Novel
Pada Sebuah Kapal
Not translated into English
Nh. Dini · 1973
Synopsis
Sri, a shy young Javanese woman who lost her father at thirteen, becomes a radio announcer and then secretly sits the exam to become an air hostess. After the death of her fiancé, Saputro, in an accident, she marries Charles Vincent, a French diplomat, and follows him to Kobe, but this husband, absorbed by his work, neglects and mistreats her. During a voyage from Saigon to Marseille, she meets Michel Dubanton, a sailor on the ship, married and unhappy too, and an affair begins between them.
Context
The novel was published in 1973 by Pustaka Jaya and reissued in 2024 by Gramedia. The narrative, told for the most part in the first person by Sri, also gives voice to other characters. Critics read in it the apparent freedom of the women of its time and the limits society places on their appearance, their conduct and their thought, social acceptance even deciding what is called their happiness. The book has been translated into neither French nor English.
Who it is for
To follow a woman who dares to choose her desire against the conventions of marriage and the gaze of society.
Prizes and reception
In 2021, an academic study saw in it a reflection of the cultural identity of Indonesian women in the seventies.