Sir Joon
The ‘Malay world’ in this novel is not a closed, impenetrable world. In this novel at least, that kind of world does not become ‘local color’. Usually in literary criticism, what is called ‘local color’ is something identifiable—because it is whole, homogenous and distinctive: descriptions of landscape, customs and local dialects used in the story.
Goenawan Mohamad
May 10, 2021
NOT many people these days will remember Sir Joon, and probably more never knew him. So let me tell you: Sir Joon is a young man of Portuguese descent. He lives in Bengkalis, as the fictional character in the novel by Suman Hs, Mencahari Pencuri Anak Perawan (Search for the Girl Kidnapper), which is often claimed to be Indonesia’s first detective story.
From the old-style spelling of the title, it is obvious that this novel
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