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

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

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

Title : The Devil and Miss Prym
Writer : Paulo Coelho
Year : 2000
Language : translated into Indonesian

This is the third Paulo Coelho’s book that I’ve read, the last of his so-called trilogy apparently. I never thought that there’s a chain of trilogy between By the River Piedra I Sat and Wept, Veronika Decides to Die, and this book. Call me stupid, but I’d just already known it when I read the preface page. And for sure, I haven’t read the first book of this trilogy chain yet. It’s the same as The Alchemist (and his other books, perhaps) in that it uses a fairy-tale kind of narrative.

It talks about a temptation in a small almost-abandoned village called Viscos, where all people living there are old and there’s only one young woman who’s eager to leave the village soon. A stranger named Carlos comes with a challenge: giving ten sticks of gold to all people of Viscos in one condition, there must be someone to sacrifice. His horrible past drives him to frustration making him trying so hard to prove one thing: that there’s still goodness, a good one, and good deeds. However, his mission may only be proving that all people in the world are bad and evil.

This story is very much tempting. I thought that the story must have ended in the middle of the story, but apparently, it doesn’t stop at the highest tense of the story. The story ends in its own way, not really smooth though. I like the core of the story, the philosophy implied in it. Many other stories may have the same idea, but Coelho prefers to make it easier to understand, easier to catch. The point is: when people face two ways of life, good and evil, there must be a way out to stay good even though we want the rewards.

Rating: 3

Title        : Die Leiden de jungen Werther

Writer     : Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Year        : 1774 (Indonesian first edition released in 2000)

Language              : German (translated to Indonesian)

von Goethe is certainly one of the greatest artists both in Germany and Europe. He gives such a great influence to the world of writing. This is the first time I read his work, and I’m quite shock about it.

I can’t say anything but the story may have been quite different back at his time, but it’s very common and usual today. Not that I want to despise him, but the triangle love story has been rewritten for so many times since the time of Shakespeare. It’s about a young man named Werther who meets and falls in love with a young girl named Lotchen, nicknamed Lotte. Werther feels very extravagant about his feeling and he think he knows that it’s a true love. By the reaction of Lotte towards Werther’s attention, he feels that Lotte has the same feeling as he does. He think that she loves him too even though she has been engaged.

However, his life is never easy. He keeps thinking that the world has gone crazy because of too much restriction. He doesn’t like any limitation applied in the world and he wants people to live just as their feeling run. He also, certainly, doesn’t like the restriction between he and Lotte: their different social status and Lotte’s status as other man’s fiancé. He goes crazy with it, and he can’t deal with it. At the end, he decides to die, committed suicide.

Besides the usual flow of the story, the language is also not interesting for me. It’s too poetic. Not that I don’t understand, but for me…the poetic language seems to undervalue the feeling of each character instead of making it amazing. I don’t know why…perhaps it’s the problem with the translation but… I still didn’t enjoy reading this novel. In terms of poetic language, I prefer Shakespearean language after all.

Rating: 2.5

Title : The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken over the Ship
Writer : Charles Bukowski
Year : 1998
Language : English

This is the first prose of Charles Bukowski I’ve read after some of his poems. I fell in love with his works from the very first time I read his poem for my poetry class like two years ago. For me, he’s just simply genius!! He’s not a kind of writer who tries so hard to be romantic, critical, and poetic or something. His words, phrase, and sentences are just simple, but they just can hit my heart and mind once I read them. They hit the reality, they hit the truth, and they hit them all correctly, honestly, and without manipulation!

The title seems not to be relevant to what he says in his writings. I thought that he’s always like that. But that’s not until I understand what he talks about actually. In this short story, he talks about his life in his 70s days. He is an old 70s or something writer who still drinks much and goes to the horse racetrack to do some bet. This-diary-like story is not without meaning. He actually wants to state that in his old days, he needs something to do to fill the remaining of his life time, and he chooses going to the racetrack. He doesn’t mind if he loses the bet, he doesn’t need the money, but he needs the joy. That’s it.

He also states that for him, previously, being a writer is a must to do job since he had undergone some kind of poor life that he couldn’t eat. And because the only thing he can do well is writing and it sells, he continues to write for 50 years. However, in his old days later on, he feels like better and better in writing. He can feel that he really writes something! He’s not afraid of saying that he hates some writers, great writers, with their so-called great works. He thinks that those writers are only dumb people writing dumb fool things about lie. He thinks that they are never true. And he also thinks that people are just so foolish living their life. For him, there are not interesting people. This world is just a whole crap. That’s why…the captain is out to lunch…and the sailors HAVE TAKEN over the ship!!

I like this short story, I mean…the core of the story. Of course, not the selected object of the racetrack. But yeah…Bukowski has the right to write anything about his life. The best part is…yes..the language. The way he says everything in there is just genius!

Rating: 3

Title        : Veronika Decides to Die

Writer     : Paulo Coelho

Year        : 1998

Language              : translated into Indonesian

This is the second Paulo Coelho’s book I read so far. And one thing that I know, I’ve been trapped in the title. Deciding to die is not the core of the book, but the idea of which the book shares the way of overcoming it.

It talks about a girl named Veronika who lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She decides to die in the opening of the book, and when she wakes up, she’s already in an asylum called Villete. People may consider her crazy since she tries to suicide by swallowing some sleeping pills and then sends a letter to a newspaper that she decides to die in order to make people in the world know where Slovenia is. Ending up in an asylum makes Veronika knows more about life and insanity, instead of being totally insane. She meets Zedka, Mari, and Eduard (who later on becomes her lover there), and realize that life is not a narrow path which only has one way to walk on, but it has so many choices based on self. However, picking up the other way riskily draws a controversy in which people who do it will be called insane.

Coelho also makes some certain details about other characters such as Dr. Igor, Zedka, Mari, and Eduard. He elaborates each of their own stories which then bring them to their own thoughts and opinions about life and insanity. Well, I may agree on the limit between insane and sane in social life. Since society demands people to act and think the same way and be obedient to the same rules, some of them who bravely break the rule and live in their own way of life will commonly be considered insane and abnormal. But, that’s the risk of being different, something which not many people dare to do.

I like the core of the story, but not so much the story. I consider the flow of the story is just usual. The way Coelho reveals the story is not so much interesting I think, since it is usual in my perspective. Fortunately, the language is easily understood, so I can get the core of the story in an easy way too.

Rating: 2.5

Title : The Alchemist
Writer : Paulo Coelho
Year : 1988
Language : translated into Indonesian

This is the first time I read Paulo Coelho’s work after being curious about him for almost this year. I wasn’t so sure to read this book, anyway. But then I decided to be brave to read it, and I got the point.

It’s about a shepherd named Santiago wandering around Andalusia to take care of his sheep. He knows that what he wants is only being a wanderer, and this is the best job to be so. He suddenly gets a dream at night, the same dream in a row. After talking to a forecaster and a mysterious king, he eventually follows his dream to Egypt, trying to find a treasure near the Pyramids, just like in his dreams. He undergoes his journey not without any obstacles, he indeed meets some mysterious happenings and signs…which bring him to the actual path of getting his dream.

Sometimes, Santiago feels hesitated to reach his dreams because he thinks that what he has so far has been enough for him, for his life. He almost surrenders in many ways. But there are always voices in his heart forcing him to keep struggling and stepping forwards to get his dream. He decides to listen to his heart, whatever it takes, to keep reaching his dream even he often believes that his dream is not real.

The way Coelho writes the story is like a fairy tale, sometimes it’s real…sometimes it’s not. However, it’s still an interesting novel. It’s inspiring and implying such a great philosophy. Whatever you want and dream in this life…will certainly drive you to the real destiny, and God will help you in any ways. One thing for sure, I’m amazed by the way Coelho describes Islam religion here and the Muslims there. I can say…he’s right in the surface. At least, he doesn’t put any false stereotypes.

Rating: 3.5

Title : Ascolta la mia voce

Writer : Susanna Tamaro

Year : 2006

Language : Italian (translated into Indonesian)

This book can be said, or is actually, the sequel of my former reviewed book, Va’ dove ti porta il cuore. The novel presents the story after the main character in the former novel, a grandmother named Olga, writes a special diary for her granddaughter, Marta. In this sequel, Marta is definitely the main character revealing her feelings and thought and undergoing her life after coming back from America, just before and then after the death of her grandmother, Olga.

Marta has just arrived in her home and finds her grandmother very sick, weak, and unbelievably insane. More of forgetful, perhaps. She has to undergo her life under her own hatred towards her grandmother but pathetically at the same time puts a big pity on her. The only thing that she can remember once she sees her grandmother again is her big hatred and the reason why. However, she can’t still run from her grandmother. She stays there at their home in Italy and feels more and more sympathy towards Olga, even though she still stands on her hatred towards her. She stays until the death of Olga, and goes on living there by her own.

After Olga’s death, Marta thinks of her family much, especially her mother, Ilaria. That thought and curiosity drive her to know about the roots of her family. She wants to know more about her mother, because Olga never gives her enough information about Ilaria, and she also wants to know about her father, whom she never knows. She finds Ilaria’s memorabilia in her house and read many things about her mother from her letters and diary. From the reading, she comes to know her father, Massimo Ancoda, who is apparently never cares about her. She tries to meet him, and succeeds in it. They talk a lot and Marta eventually knows that her father is actually not a neglectful philosopher, but is only a selfish man who is afraid of living his own life and being burden by responsibility.

Since her father seems never to care enough about her, she decides to find another root of her family, of herself in particular. She goes to Israel to find her grandmother’s cousin, Gionata, and she can eventually meet him. There, they talk a lot and Marta finds some kind of revelation, enlightenment of what life is. Particularly, she comes to know what life is for other human being. When she is quite convenient to be there, there’s information that her father has passed away. And finally, she goes back to Italy to see her father for the last time. At the end of the story, she finds Olga’s diary (which is the story of Va’ dove ti porta il cuore), and reads it.

This book is full of philosophies and thoughts of life and human beings, about why we are here and for what purpose we are living in this world. The plot of the story is just a path to reveal those philosophies and thoughts, which are, for me, very deep and inspiring. The language is quite different from the language in the Va’ dove ti porta il cuore, which is much more easier to follow. The language in this novel is more complicated and yet sophisticated, the language which fits the core of the philosophies.

Rating: 3.5

Title : Va’ dove ti porta il cuore

Writer : Susanna Tamaro

Year : 1994

Language : Italian (translated into Indonesian)

I picked up this book in desperation of reading some sorts of European literary works beyond my busy days. I didn’t know why, it just happened. I decided to read this book just as I knew the title in Italian, I didn’t even care if it would be a bad novel. However, after reading the introduction early on the book, I believed that this book would be great, not from the best-seller label it had, of course.

This novel talks about a grandmother who has a relationship trouble with her own granddaughter. The trouble is more on the personality of the granddaughter and the way of life she chooses. Olga, the grandmother, realizes that her life won’t be too far anymore since the first time she is collapsed and gets stroke. So, in that condition, she decides to write a special diary for her granddaughter, not only to make her understand what life is and how the lives of earlier women in their family are, but also to make her understand that the history of her life is not actually like what she thinks.

The writer uses simple but philosophical words in revealing her story and the feeling of the main character. The writer doesn’t only tell a story in the novel, but she also delivers some thoughts and philosophies which can trigger the readers to think about their own lives. I can also say that this novel has little of feminist echo. It conveys some different paths of feminism, which are the philosophical and rational one and the radical one. The main character may deny that she is a feminist, but only revealing the true reality must be undergone by women. However, her thoughts somehow can be called as feminist thoughts of women’s position and sufferings.

I like this book, indeed. It doesn’t only try to deliver a story about an elder who wants the young to understand life, but it also reveals many interesting things. The easy to read language makes me easier to understand the message intended to deliver by the writer.

Rating: 3