NADIRA: Leila's Book That Doesn't Talk About History
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Why is that? Because the case of human rights violations in 1998 has not yet been revealed who was behind it. From that correlation, finally Indonesians who like to read hunted for the book Laut Bercerita to learn about the dark history of '98 from Leila's historical fiction. Not only Laut Bercerita, two other book titles, namely Pulang and Namaku ALam also received special attention...
However, there is something that has gone unnoticed about Leila's book that appeared before Pulang, which made her name. Nadira. This book had an initial title of 9 Dari Nadira. That's why I wanted to follow this week's prompt about,
What is the most underrated book you've read recently, and why do you think more people should discover it? here
Nadira was first published in 2009. People rarely notice this book, even though there are a lot of moral messages in this book. I actually read this book for the first time around 2016, then a few weeks ago, I re-read it, so, hopefully this is still eligible for the prompt, thank you.
NOT LIKE LEILA S. CHUDORI WHO WAS RELATED TO THE CASES OF '98 AND '65
I remember my friend Vivie saying to me after reading Namaku ALam and LAut Bercerita, “Tis, why are the main characters so similar?”
Although it's actually not the main characters that are similar, it's the background of the story, the time setting, and the cases that are more like repetitions that make readers sometimes feel that the two books tend to be identical. So, I also understand how Vivie feels about Alam and Laut.
Unlike the two, in Nadira's book, Leila no longer focuses on the humanitarian issues of that era. Rather, it highlights feminism and the emotional upheaval of living people whose family members have died by suicide. The strong psychological theme is the premise of Nadira's book.
Nowadays, the theme of mental health has become something that is no longer strange to anyone. People have become more aware of the importance of mental health, seminars and education on mental health have become a hot-selling topic. However, contrary to this seemingly pleasant situation, the rate of self-harm in Indonesia is very alarming. From all ages, there are reasons why people commit suicide, even though education in various media has been intensive.
Have you ever wondered what a family feels when one of their members commits suicide? How traumatized are they? How do they face day after day with the traumatized ghosts of that dark event? And so much more,
Nadira experienced it too. Since the death of her mother who decided to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills, Nadira no longer returns home, preferring to sleep under her desk at a capital city newspaper. Nadira's life with her two brothers and her father after her mother's death was mentally devastating. They each carry the trauma with them in their daily lives. They kept wondering, what went wrong in their lives? Why did her mother, who was so smart and strong, decide to take her own life? In fact, Kemala Yunus, her mother, was a very happy-go-lucky person, so the questions and the guilt that raged in Nadira's heart became a kind of dark shadow that accompanied her daily life.
Nadira is not a full novel, but a collage of short stories with the same characters in each title. So, it's a collection of short stories with changing settings and points of view, but the characters are all intact: Nadira Suwandi, Kemala Yunus, Bramantyo Suwandi, Nina Suwandi, and Arya Suwandi. If my friend asked me which other Leila's work I should read? I answer NADIRA. Many of them don't realize that this book is the same work of the author of Laut Bercerita and Namaku Alam. It even received special attention from influential writers and artists, such as: Agus Noor, Pidi Baiq, Joko Anwar, Triwik Kurniasari, and even Dr. Tineke Hellwig, a literary analyst from Inside Indonesia.
Hi, I am the child of the universe, I like to read books with various genres. I was born in the city of batik but can't draw batik yet. I want to be a novelist, but my works are only short poems that are included in anthology books.
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