A Hero of Our Time

Title       :  A Hero of Our Time

Writer   :  Mikhail Lermontov

Year      :  1840

Language   :  English (translated into Indonesian)

Thank God and thanks to my uncle that I finally got this book on my hand. I’d been so interested in this book since the first time I saw it in the book store. The fact that it’s a work of a prominent Russian writer even strengthens my curiosity to read it. People say it’s a masterpiece, I say, it’s worthed greater appreciation.

It talks about a man named Grigorii Pechorin who live his life just the way people think that it’s not right. He likes to do anything in accordance with his arrogance, selfishness, and self-centeredness of himself. He never cares about someone else, he only wants to satisfy his big ego which means he is the winner of all battles: love, life, friendship, etc.  He marries Bela just to show someone that he’s good in negotiation, he leaves Vera just because he doesn’t want to be tight up, he attracts Mary just to get his own friend down, and finally, he kills that friend of his (Grushnitskii) just to show that he’s right. It’s all about him and his fake victory.

The very interesting about this novel is the main character itself, Grigorii Pechorin Aleksandrovich. He’s such an interesting character, a man of modern time who reminds us about what/who we are at times when everything around us seems to be our-selves-centered. He reminds us about emptiness, destiny, arrogance, ego, fake happiness and nothing but inglarious win.

Rating   :  3.5

Maryamah Karpov

Title      : Maryamah Karpov: Mimpi-mimpi Lintang

Writer  : Andrea Hirata

Year     : 2008

Language          : Indonesian

Finally I got the last book of the tetralogy of Laskar Pelangi. Having been reading it, I got an idea that it’s not the end of the writer’s dreams or life, but the end of his searching for his first love ever, A Ling.

If we notice the love journey undergone by the writer starts from the first book, Laskar Pelangi, until this last or fourth book, Maryamah Karpov, we may think that his love story is not that exceptional (‘cause he’s not the only one who undergoes it), but it of course has its own uniqueness in its plot and its end. Here, the writer puts forward how he tries to find A Ling by doing every single little thing that we may see as impossible. But again, he sees his mission to find A Ling as his deepest dream for all this time that he never stops acrossing either the Europe or Africa. He’s willing to make his own boat, take a voyage to any island across Belitong, meet some ancient dark plebeian pirates, he’s even willing to surrender his life. However, of course, love story is never made only to give a happy ending. This book says so.

Here also, the writer elaborates the continuity of Arai’s story and his own graduation in University of Paris, Sorbonne. The thing that I like about this book is how he tells the readers about the people of Melayu tribe in Belitong. He undoubetedly writes it in a very much funny way yet accurate and comprehensive. However, I shoud say that some things are just overwhelming so it incredibly surpasses the scope of the story.

Rating: 3

Edensor

Title               :  Edensor

Writer           :  Andrea Hirata

Year              :  2007

Language   :  Indonesian

So, this is the third book of the tetralogy of Laskar Pelangi. It’s about the next stage of the writer’s life (or Ikal in the story) when he took his master degree in Universite de Paris, Sorbonne.

The beginning of the story continues the end of Sang Pemimpi as both Ikal and Arai get their scholarship to study further in Universite de Paris, Sorbonne. The writer (who’s Ikal himself) tells the readers how he and Arai reach Europe, meet the people there, happen to undergo  unpleasant experiences in the first days, and finally do their studies in each of their mainstream. The very interesting thing about Ikal’s story here is his point of view on European people and other people from all over the world. He can exactly portray their characteristics and characterizations, their thoughts, and of course, their diverse cultures.

He happen to get along with a German girl named Katya, who’s definitely wanted by all men in his class. Unfortunately, he can’t make up his mind as he undergo an intimate relationship with Katya because he still thinks of A Ling (his childhood’s love in Belitong) and because they have such different thoughts about love and relationship. His love to A Ling has also undoubtedly driven him to find her all over Europe when he and Arai do their Euro-Africa trip. The end of his love story is not that easy in which he can find her and be happy ever after. He can’t still find her and instead arrives in a beautiful place that she ever tells him back in their time together: Edensor.

This third book definitely shows us how Ikal and Arai reach their dreams, such huge dreams which seem to be difficult to pursuit. But, more important than that, it tells us how people have to reach their dreams, no matter what. Doesn’t matter the dreams you have, you just have to believe in them and struggle to make it true. The language doesn’t change at all, so we can still laugh at some stupid irony and hard realities, realizing that life is funny in every way.

Rating  : 3.5

Saman

Title   :  Saman

Writer   :  Ayu Utami

Year   :  1998

Language   :  Indonesian

I may be late, but at least i eventually got a chance to read the so-called marvelous-breakthrough novel written at the time when dominance and hierarchy were in question. The novel got Clause Prince Award in 2000.

It has a very much complicated story-line. But if I may say, the story is only about affairs, unfaithfulness, and sex. Fortunately, the writer can construct the story very well in that it puts forwards a complicated back and forth plot, inserted characterizations in certain parts, and some prominent thoughts about such as social problems, hierarchy, dominance, and mainly, (radical) feminism.

Sihar is having an affair with Laila after she helped him tackle down an arrogant and having-power-to-do-everything enterpreneur who has just done such wrongdoing in his project only to get profit in an instant way. On the other side, Yasmin (Laila’s best friend) is having an affair with Saman after he finished Sihar’s case. The two affairs cases are presented in different ways of story-telling, so it can be seen in two different point of views. I assume that whatever the ways the writer tells her story about these affair cases, she intends to state her political and/or social thought, which is radical or second-wave feminism. However, the character of one of Laila’s best friends is also (surely) represent the particular thought.

I don’t think the writer’s language is just special, her back and forth complicated plot is not exceptional either (The Unbearable Lightness of Being has the same style), the story is common too. But fortunately she can put forward some social issues which are worth appreciation and are indeed important in our society today.

Rating : 2.5

Einstein’s Dreams

Title      : Einstein’s Dreams

Writer  : Alan Lightman

Year     : 1994

Language          : English (translated into Indonesian)

It was quite interesting to find out my father’s heritage in my warehouse, a great book to read of course. I never thought that it is a fiction once I read the title, since it is about Albert Einstein’s dreams before he made up his theory.

Well, I can’t write a lot about this book. It can only say that it’s about Einstein’s dreams (of course) of time, its shape/forms, its chronology, its definition, etc. Those dreams drive him crazy but eventually bring him to the theory of time which he often thinks of before. The most interesting thing about this book is that the writer can build continual chapters like several different short-stories. He can make several definitions of time (and its some cores like I’ve said before) inserted in several stories which implicitly reveal those definitions that he thinks of. This book is amazing in its construction, not in its language unfortunately.

P.S.: this book is only a fiction, do not expect that Einstein indeed had ever had those kind of dreams in his real life to build his theory (even if it was true…).

Rating: 3

Sang Pemimpi

Title      : Sang Pemimpi

Writer  : Andrea Hirata

Year     : 2006

Language          : Indonesian

Having known that the movie will come up soon at the theatres reminded me that I really really wanna read this sequel of Laskar Pelangi, and I had it. Writing in the same random reminiscence style as Laskar Pelangi, Andrea Hirata keeps his storyline very interesting to follow.

It begins with his high school life together with his two best friends, Arai and Jimbron. He tells the readers how hard it is to live under extreme poverty with extreme dreams of having great education. They dream of studying in France and exploring the earth from Europe to Africa but in fact, they are no ones but under-paid labors living in a place which has only one high school. The three of them keep their dreams alive by struggling and thriving with no stop. They trust themselves and believe that if they’re eager to reach those dreams, they may not lose their spirit inside.

People say that Hirata’s writing style is very much exceptional because he put a different scientific one, but I don’t think so. As I remember, Aditya Mulya came up first with his super genius Jomblo of which the scientific style is very much prominent. However, I can really enjoy Hirata’s ironic sentences at which I can laugh through and through. The very thing that Hirata can do in his every writing is heightening people’s spirit to believe in their dreams and to struggle over it.

Rating: 3.5

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Title        : The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Writer     : Milan Kundera

Year        : 1984

Language              : Czech (translated into English)

I’ve been so interested in this novel since the first time my friend recommended it to me like months ago. After getting it in the form of e-book and reading it, I feel like I’m so amazed by the story and the philosophy put forward by the writer.

The writer puts himself as the third party of the storyline who is out of the text. He tells the readers about the characters inside who are connected to each other with love, ego, coincidence (the writer calls it fortuity), and complex personalities. The writer begins the story of those people with a bright philosophy which is the main idea of the whole text, the unbearable lightness of being.

Coincidence encounters Tomas and Tereza, who then live together and marry. They know that they love each other, but they never realize how strong or how much it is. They are too busy with their ego and their pasts which drive them to believe that what happens to them is just some kind of nonsense. Tomas ego brings him to Sabina, his long-term mistress who can understand his short-term need of sex, but it doesn’t take so long until Sabina meets Franz who falls in love with her. Franz thinks that he really loves Sabina that he divorces his wife. However, Sabina decides to leave him because he can’t fulfill her ego to remain in secret with him. In desperation, Franz meets a big-glassed girl, one of his students in the university. They have such kind of affairs which is quite enjoyable. Franz never knows that the girl is the only one who can make him happy and feel consolable until he goes to Cambodia in a vain search of Sabina’s shadow. Sadly, at the end of his life, the only one who is beside him is his ex-wife.

All the main characters here die at the end, Tomas, Tereza, Sabina, and Franz. But, what’s the point of the unbearable lightness of being? As far as I understand through my living brain, it’s actually about the positive side of human beings. Once we’re weighed down by something (or anything), we’ll be brought to the negative side of life in which everything seems so hard to do, so hard to say, so hard to think, etc. On the other side, when we’re in the lightness of ourselves, we’ll feel that life is so beautiful and easy without thinking about anything ensued in the world, without worrying even about the biggest thing in front of us.

The most interesting thing in this novel for me is the history the Czech Republic inserted by the writer. Since I’m so interested in East European history, it’s so nice for me to read a blended text of fiction and history in this book!

Rating: 3.5

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

 

Title        : The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (short-story)

Writer     : F. Scott Fitzgerald

Year        : 1921

Language              : English

 

 

I’ve had this short-story on my hand for a long time but I’ve just finished reading it before I watched the movie. Simply, I just wanna make a comparison which, I believed, would be very much. I thought it would be dramatic, but it is indeed otherwise.

People who had watched the movie must have been known that the story is about a man who is born old physically. However, if in the movie he is born as a small old baby, in the real story here he is born as a common old man with beard, white hair, almost bald head, etc. He’s normally big as an old man, so he scared his own father by his appearance. His father reluctantly takes care of him, and by the time goes by, Benjamin (the old baby man) grows younger and younger. When he is older in age and younger in appearance, he fortunately can undergo a normal life, getting married, having a child, running his family business, going to the Spanish-American War, etc. But when he is totally an old man in age and a little kid in appearance, everything changes and his life can never be worse anymore. Eventually, he can only live his life as a little kid grows to be a real baby.

This story seems to be quite odd for me. Out of the context, I’m curious about why Benjamin should be born old. The writer doesn’t give any reason or the core of his idea at all in the story. I can only catch that it’s all about being different and how you will handle people’s distrust and mock on you. For me, it’s only another way to reveal the same old story of American mainstream narrative.

 

 

Rating: 2

Ham on Rye

 

Title        : Ham on Rye

Writer     : Charles Bukowski

Year        : 1982

Language              : English

This is the second book of Bukowski that I’ve read. Like his other works I’ve caught, this novel is just simple in its language and imagery. However, Bukowski is always consistent with the core of his stories that is, talking about himself.

This book tells about his life during his childhood up to his adolescence. He talks about his so-called horrible family in which his father is like a dictator who rules the home with unlimited power and acts like he’s the best man in the world. Sadly, his mother is powerless and can only be submissive to her husband. He, depicted as Henry Chinaski here in the novel, can also only be submissive without any power or chance to rebel.

His childhood is always filled by his father’s violence and dictatorship, while his life is not even better as he grows up as a teenager. His wild character and his environment support his crack puberty as he pushes out his sexual desire. He depicts his normal male desire towards his friends, teachers, neighbors, etc very obviously and clearly. He never thinks that it’s wrong. Unfortunately, he never gets a girlfriend or at least, a girl who wants to fuck with him.

His later teenage life is then broken after he wanders as his father kicks him out of home. Homeless and penniless, he decides to goes from one place to another and sleeps wherever he can sleep. The only thing that he wants is writing and mainly, drinking. He never thinks about being someone or doing something which is beneficial for him. For him, life is merely for him and he only wants to do whatever he wants as long as he’s happy with his life. He thinks that the world has gone crazy and so are the people inside it. His anti-trust to anyone in the world makes him so cynical and thinks that all people surrounds him are stupid and idiot. He loves to live by his own without anyone else around him.

I don’t really like the story, honestly. But I still appreciate his honesty in telling his own story and thoughts on everything. In one point, I even agree that life is only for ourselves. His language also never changes and that makes this novel is nice to read.

Rating:  2.5

My Name is Red

Title        : My Name is Red

Writer     : Orhan Pamuk

Year        : 1998

Language              : Turkish/English translated into Indonesian

After longing for reading a Turkish literature, finally, I got this novel written by Orhan Pamuk, a famous international Turkish writer who is believed to be the best in his country despite of his controversy. Not deliberately got this book standing in a library, I directly pulled it from a bookshelf and hoped to read a great and amazing story. And I was quite right about it.

I may not talk about the story very long, since its core is not far from the other mystery and detective kind of stories. It’s finishing is also not so quite interesting, well it’s quite genius though. The story is about the battle between Islam ideology and western influence in Turkey in the middle of 16^th century. I believe it to be true since I myself ever read a Turkey’s history book talking about the eagerness of the country to be modern and to follow western ideology and style started from Attaturk’s reign. Their struggle to do so is not small and trivia, they mean it. In this novel, it’s depicted with the effort to imitate the western/European style of painting to replace the illustration style which has been so rooted from the early days of the Turkey’s monarch called Herat times. Unfortunately, this effort must sacrifice someone who believes that this westernization is wrong and distracts Islam teaching. And the story goes on, the mystery is on the searching for the killer of this person.

The story runs so slow not because of the slow searching, but because of the details put by the writer. The writer seems to be so obsessed to make every history and explanation appear so clear and in detail. Interestingly, he also runs the story based on each character’s point of view. Since there are so many characters and their personalities and thoughts are numerous, this kind of story telling just becomes so complicated yet very much incredible! This is the credit point of the writer despite his so-so kind of mystery story. The other interesting and unexpected thing in this novel is the humanity which is uncovered by the writer. He depicts the love and sex scenes so clearly (although I believe it also distracts Islam teaching, but he can make it just like…it’s just a matter of being human beings). The most interesting scene is when a character states that when he is praying, he can’t still stand of thinking about having sex with a girl!! Yah, we’re all human beings, right??

This is novel is interesting by its history explanation, its language and its way of story telling. The story is not so good, unfortunately.

Rating: 3