Riwayat Hidup Sebuah Pistol di Kawasan Mulholland Drive

by Aris Rahman P. Putra

Aris, dalam buku kumpulan ceritanya ini, berusaha menjadi pendongeng yang menyenangkan bagi dirinya sendiri. Terlihat jelas bahwa dia menempatkan pembaca sebagai orang ketiga dan kelincahannya dalam menyusun narasi dan dialog lahir dari diskusinya dengan diri sendiri. Di saat yang sama, kelugasan bahasanya memberi corak anak pesisir yang lantang dan berisik. Pembaca tidak akan menemukan ketenangan atau jarak yang cukup untuk menjadi penyimak yang khidmat. Kita akan dilonjak-lonjak oleh cerita-ceritanya.

Dalam karya-karya Aris, saya seperti menemukan jejak Bolano dan Vonnegut, seperti yang belakangan menjadi tren pada penulis-penulis berusia 20-an di Indonesia. Dan saya rasa, Aris memang sedang berada di puncak kreativitas serta puncak kejahilan dalam melihat realitas.

200 pages

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Cep Subhan KM · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories collected in this book are composed as another experiment in what is commonly called as postmodernist work in Indonesian literature. Of course it is too hiperbolic to hope that an experiment will give the perfect result in its first time, especially an experiment with language. An experiment is useful for opening possibilities toward further experiments, it is a gate and a gate is not useful because of its perfect form but because of its possibility to give us an open road toward whatever world behind it.

To be honest, I am the part of an older generation of readers which have been formed by my era to have several favorite books from different kind of stories. So, when I read these stories I try to be fair by locating it in this ever changing world. By doing so, I appreciate the way the author tries to compose different experiment in pascamodernist world instead of using a nearly-cliche one in our literary world: magic realism.

Since I see it as an experiment, I give it three stars not because it is a failed experiment but because I think the author needs to continue his experiment so that I can find the answer for a question: okay, it is a good experiment, but what do the author find behind the gate? I am waiting for that finding which may be displayed in the form of a next work (and maybe a further experiment), a more impressive work. Of course these stories are the impressive ones I have read, but that is as long as they are suggested as a beginning. Other stars, I think, should wait for the next work(s) from the same author.