"Happy Stories, Mostly" is a moving collection filled with post-colonial heartbreak

We were immediately drawn to Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s “Happy Stories, Mostly” when we read a rave review in the New York Times Book Review’s New International Fiction Shortlist last summer. In fact, some of you might remember Lakshmi mentioning that review in our year end gift list last year— particularly because she saved and highlighted the line: 

“If you ask me, is any nation — especially a postcolonial one — ever not at a crossroads?”

That line stayed with her and when the author was at the Brooklyn Book Festival last fall with their publisher Feminist Press, she immediately grabbed a signed copy.

Set in Indonesia and translated by Tiffany Tsao, this short story collection explores the lives of young queer Indonesians and their families as many face various crossroads of their own. Some long to discover more of what the world has to offer, others wrestle with heartbreak and grief. Throughout it all, the author blends a keen eye for observation and absurdist humor to shine a rare light (in English) on Indonesia’s Toba Batak community, a mostly Christian population in a Muslim-majority nation.

Readers can purchase their own copies of “Happy Stories, Mostly” from our Bookshop storefront here.

Lakshmi: What did you think? I’ve been raving about this book to all the readers I know for MONTHS.

Asha: I thought it was an interesting mix of stories.

Lakshmi: I liked that the stories were varied in length too. The author is also a poet and the first story definitely reads like a poem (and is only one page!)

Asha: Yes, there's definitely a lyricism to the writing, and props to the translator because that's hard to capture in translation!

Lakshmi: I also made a note that the author uses they/them and then I learned in one of the reviews I read (in The Nation) that Indonesian doesn’t have gendered pronouns, and that sounds so liberating.

Asha: I didn't know that!

Lakshmi: I need to go back to see if Tiffany Tsao use’s gendered pronouns? I think in the short story about the mother she does?

Asha: Yes.

Lakshmi: I loved that story — honestly all of the stories were striking.

Asha: I hadn't read anything about this collection before starting it, so I actually had no idea the author was queer; but now it all makes sense!

Lakshmi: Amazing. 

We approach the reading so differently haha, I definitely love supplemental materials and always look up stuff while reading.

Asha: We really do! I usually go in cold, and then look things up after.

Lakshmi: I’m flipping through the book now and there are lots of gendered pronouns— so I wonder if context clues indicate gender in Indonesian.

Asha: Probably…

Lakshmi: But I do want to tip my hat to the translator. These sentences are beautiful and the voice is very distinctive. Tiffany Tsao was also the translator for the author’s poetry collection, so they have a long working relationship.

Asha: I wondered if some of the stories had the same characters...

Lakshmi: Some of the characters were nameless! So it’s possible –

Asha: Well even the ones with names, especially towards the end of the book

Lakshmi: – Or did you have particular ones in mind?

Asha: Basically the last 3: “Ad maiorem dei gloriam”; “Our Descendants Will Be as Numerous as the Clouds in the Sky”; “Her Story”

Lakshmi: One of my favorite stories was “A Young Poet’s Guide to Surviving A Broken Heart.” And that one felt both autobiographical and like it could be helpful to almost all of the characters in the book.

It was excerpted in LitHub!

Head to the library first thing Monday morning. Not on the weekend. They’ll think you have no life. Return your favorite books of confessional poetry; you won’t need them anymore. Borrow history books—on Dutch colonization, on world history for kids. And when the librarian asks, tell them you’re writing a novel that takes place over a period of three hundred years. Tell them one of your characters is an accountant who experiences the stock market crash of 1929. Tell them that you yourself are a work in progress, ever progressing, ever progressing.

Asha: Maybe it IS semi-autobiographical! 

Lakshmi: Ok so when I read through this story— which progresses as a list and instructs the reader on what to do when one runs into their ex— I CRACKED UP at this line:

He’ll ask what you’re doing these days. “I’m writing a novel structured around parallel stories, à la Péter Nádas.” He’ll ask what happens in the first part. “An accountant in 1929, facing the Great Depression. A sort of how-to.” Later, when he gets a bit drunk, he’ll ask stupidly, “What is love?” Reply, “Dutch colonization.”

Asha: One of my favorites was "Ad maiorem dei gloriam". I love a feisty nun breaking rules!

Lakshmi: Also loved the feisty nun! What did you like about her?

Asha: Really the rule-breaking – refusing to let the Church tell her how to spend her old-age, but also the relationship she built with the father and son in a short period of time.

Lakshmi: There’s a ton of rule breaking throughout this book!

Asha: It's true, rule-breaking is a major theme – or not being confined by convention.

Lakshmi: And a lot of discussion about faith and being pulled in all directions. It was really interesting to get a glimpse of Batak Christianity. A lot of practitioners — as is common all over the world — blend Christian beliefs with Indigenous rituals and culture too. And it’s Indonesia and Bali so we see the Hindu influence as well (and the Muslim cultural influence too, of course)

Asha: Indeed.

Lakshmi: I was also really struck by the interviews the author did to promo this collection

The book includes a convo with them and the translator Tiffany Tsao and it’s so funny. And then the Shondaland interview wasn’t funny at all! This was so poignant and sad and infuriating:

SN: What do the ideas of “almost,” “mostly,” and “happiness” mean for you as a writer and for the characters in these stories? What is happiness, and what does it mean to be almost or mostly happy?

NEP: In my Booker interview, I was asked, “What first inspired you to write Happy Stories, Mostly?” The time spent with my queer friends laughing over our miseries and crying over our achievements. The lives of our kindhearted but homophobic moms. Europe’s wooden hands [a reference to “wooden” ships] that altered the fabric of our lives. The hetero-patriarchal capitalisms that forced us to keep “bettering” ourselves just so people would tolerate our queer lives. And how our hard-earned happy days could be gone in a flash by a coworker casually outing us, by someone in the neighborhood who saw us with our lover at the mall, or by someone framing us into the monsters that we aren’t. Even without us realizing it, all this time we’ve been standing on this edge of the ravine that I called the Hampir, the Almost, and it would only require a gentle tap to make us fall. Whereas “In a country where queerphobia has zero consequences, how could a queer person build a livable life?”

Asha: It's so visceral, and yes, so infuriating.

Lakshmi: But that part they mention about kindhearted yet homophobic mothers is a running theme in the book. We see one mother randomly go to a city in Vietnam after her son’s death (we won’t spoil the reason why) But it is so poignant because her grief leads her on this huge adventure (that isn’t quite an adventure) as she processes what went wrong in her family.

We have to wrap up shortly, but I will say that I want to read more literature in translation from this part of the world

Asha: Same! But really I just want to read more literature in translation in general.

Each month, we’re sharing our current list of pop culture favs with readers! These are a few of our (current) favorite things!

What we’re reading:

Asha: Continuing last month’s theme of checking out books that have been adapted into movies/shows, I just finished Janice Y.K. Lee’s “The Expatriates” (which has been adapted into the Prime series “Expats”), about three American women living in Hong Kong. I couldn’t put it down.

Lakshmi: I just returned from a family trip to India and had a field day visiting Higginbotham’s, which is India’s oldest bookstore. I’m currently reading Jane Borges’ Bombay Balchao, which is a debut novel set in a Catholic neighborhood in Bombay. It’s incredible! (It’s not available on Bookshop, but people can purchase it from a third party reseller on the big A.)

What we’re watching:

Asha: In preparation for the Oscars on March 10, I’m watching the Oscar Nominated Shorts. So far I’ve seen the Live Action and Animated shorts, and I plan on watching the Documentary shorts in the very near future. This will be the first time I’ve seen all three categories! A word of warning: the live action and animated shorts will rip your heart out. 

Lakshmi: Right before leaving on my trip I got to see Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” on the big screen at the Museum of the Moving Image here in Queens. It’s currently streaming on Peacock, which means that everyone can check out this Best Picture nominee (and  Da'Vine Joy Randolph’s Oscar-nominated performance) before the Academy Awards!

What we’re listening to:

Asha: Still mostly podcasts on long drives…

Lakshmi: I’m still relying on BBC Music’s YouTube channel to introduce me to new artists from across the pond. Jalen Ngonda’s “Illusions” is incredible.