Beauty Case

Title : Beauty Case

Writer : Icha Rahmanti

Year : 2005

Language : Indonesian

It’s another chicklit of Icha Rahmanti. And, like the second novel of Aditya Mulya, the second book the female writer can also represent the personal side of mine. Even now I can defend myself by this novel. Indeed. The story is just so unique and the message is very very essential for me. Every woman in the world (I think) who has been the victim of popular culture should read the book. Unfortunately, the book is only available in Indonesian.

Nadja is a very smart and lively girl, she’s very creative and a hard worker. The one thing that she never has is beauty, precisely, the physical beauty. She likes a high-class man whom she calls an eligible man, named Budi. Just like Rahma in “Cintapuccino”, Nadja is willing to do everything, even the silly ones, to get Budi’s heart. Her efforts seem vain because she has to compete with a very very beautiful and sweet girl, a girl whom everybody loves. But Nadja won’t give up. She also doesn’t hesitate to do evil actions toward that girl, whose name is Dania.

On the other side, Nadja meets a new colleague in her office, Max. He’s just not her type. He always makes Nadja upset with his actions. On the contrary, this guy can deliver a message, a very precious message of beauty to Nadja. Nadja does not even expect that this guy can say that kind of thing. Suddenly, Nadja can appreciate him more.

I dare say, this novel can’t only say what and how a woman is, but also about beauty, the struggle to get it, the struggle to fight it, and the struggle to get a precise definition about it. This is a phenomenon of literature today, in which we can really learn about something that sometimes, or most of the time, is not realized by people, especially women, and more particularly, the victim-of-pop-culture women.

The book is very strong both in the story and message. The writer is very clever. The only weakness of the book is the end of the story. It’s quite blurred for me. I prefer Nadja be together with Max, or all alone. That kind of ending makes me thing twice whether Nadja eventually becomes more open-minded, or she then use her “beauty” to make a good relationship with other guys.

Rating : 3.5