Cantik Itu Luka

Eka Kurniawan

2 ideas

1. Dewi Ayu's prayer for an ugly daughter

   Dewi Ayu is a Dutch-Indonesian woman forced into prostitution during the Japanese occupation who becomes the most famous prostitute in the Javanese town of Halimunda. Her three beautiful daughters are each drawn into violent men's lives, so when she becomes pregnant a fourth time she prays for an ugly child. The girl is born monstrously ugly, and Dewi Ayu names her Cantik, which means 'Beautiful'. Dewi Ayu dies soon after and rises from her grave twenty-one years later to confront the consequences.

2. The supernatural as unofficial history

   The novel narrates suppressed events, especially the 1965–66 anti-communist killings, through ghosts, curses, resurrections and folk legend. Under the New Order, the official record covered up these events. Using folklore lets the book tell a counter-history that state archives would not hold, by drawing on the rumor and myth through which communities actually remembered the killings. The supernatural elements work as testimony, not escapism.

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