Nonetheless, on my last few visits I have found some quite worthwhile reading. I found an Indonesian translation of The Grapes of Wrath for instance, which I have already spoken of here. I also found intermezzo, by Sally Rooney. I had previously read Normal People in English by Rooney and was not a fan. But I found Intermezzo engaging, despite it's very dense prose. It can be daunting to look at pages of solid print without interruption, especially in a foreign language, but I forged through and, as I've said, was glad of it.
Now most recently I have found an Indonesian language version of Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Of course I read this in English many years ago, and, like everyone else, I have seen the movie (several times, like many of us); nonetheless, the novel is fresh and greatly entertaining. It is somewhat difficult to detach oneself the picture of Jack Nicholson in the role of McMurphy, because while his performance in the movie was amazing, the character of McMurphy is a bit different in the novel. For one thing, he has red hair 😉
I also read recently about a novel by Olga Tokarczuk called the Books of Jacob based on the weird life and times of 18th century self-proclaimed messiah Jacob Frank. This interests me because it reminds me of a another self-proclaimed messiah, whose name I have forgotten, that my son, during a certain period in his life, was rather obsessed with. I would like to know more about it, more about what he saw or understood or misunderstood, whatever the case, as this messiah seems to have had many things in common with the other. I find that the PeriPlus bookstore here in Indonesia has this title, and I am tempted to order it; however the price is 500,000 rupiah, which is not cheap. I wonder if anyone out there is familiar with this novel?
