Learning About Dark History through Pulang (Home) by Leila S Chudori

Halo book worm...

Pulang is the third book by Leila S Chudori that I have finished recently. Pulang is also the last Leila book on my bookshelf. I still want to find out about her other works. Do you have any recommendations?

I took a long break after reading Leila S Chudori's novel entitled 'Laut Bercerita'. For me, it is very difficult to continue reading books with heavy topics like Leila's books. I read several genres before finally deciding to continue with Leila S Chudori's fairy tale. This book still has the same theme as 'Laut Bercerita' which takes place during the New Order era. If in the book 'My Name is the Sea' it takes place around 1965, in the book 'Pulang' Leila takes the story of the 1998 riots from the perspective of people who lived during the terrifying era of 1965. What a brilliant! Leila combines two similar stories in one book and I really like the way she tells the story.

However, this book is closer to the film titled ‘Namaku Alam’ than the novel ‘Laut Bercerita’. Yup, Namaku Alam is a spin-off of this novel. Interesting, isn’t it?

Let's get it!

---

PULANG
_{Leila S Chudori}

---

---

The book Pulang (Home) is told (mostly) from the point of view of Dimas Suryo, a political prisoner who lived in Paris during the early New Order era in 1965 until the end of that era in 1998. From Dimas Suryo's point of view, it is told how he (who knew nothing) was called a political prisoner and could not return to Indonesia for a long time. Although he had not given up trying to return home, Dimas Suryo and his three friends named Nugroho, Tjai, and Risjaf, tried to survive in a foreign country by building a Nusantara restaurant called Restoran Tanah Air. These four people became the pillars of the restaurant, and slowly they also built a new family in Paris.

---

---

According to My Opinion

---

• Inconsistency of POV

This book is written with multiple POVs. There are many characters highlighted and all of them use Point of View 1. Only a handful of chapters use POV 3. Usually this inconsistency will disturb the reader, but the author can implement each point of view very well so that this book can still be enjoyed even though it has many characters. All of them are very perfect. I must praise the author's intelligence which is shown through the diction that he put together. I admire the author even more because even though this novel is fiction, he is able to bring to life every tension and gloom that occurred during the historical times in my country.

• The Dark History

Through this book I learned about the history that happened at that time, at a time that even school books could not describe clearly. There was always a lot of confusion that enveloped me when something like this was discussed in various forums and social media. I, who had no life at the time of the first incident, while in the second incident I was in a place so far away that I only knew about the riots on television—and then the history written in the book could not make me understand—what really happened, who were they, and how could it become a dark history of this country? I got the answers to all those questions through this book. Reading this book made me realize that all this time I knew nothing about this country.

• My Fave Part

I like the Dimas Suryo part. Most of this book is told from Dimas Suryo's point of view interspersed with other important characters. Initially, I expected this book to be told from the perspective of many people, but it turned out to be wrong, this book is about Dimas Suryo, his family, relatives, and the people he loves. Apart from Dimas Suryo—his daughters Lintang Utara and Nara get almost the same part. They have their own portions. From these two people, I also like Lintang and Nara's point of view. And finally I got the POV I was waiting for, which is Alam and Bimo Nugroho's POV. In this book, Alam and Bimo are told to be adults. They are much older than Lintang, but the chemistry between the three of them is sweet, especially for Alam and Lintang. However, I prefer the depiction of Bimo Nugroho's character than Alam. Alam is indeed smarter than Bimo, but there are things I don't like about Alam—but I agree if he ends up being a match for Lintang. Ha ha ha…

... and the important thing that I enjoy this book!

---

I rate this book for 4/5: Recommended but... just because there are several part that made me envy as a single. ha ha ha...

---

Thanks in advance guys, to read my blog and hope you like my post!
See you on the next post...

---

---

---

---