In this article The Dog Meows, The Cat Barks Eka Kurniawan
By Jennifer Mackenzie, originally published in Sydney Review of Books
Oct 26, 2026
Read the full article here.
By Jennifer Mackenzie, originally published in Sydney Review of Books
Oct 26, 2026
The Dog Meows, The Cat Barks is Eka Kurniawan’s fifth novel and his fourth one to be published in English translation. Jennifer Mackenzie considers the confessional and psychoanalytic elements of the work, and its place in the author’s oeuvre.
Delightfully titled, The Dog Meows, The Cat Barks, translated into English by Annie Tucker, is the most recent work to come from the pen of Indonesian writer Eka Kurniawan. The novella’s mode is that of the confessional – more specifically, the transgressive-confessional strain. With its singular narrative focus and its drawing of the reader into an ethical dilemma, the novel puts one in mind of writers such as Albert Camus and Marguerite Yourcenar. Similarity to the French recit, however, does not imply an influence, more a common formal register. Kurniawan’s subject here is rage and its ramifications – a rage principally directed at the narrator’s father, a rage that, ultimately, only fire can promise to assuage.
Delightfully titled, The Dog Meows, The Cat Barks, translated into English by Annie Tucker, is the most recent work to come from the pen of Indonesian writer Eka Kurniawan. The novella’s mode is that of the confessional – more specifically, the transgressive-confessional strain. With its singular narrative focus and its drawing of the reader into an ethical dilemma, the novel puts one in mind of writers such as Albert Camus and Marguerite Yourcenar. Similarity to the French recit, however, does not imply an influence, more a common formal register. Kurniawan’s subject here is rage and its ramifications – a rage principally directed at the narrator’s father, a rage that, ultimately, only fire can promise to assuage.
Read the full article here.
