A Whiff of Truth

Despite boasting perennial nobel candidate and literary giant Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia’s best-known cultural stars tend to spring from the small screen. So when a 27-year-old with a keen eye and quick wit penned a devastating examination of some of the country’s most taboo subjects, it wasn’t just the critics who were amazed. The only thing rarer than a female author in Indonesia is a best-selling one, a distinction Ayu Utami earned after the 1998 release of her first novel, Saman. The book, which has sold more than 100,000 copies and been reprinted 34 times, has made Utami the leading light of a genre dubbed “sastra wangi,” or fragrant lit, the local term for a new wave of wildly popular female authors dealing with once-forbidden themes of sex, power and corruption.

With the publication of an English translation last month, readers around the world finally have a chance to see what all the fuss is about. Weaving an account of the sexual awakenings of four young women through different stages in the life of Catholic-priest-turned-rights-activist Saman during the brutal regime of President Suharto, Utami offers a richly nuanced exploration of a grim chapter in Indonesia’s recent past. With references to real events and characters, Saman evokes painful memories of an era marked by land grabs, forced evictions and military brutality. “The authorities have the power to buy or manipulate anyone,” Saman muses. “When I think about the predicament of the poor, I can’t help but wonder if God is just or if He exists at all.” His crisis of faith emerges as the nation itself is calling into question the falsehoods upon which it was built. Indonesia has yet to come to grips with its past, but with young authors such as Utami forcing open discussion, not just of history, but of sexual mores in an increasingly open society, it’s gradually getting closer.