Written by Pidi Baiq, and published in 2014, this is the first in a trilogy about young love. It tells the story of school students Milea and Dilan, their friends, and their families.





It's 1990, as the title indicates, and we're in Indonesia. More specifically, we're in Bandung, in the west of Java. Cooler temperatures, rain, and overcast skies make a frequent appearance in these pages, as do occasional bursts of Sundanese (always translated, thank goodness).

We passed through Bandung in 2010, on the way to and from the impressive volcanic crater of Tangkuban Perahu, which lies just north of the city. At the end of that blog post, I write: "I would happily go back to the Bandung region, and explore it more slowly (the story of my life...)." Well, that happiness has not yet been mine, but the aspiration has been well and truly revived by this little book.


Tangkuban Perahu

It's a very simple, boy-meets-girl narrative. The story is told through the eyes of Milea, who is writing it down many years later at her home in Jakarta. In 1990, though, she has just moved from Jakarta to Bandung with her family. Dilan takes an immediate fancy to her. In fact, he's even a bit pushy. But Milea already has a boyfriend in Jakarta (called Beni). Plus, she is, understandably, a little reserved about this irrepressible boy, with his motorbike and his slightly dodgy reputation.

But, through a combination of persistence and charm, he gradually wins her heart. He's amusing, in a wacky and creative kind of way: "That's Dilan. He always has the extraordinary ability to make me feel happy, and end up really laughing."

Milea is good-looking (this point comes up repeatedly, and is part of the slightly sexist atmosphere that -- presumably realistically for its time -- pervades the novel). So one of the obstacles to the Milea-and-Dilan story is the fleet of young men constantly cruising in her vicinity. Beni reveals himself to be jealous and violent, so he gets the heave-ho. Then there's Nandan, a classmate, who carries a torch for her, but who gives in fairly gracefully. Anhar, a genuine tough, is also buzzing round her. And then there's the really annoying Kang Adi, who is Milea's tutor, but is obviously dying to have her as his girlfriend as well as his tutee.

But Dilan comes to be the one she really wants, despite the defiant, fearless, smart-arse qualities that constantly sabotage his chances not only of honour and glory (in the school quiz, for example) but also of a quiet life. He definitely keeps bad company, and many people warn Milea not to get involved with him, but the extent to which he is actually caught up in the bad-boy stuff that punctuates the novel is left somewhat open. The worst of it is seen in the attacks on schools that rival gangs carry out. (These have long been a feature of the Indonesian scholastic landscape, it seems, and have definitely not gone away.) Towards the end of the book, by exerting all her authority, Milea manages to keep Dilan away from an impending gang attack. What he would have become embroiled in, had she not intervened, we don't know. As it is, he thinks nothing of taking the law into his own hands when a teacher is rough with him, or when Anhar is violent towards Milea.



Dilan is an interesting character. He's sensitive, intelligent, and talented (he plays the guitar, draws cartoons, writes poems), but he's a joker, and we never quite know quite what he's going to get up to next. He is genuinely protective of Milea, and she feels safe with him. (There's that sexist trope again... Indeed, at one point, when Beni starts to cry tears of repentance -- we're pretty sure they're crocodile tears, mind you -- Milea says scornfully: "I need a boy who can help me, not a boy who's asking for help.")

Of course, Milea has her rivals, too, and there's a young woman called Susi who is determined to pursue Dilan, despite his lack of encouragement.

All the potential pairings mean there's endless room for misunderstandings, which -- because these are youngsters, and seem unable to ask straightforward questions, or give straightforward answers -- sometimes don't get sorted out until much time (not to mention heartbreak) has gone by.

By the end of the 1990 chronology, Milea and Dilan are officially boyfriend/girlfriend. But the ending is a bit mysterious. Milea, as we said, is writing this in Jakarta many years later, and she's missing him...

So, at some point I'll need to read the second and third parts of the trilogy...



Given that it's all quite trivial really -- the trials of young love, with all its hesitations and uncertainties and jealousies and awkwardnesses -- Pidi Baiq manages to sustain the tension quite nicely. You WANT to find out what happens to this pair, and because they're both likeable, in their own way, you hope it's going to be something good.

But, because you're a big person, and you've seen stuff, you just KNOW that Dilan's wild side is going to be a problem for Milea sooner or later... She knows he's a better person than people make out, and he has a loving mother and a stable home behind him. But still... We fear he's probably going to be trouble.

I loved the sheer Indonesianness of the book. The style is very conversational and colloquial, so it was an excellent refresher course in informal Bahasa, which -- you're forced to recall -- is extraordinarily truncated and staccato. And its subject is young people, in the days before emojis, so there's lots of "Ha ha ha", "Hi hi hi", and "He he he".

Then there's the food... There are so many things that we associate with our time in Indonesia: Bakso, bubur kacang ijo, tumpeng, sayur lodeh... And although our brief trip to the Bandung area didn't include the famous rabbit sate, it did enable us to taste bandrek, which is exactly what you need on a cool, gloomy day.

It's 1990, and the most obvious sign of the times is that the young people have to contact each other by phone... But there are other little indicators, too. Both Milea and Dilan have fathers serving in the army. In fact, Dilan's dad is stationed in East Timor, which must have been a pretty uncomfortable posting at that point. At one stage in the very early days of their relationship, Milea reflects that she's a bit scared of Dilan, but then thinks she needn't be, as her dad can shoot him if necessary...

There are a couple of instances in the story where Dilan, as a result of fairly minor misdemeanours, is accused of being "PKI" (ie, a member of the communist party, outlawed in Indonesia since 1967).

And Dilan has posters of Mick Jagger and Ayatollah Khomeini on his bedroom wall. It's made very clear, of course, that the latter is there because Dilan admires him as a courageous man and a revolutionary, not because of his sect...

We know that our narrator is now in Jakarta, with her husband (unspecified), and she has been there since 1997. In the course of the narrative, she reflects that Bandung has changed a lot -- and not for the better. I guess we all know that feeling about places we have loved.



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Pidi Baiq is an interesting character in his own right. Born in Bandung in 1972, he is highly versatile, and has been active at various points in his life as a novelist, lecturer, illustrator, comedian, musician, and songwriter. According to Livina Vereralda: "Not only is he reluctant to accept labels such as artist, painter or writer, Pidi Baiq also feels uncomfortable with fame. He admits that he felt amused when he was idolized. In fact, he himself disbanded the fan club for The Panasdalam [a pop group he played in]. The reason is that he doesn't want to be a special figure who creates boundaries between himself and other people. This is also the way he handles the sale of his books. He did not monitor the printing and royalties of his book, and did not even know that Dilan 1990 was a bestseller."

There's a bit of a suspicion that the multi-talented Dilan actually IS Pidi Baiq as he was in his younger days: "However, Pidi Baiq explained on his Twitter account that he had made an agreement with Dilan and Milea Adnan Hussain not to reveal their identities. This is for the comfort of both families." Now, there's a Dilanesque answer if ever there was one...

Whatever the truth in that regard, the author "once revealed that he really likes the sassy figure of Dilan".

As well he might.