Man Tiger is an Indonesian book written for an Indonesian audience. This review is for the English translation of the Bahasa Indonesia Lelaki Harimu, so it’s not really written by Eka Kurniawan but translated by Labodalih Sembiring into a reasonable English facsimile of the tale that is in the original book.
Why do I make this belabored point? Because Kurniawan writes not in the formal and correct language which one would find in an Indonesian grammar book, but in the colloquial vernacular Bahasa Indonesia people use in daily life and would use to tell traditional folk tales. And actually, many villagers would be speaking the indigenous language of the mountains of Java Barat, Basa Sunda, or some other local dialect.
So, while this is certainly a commendable translation, English-only readers are missing some of the original tone and the circular nature of the text may seem abnormally repetitious. How do I know that? Well, my Bahasa Indonesia is certainly not fluent, but it is good enough to know that you never get a word for word translation and you can never endow English with some of the overtly Indonesian connotation that is going on in the original text. And I read both versions at the same time, consulting the original Indonesian text when the English words seemed “too English” to me. And I have been to those mountains.
Remember those scary folk tales and ghost stories told around the campfire about the ax murderer who stalks the very woods you sit in? Or the classic Yellow Ribbon Around Her Neck tale? Man Tiger is episodic ghost storytelling. That is why Man Tiger’s story starts over repeatedly retelling the story from the view of someone else. Just as the story-telling granny mentioned in the book always had a tale to tell, the book sections are new sessions of the same tale, which eventually reaches the climax. This is why there is little dialog and why we don’t see too much of that tiger. Like the Yellow Ribbon story—the head only falls off once! The tiger comes out mid-book and readers are left to piece together the more important element, the REASON the tiger came out.
Kurniawan is of course commenting on lots of the peculiar elements of life in the mountain villages outside the major cities of Java. But you do not need to be familiar with Indonesia to read this book. Beauty is a Wound, Kurniawan’s other recently translated and utterly allegorical fantastical book is perhaps best left for those with a firm handle on Indonesian history. Man Tiger is completely understandable and accessible, similar to a fairy tale set in a far off kingdom in a vaguely contemporary time.
For anyone familiar with (or like me, obsessed with) West Java, but living in the English-speaking world, Man Tiger is a quick, nearly humorous read. And you are probably just glad the book made it “Out of Indonesia.” For so little Indonesian fiction actually makes it to the English market that Man Tiger is important for that reason alone. And you, West Java Junkies, have most likely already read both versions and are reading this review only to see how I could possibly have this much to say about so short of a book!
If you are not familiar with Indonesia at all, bear in mind that this is a place where many people do not see things in the clear black and white, good or bad, real or unreal, way the western culture trains one to think. Ghosts, wahyu--Divine revelation of Power, ilmu hitam--black magic, ilmu puti--white magic, prostitution, animism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, all coexist in a steaming stew with a tight lid of very modern scientific, economic, medical and technical knowledge.
Don’t be fooled by Kurniawan’s sparse tale into believing these people are in any way unsophisticated villagers. The Indonesian people are quite well educated, millions to the university level. And it’s not the fully agrarian country most people think it is. It is tropical—you don’t need a brick house to survive the winter, but it is not unindustrialized and is fairly urban. The shopping malls are bigger and better stocked than the malls in my area of Pennsylvania. And I never saw so many late model cars in my life! But village life is more ritualistic. More communal but certainly incredibly complex. There are formal and informal, and even animal levels, in the languages. There are multiple words for Love. Everyone has had a seriously broken heart. All the pop and dangdut songs are about separated lovers. Or Death. Or revenge, or betrayal.
And Blame is not apportioned in the same scientific manner as it is in America. A famous Indonesian writer, Y.B. Mangunwijaya, once said something to the effect that the people of Java are like the volcanoes they live upon, at any moment they can awaken to cough up a chunk of burning lava. And there lies the central concept of this book. It is clear from the first phrase, that Margio killed Anwat Sadat (not THE Anwar Sadat, just some guy named Anwar Sadat) in a volcanic eruption of murderous rage but it takes the entire book to apportion the blame for the killing.
It is also clear that everyone agrees a tiger erupts from him and does the killing! But why?? WHY? What makes that seemingly docile tiger tear out someone’s throat? What is every Indonesian really looking for? What really makes their world go round? What keeps me obsessed with West Java? It is not money.
That brings us to the other Indonesian element of this ghost tale. The Entire Book is a Vehicle for the Moral Lesson at the End. Something simmers inside the heart of West Java. Sesuata mendidih di dalam jantung hati Jawa Barat. You will have to read Man Tiger to find out what offense Triggered the Tiger.
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Top reviews from other countries
- @MrBookChiefReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2017
A short yet explosive read that may have slipped under your radar
‘Margio replied with one deadly bite, gnawing and ripping out a lump of flesh, making a gaping hole in the man’s neck. Delicate veins and tendons hung from the torn flesh, and the blood spurted. The tastleless piece of meat rested in Margio’s mouth until he abruptly spat it on the floor, where it squirmed here and there.’A short yet explosive read that may have slipped under your radar@MrBookChief
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2017
I don’t even know how I ended up with this book in my hands but I am very glad that it did. A couple of weeks ago, I ordered this through my local library (I think it could have been recommended as similar to Han Kang’s The Vegetarian) and then it suddenly jumped to the top of my reading pile upon arrival. This book had everything that I love in an enjoyable read:
*A shocking start that grabs the reader’s attention from the start
*Suspense literally right up to the final sentence of the final page
*172 pages of excellent writing, engaging reading and strong characters
It’s books like these that make you wonder why other others bother to break the two hundred page mark when so much can be achieved in such little space!
This story at first glance seems to have a mystical quality. However, a closer read will show that it deals more with the harsh realities of domestic violence and poverty. From the beginning we know that Margio has killed someone but it takes us a long time to find out why. How the murder is committed is also a huge curiosity as the reader delves into Margio’s world.
Eka Kurniawan spends most of the novel backtracking through Margio’s life of hardship. From childhood, Margio has survived under the tyranny of his father Komar bin Syueb. While Margio eventually outgrows his father’s cruelty, it is his mother Nuraeni who suffers the most. Much of the novel details the miserable conditions of Margio’s family home and this despicable relationship between his mother and father.
But this storyline only serves to be a distraction because the reader knows exactly how events will end. This makes Komar bin Syueb selection as the novel’s chief villain all the more interesting. Everything does not fall into place until the final paragraph of the final page is read. This is what made Man Tiger an exceptional read and a must read read for the literary tourist.
‘The tiger was white as a swan, vicious as an ajak. Mameh saw it once, briefly, emerging from Margio’s body like a shadow. She would never see it again. There was one sign that the tigress was still inside Margio, and Mameh didn’t know if anyone else had spotted what it was. In the dark, the yellow glint of a cat’s eye shone in Margio’s pupils. At first, Mameh was scared to look into those eyes, terrified that the tiger might actually reemerge. But with time and frequent exposure to Margio, she grew used to seeing those eyes eyes light up in the dark, and she stopped worrying. The tigress wasn’t her enemy and wouldn’t hurt her; maybe it was there to protect them all.’
Would I recommend this book to a friend?
Yes. A short yet powerful read that may be easy to fly through though hard to digest at times. This read is a fine example of the writing talent on the other side of the world.
Afterthoughts
Eka Kurniawan’s other book Beauty Is A Wound is now firmly on my radar.
For me, this is very different and an all together tidier read than The Vegetarian
Images in this review
- AzraReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2016
... constructed with a smooth flow that made it a joy to read
