They Say I'm a Monkey is a collection of short-stories from the young Indonesian writer Djenar Maesa Ayu.
In the eleven stories, Djenar turns footnotes of urban Jakarta life, and the inner lives of the city's inhabitants, into stories that keep in their narratives both the magic and the realism of the place. Stories that will crawl out from the margins into the centre of your conscience.
When They Say I'm a Monkey first appeared in Bahasa Indonesia in 2002, it shocked readers with its liberal use of sex, both as a central theme in many of the stories and as the template for Djenar imageries.
They Say I'm a Monkey is Djenar's first book translated into English and Metafor's first edition in our new Modern Indonesian Writers Series.
REVIEWS
from The Jakarta Post, 16 October 2005
Djenar Maesa Ayu debuted on the literary scene with a bang in 2002 with her short story anthology, Mereka Bilang, Saya Monyet!, featuring 11 narratives of life in Jakarta spun around themes and imagery derived from sex and sexuality.
The anthology, which was shortlisted for the Khatulistiwa Literary Award 2003, has been reprinted eight times to date, and is now aailable in an English-language version from Metafor Publishing.
Translated by Michael Nieto Garcia of Cornell University, New York, They Say I'm a Monkey was unveiled on Oct. 10 during the recently concluded Ubud literary festival in a double-launch with Nayla (Gramedia Pustaka Utama, May 2005), Djenar's first novel.
They Say I'm a Monkey is the first work by the author to be translated into English. — JP
