tiffany Tsao was done masterfully. I've heard that she worked quite closely with the author to be able to convey his voice as well as possible. One thing that irked me: some cultural terms from Indonesian were left untranslated and in roman style font. You could usually figure them out from context, but I felt that I am missing out so I've looked some of them up online (hence my deep dive on youtube into videos of Indonesian boarding houses). As the terms are not italicised, it was difficult to go back and find the ones that I have missed. I wish there were a short glossary of the Indonesian words at the end of the book for those like me, who want to find out more.
This translated collection of short stories by an Indonesian queer writer was a bit of a mixed bag but I quite enjoyed it.
The author likes to experiment a bit (yay!) – we get a one page prose poem, a piece of metafiction written in a second person, dystopian sf, etc. But there are also stories that are written in a more standard way and, to my surprise, those turned out to be the ones that resonated with me the most. Especially "So What's Your Name, Sandra" and "Our Descendants Will Be as Numerous as the Sky", both of which are told from the point of view of mothers, whose sons turn out gay and portray those mothers' struggle to accept and love their sons in the confines of their conservative and Christian surroundings.
Also, I liked how in "The True Story of the Story of the Giant" the character which unabashedly accepts his identity and a queer lifestyle is the one that doesn't have any bad shit happen to him. I was so worried for him!
Overall, I'll be curious to see what Norman Erikson Pasaribu writes next.
The translation by Tiffany Tsao was done masterfully. I've heard that she worked quite closely with the author to be able to convey his voice as well as possible. One thing that irked me: some cultural terms from Indonesian were left untranslated and in roman style font. You could usually figure them out from context, but I felt that I am missing out so I've looked some of them up online (hence my deep dive on youtube into videos of Indonesian boarding houses). As the terms are not italicised, it was difficult to go back and find the ones that I have missed. I wish there were a short glossary of the Indonesian words at the end of the book for those like me, who want to find out more.