I’ve read Hemingway, I’ve read Shakespeare. I love Coelho and was pleasantly surprised by Voltaire. Huxley and Orwell gave me the creeps, with the former in a good way and the latter in a bad way. I’ve read Twain’s classics, two in a row, Thoreau’s overrated musings about isolation, Murakami’s adventure tale, got lost in Tolstoy’s big-ass books, and found my resonance in Kafka and Camus.
But nothing, I mean NOTHING, compares to Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
Funny how it took a dear foreigner friend to introduce me to Pramoedya, where he urged me to read Pram’s books in the native language Indonesian. My mother tongue. And I have fallen in love ever since, starting from his magnum opus the Buru Quartet and then slowly getting my hands into any other books by him that I can get my hands on, all of which are top notch quality storytelling. He never seems to miss.
But you know what’s perhaps better than his books? His life’s story, that are equally tragic and intriguing.
Here are the list:
Buru Quartet
Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Anak Semua Bangsa by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Jejak Langkah by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rumah Kaca by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Other books by Pramoedya
Gadis Pantai by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Drama Mangir by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Cerita Dari Jakarta by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Larasati by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Biographical
Indonesia Tidak Hadir Di Bumi Manusia by Max Lane
Indonesia Out of Exile: How Pramoedya’s Buru Quartet Killed a Dictatorship by Max Lane
Pramoedya Ananta Toer Dari Dekat Sekali by Koesalah Soebagyo Toer
Saya Ingin Lihat Semua Ini Berakhir: Esei dan Wawancara Dengan Pramoedya Ananta Toer by August Hans den Boef and Kees Snoek
There are around 54 books written by Pramoedya, some are readily available, others are missing, incomplete, or downright destroyed by the regime that has repeatedly imprisoned him and banned his books.
It is now one of my life’s missions to collect them as much as I can, and/or read them. This list will surely grow in years to come.
THE CHAOS THEORY 