Title: Godlob
Author: Danarto
Year: 2004
"Wahai, kembang-kembang yang jelita. Mengenal kalian seperti mengenal semesta. Suatu kebahagiaan. Dan lantas kita ngomong-ngomong dan berkelakar. Tetapi sekarang aku lapar. Kalian makananku satu-satunya. Dan itu berarti pembunuhan."
I know I am 8 months late, but this is my first Indonesian book that I read in 2020. This book consists of 9 short stories written by Danarto. All the stories were written in 1968 but the book was printed in 2004.
This book was originally belong to my mother. I think she owned this a long long time ago. When I moved out, I remember that I found this book on the storage room. After high school, I barely read Indonesian books, so, I was kind of having high hopes with "Godlob"
It took longer for me to read this book because: 1. All the stories is realism and 2. I am not used with the writing style so my brain needs to process the words a little bit longer than usual.
Exactly, reading this book is a whole new experience for me. The title of the book itself is quite interesting for me. Godlob. What does it mean? I have never heard the word before and it does not even exist in Indonesian language. So, why does the writer choose this title? Is there any inside joke? Even after I finished reading the book, I did not find a single word about 'godlob' or anything explaining the word 'godlob'. Very interesting.
The first short story from the book is called "Godlob". As I have mentioned above, the story does not tell or mention 'godlob'. But rather, the story is about a father who killed his son who was injured in the war, so the son could be a hero. Then, after the funeral, the mother is appear to "Pembesar", or I would say the government, and told them the truth.
Another story that catch my attention is "Kecubung Pengasihan". It is a story about a pregnant woman who came to the park every day to eat the flower. Her husband had left her and she was so poor that she could not buy foods or get a job. Before she ate the flower, she usually told stories to them. The flower said that they do not mind being eaten because they believed they would get reincarnated. One day, the woman refused to eat them and they got angry.
I spent my time re-reading the stories over and over again and I am not lying that I am enjoying it. Danarto's words are like magic. I have got mesmerized every time I flipped the page of the book.
Well, if you want an honest review, there are some stories that I do not literally understand because he used metaphor a lot. Sometimes I feel like he was telling a story by using another story. I do not know, maybe like a secret code that I do not understand.
Still, I keep on reading until the end of the book. It was a hell experience but very much memorable. Maybe the reason it was hard for me to understand because I have never read this kind of stories before. Most of the time, I read fiction and fantasy book. But it was a good start.
My Rating: 4/5
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