“Bumi Manusia” by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
This is a 1973 novel about life in Dutch-occupied East Indies in the 1890s. Vividly portrayed through the fictitious characters that are described in such impressive details they could easily be mistaken for a real-life person from history.
The book shows the social structures of the time, the apartheid law, the race discriminations and class struggles, the colonial injustice, the media scenes, and the local customs straight from the historical archives, all written in a semi-poetic style.
Using charming old jargons and 1970s expressions, the book is narrated through the voice of its main protagonist, Minke, a character loosely based on Tirto Adhi Soerjo. And it started slowly, in a simple enough circumstance that would later proven to be an aftermath of a complex conflict.
This is the author’s strength, where Pramoedya can construct some complex situations but thread them neatly in a simple narrative.
This will be apparent later in the development of the story, where in every step of the way the rich backstories of the characters are revealed one by one, some with a surprising twist, which delightfully add into the thickness of the plot of the ongoing main story. Like the most unbelievable back story of the mother Nyai Ontosoroh or the tragic tale of the Japanese prostitute, to name a few, which are so mesmerising.
It is indeed an incredible story worthy of all the awards that it has received over the years. But for the life of me I cannot understand why the book was banned during Suharto era in Indonesia, on the grounds that it promoted Marxist-Leninist doctrines and Communism, because neither doctrines are promoted in the book. All book stores and agents were visited by the government and Pramoedya’s books were all confiscated, his English translator, Maxwell Lane (a staff at the Australian Embassy), was sent home.
Pramoedya was even arrested and exiled before this, by the Suharto regime between 1969-1979 to Buru Island in Eastern Indonesia, with his library back home burned. He wasn’t permitted access to pen and paper either in exile, but that didn’t stop him for creating his magnum opus: the 4 books that became known as the “Buru Quartet”, which he recited orally to other prisoners in 1973 in Buru before they were eventually written down and smuggled out in 1975. Including this book, the 1st out of 4 books. Such was the power of his ideas that the books were then quickly banned and confiscated.
Today Bumi Manusia (or the Earth of Mankind) has been translated to 33 languages, it is now freely circulating in Indonesia since the fall of the Suharto regime, and Pramoedya has since considered as one of the biggest writers (if not THE biggest writer) in Indonesia.
And spoiler alert, this book at first seems to be heading towards a conclusive and happy ending. But my God the bombshell it gives when it was just about to end! Which is a perfect setting for the sequel. Screw it, I’m going to start reading book no 2 right now.
More on Buru Quartet: Book 2 | Book 3 |Book 4 | The making of Buru Quartet
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