A Tinderbox in Three Acts

Combining inventive verse forms with urgent and incisive political commentary, Oka’s searing latest (after Salvage) shines light on the Indonesian genocide of 1965. Oka draws on an archive of documents from the U.S. Department of State and National Security Archive to highlight the killings and their history, and to give voice to the Indonesian side of the story. “The Indonesian official record is a ghost,” Oka writes, and these poems allows her to reimagine the pain, fear, and terrible bargains Indonesians experienced in a tumultuous political climate. Sections include dialogues between fictional characters with vastly different perspectives on the genocide and its legacy, such as Satria, a nationalist political prisoner who writes letters to Mr. Fox, a sly representation of U.S. political involvement in the events. In one letter, Satria expresses the capitalist motivations behind the internecine violence: “We define as a minimum price for the destruction of the internal communist movement—which has overshadowed family patterns and bent our confidence, affection, loyalty to even our children—the television and refrigerator.” Full of shocking glimpses of colonial violence, Oka’s powerful collection asks readers to engage with a historical reckoning. (Oct.)