Apple and Knife by Intan Paramaditha, translated by Stephen J Epstein (Indonesia)

The book that made me wonder if Asian women are okay. 

When I was researching for my next read after settling on a country to read from, I came across a list titled ‘Five Indonesian Authors you should read’- a rather fascinating list but the books were either very political or books that I couldn’t find and I abandoned hope of reading from it. Then as if it was meant to be I stumbled upon a short story collection described as ‘horror fiction inspired by myths and fairy tales with a mix of pointed critiques and bloody mutilations about women carving their place into the world from the perspective of Indonesia’ and it intrigued me. Coincidently, the author happened to be Intan Paramaditha, the very author of the well-crafted list I’d stumbled upon earlier. If it weren’t for the ‘feminist horror’ this coincidence sealed the deal for me and I decided to read the book.

Apple and Knife is a debut short story collection of thirteen stories each in a horror setting with a feminist undercurrent. These stories are fascinating and focus a lot on the political atmosphere and women’s situation in Indonesia but through the lens of fairy tales and urban myths. They’re not meant to frighten you or creep you out in a direct way- that is, there’s no jump scares and if that is what you’re looking for, this isn’t really the right type of fiction for you. They creep on you in a delicate way and leave you feeling uneasy and weirded out. If your aim is to read a commentary on feminist issues with a dose of weirdness, this would be a great read. The only drawback for me was how simplistic and upfront the author chose to be with her writing style, there’s rarely any 'reading-between-the-lines' and the language is uncomplicated. For a person who isn’t looking for literary fiction-esque writing with metaphors and heavy prose, this is an easy way to dip your toes into Indonesian fiction. Additionally, the short stories are bite-sized enough and keep you from feeling overwhelmed, which I rather appreciate.

Each of the thirteen stories stands alone and is in no way linked to each other, so there’s no particular order that you have to read them in. They range from fairy tales like Cinderella (or Sindelarat, as the author writes) from the perspective of a step-sister to vampires and the urban legend of ‘beauty of Ancol bridge’. All weird and messed up in their own way, the author does have versatility when portraying women.

I think my favorite was ‘Blood’ which talked about how taboo menstruation still is in the country and the myths surrounding the ‘evil’ of menstrual blood. ‘The Queen’ was another story that was a delight (it made me cackle). ‘The Obsessive Twist’ really threw me off, but I appreciated the social commentary of how women are objectified and their sexualities controlled in the name of religion by hypocritical creeps. I didn’t know what dangdut music was and it turned out to be fun, at least the modern take on it was a bop to my untrained ears.

Some of the stories do end abruptly, so if you’re someone who fancies closure or endings that come together, they may annoy you. But in my honest opinion, they’re worth a shot because you might take away something very different from what I did.

And my biggest takeaway was that no matter how hard I try, I end up drawn to feminist fiction. Maybe stories about women, especially from Asian countries-with all the post-colonial trauma and ingrained patriarchy, always hits close to home. I’m not complaining, it’s probably just because the search algorithm knows everything about me now and spits out stuff that I’m more likely to click on. That is likely very, very creepy in hindsight. In conclusion, this book was a fun and accessible way to explore Indonesian literature.

a/n: I know it has been a while, but I had exams and after all the all-nighters, it was really difficult to get back into reading because my monkey brain was like 'why still stare at words? exam over. no words. sleep'. I really hope that I can still make it to my reading goals this year.