Retired marine tells of submarine romance

Retired marine tells of submarine romance

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Pacar Cantik di Kapalselamku

(Pretty girlfriends in my submarine)

Rahmat Ali

pp 279

Majas

Marine First Sergeant Darmadi, a.k.a. Mad, a.k.a. Madov, kept
two girlfriends aboard an Indonesian Military submarine during a
tour of duty in the 1960s from Indonesia to Vladivostok on the
eastern coast of Russia.

One girlfriend "has white skin" while another "has brown
skin", but both are "beautiful and give me plenty of attention",
the Javanese Madov said.

He hung two life-sized pictures of the two women above his
bunk in the submarine, which caused a stir among the crew. In the
end, his commander let Madov keep the pictures, reasoning that
they boosted his spirit and morale.

Thus unfolds the love triangle between Madov, the Javanese
Ningsih and Russian Martina Debruska, with a cast of 360 marines
against the backdrop of the Indonesian navy.

Author Rahmat Ali, himself a retired marine who once sailed in
a submarine to Vladivostok, seems to have woven his own life
story within this romantic tale.

"To my knowledge, this is the first novel that tells readers
about the world of our naval forces, a world unknown to many of
us, in great detail," Apsanti Djokosujatno, professor emeritus of
literature at the University of Indonesia, said during a
discussion about the book.

In order to paint an accurate picture of naval life in his
novel, the author not only poured out his own experience in
print, but also conducted some in-depth research into ships.

"The novel is also special because it tells us about crucial
(historical) moments following our independence up to the early
1960s, when our country was still wealthy enough to buy a number
of special naval ships," she added.

The author interweaves the fiction against the backdrop of the
Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, with
Indonesia sandwiched between them.

"The book tells us of Madov's experience, lessons he picked up
in Vladivostok, about a beautiful Russian language teacher named
Shirley Ivanova, the stern Major Garin, his love for Martina
Debruska, through the dialog typical of navy people and along a
pleasant journey from Vladivostok to Moscow. All of this is
placed in stark contrast to the sad stories of Madov's family in
Alas Roban, on Java's northern coast," literary critic Sihar
Ramses Simatupang said.

He added that Pacar Cantik di Kapalselamku, or Pretty
girlfriends in my submarine, also provided a detailed description
of a submarine's technical aspects.

In fact, too detailed.

"Specifics about submarines, their various sizes and numbers
in a fleet took up three paragraphs, which interrupted my
enjoyment in reading Rahmat Ali's work," Simatupang said.

A glitch that could have possibly been smoothed over by the
publisher, Jakarta-based Majas publishing company.

Apsanti also noted that many sentences in the book were
incomplete or fragmented, and were laden with Javanese terms.

Majas is a newcomer in the publishing industry, which could
excuse this lack of editorial precision. Nevertheless, at the
very least it could have not made the book look like a too-thick
pulp fiction novel by designing a better cover.

The publisher also wasted its energy in providing a contents
page, because the book's subchapters are untitled, only numbered.

The contents page is thus full of numbers, which is rather
confusing.

Rahmat, a veteran fiction writer, could have chosen more
established publishers to promote this unusual tale.

His Narapidana Luar Galaksi (Convict in outer space), for
example, published in 2002 by Grasindo, has a far more attractive
cover and less grammatical errors.

All in all, however, the rare experience to be gleaned from
reading a romance set against submarine life, written by a former
marine, is worth picking up this book.