Missy J > Recent Status Updates

Acceptance: the longest story in this collection. A family full of kids. The different ideas and conquerors that enter the country, tear the family literally apart. It also touches upon gender inequality. Acceptance used as a form to adapt in the face of violence and injustice, as a form of dealing with suffering. It's so sad.

Independence Day. A soldier who lost his sight and legs turns very bitter despite independence achieved for the nation. He becomes a burden for the family. The family falls apart.

Revenge: How revenge and the military brainwashes people. They aren't human anymore. They turn into killing machines, completely blind.

Circumcision, a very short story but probably rings true for many.

Madiun Affair. Wow the Cold War already had its beginnings there. That's how the Americans changed side from the Dutch to the Indonesian nationalists.

Third story: In Twilight Born. It's a story of hope and disappointment. Swadesi. Trying to become independent from colonial power but then being crushed. Gambling to deal with the disappointment. Pregnancy of mother. Gosh this short story collection is really good.

Westerling's brutality in southern Sulawesi. The Linggajati Agreement falls apart. Sjahrir dies in Switzerland.

I feel like I have read the story of Inem before but I don't remember where. Nonetheless, it's a really heartbreaking but well written story.

Sjahrir and Schermerhorn.

First story: All that is gone. Wow. What a storyteller. The story about his parent's unhappy marriage. His father was cheating. And how a child perceives it.

Just finished the Battle of Surabaya. This is really a 5* read. Every chapter has been brilliantly written.

Japanese brutality

What a book. The Japanese have already taken over Indonesia. Indonesian resistance fighters in the Netherlands.

Very academic book.

My kind of book! So informative!

We have reached Part 4 now. I hope there is some revelation for Hi'i.

Finished Verse 2. The truth is out. Now what?

The writing isn't very complicated, it's quite light and humorous. But I am not familiar at all with this part of history. The names are mostly new for me. I liked the story of Ken Arok. Maybe I should read Pramoedya's story of it.

Wow wow wow. At the beginning it was a bit hard to get into this book but when she started to write about hula practice, protocol, etc. wow and now the family issue, the tense mother-daughter relationship, the painful, the uncertain future. It hits very deep.

I'll probably finish this tomorrow.

Part 3 - going back to the crime scene

EMDR chapter. Wow.

Soon going to finish this

She is already done with her childhood. I wonder what the rest of the book will bring about healing. Her childhood was really messed up.

I took a long break from this and have forgotten many of the characters.

One more chapter left.

Two more chapters to go...