Cerita-cerita yang disajikan menunjukkan kualitas tinggi ironi dan sarkasme yang menarik untuk dibaca. Kumpulan cerpen ini sangat pen3.5 rounded to 4.
Cerita-cerita yang disajikan menunjukkan kualitas tinggi ironi dan sarkasme yang menarik untuk dibaca. Kumpulan cerpen ini sangat penting dibaca bagi yang ingin memahami kondisi sosial dan psikis ketika masa kependudukan Jepang, meski ada juga cerpen tentang kondisi Pertempuran Surabaya.
Cara Idrus memotret kondisi-kondisi tersebut sangat baik, mungkin bisa mencapai bintang 4. Dua cerpen yang memorable seperti Fujikai dan satu lagi tentang perjalanan kereta antara Sukabumi-Jakarta. Kita bisa melihat krisis beras yang terjadi dan dampaknya ke masyarakat, namun kritik Idrus juga mengarah ke masyarakat yang ikut korupsi di saat krisis: Ada yang dengan menempel ke Jepang, ada pula yang memakai situasi untuk merugikan sesama warga negara. Ironi yang nyata karena sampai sekarang pun masih ada saja pejabat atau masyarakat yang demikian.
Membaca novel ini terutama bisa sangat mengungkap persepsi terhadap Jepang saat penjajahan dulu. Seperti yang orang Barat sering bilang, Jepang memang sukses mengubah diri mereka menjadi pasifis, namun sejarah (yang belum terlalu lama) masih perlu dipelajari karena bisa saja penjajahan tempi dulu bisa terulang lagi di penjajahan modern.
Cerpen Surabaya juga menarik dan sangat informatif, meski dapat dikritik dari segi format yang lebih seperti laporan ketimbang cerpen. Satu lagi adalah cerpen Jalan ke Roma yang menampilkan emosi kuat dari pengarang Angkatan 45, meski di beberapa titik agak didactics, serta troupe yang dipakai (tokoh Penulis) terbilang repetitif, namun konklusi cerita cukup solid mengenai makna Revolusi.
Naskah pentas yang hadir di buku ini juga terbilang bagus, sangat bagus dan bahkan Shakesperian. Menarik melihat tokoh Perempuan Tua/Dukun yang bisa memainkan peran yang amat meyakinkan, meski menurut saya konklusi cerita agak sedikit terburu-buru.
Secara keseluruhan, cerpen Idrus ini cocok jadi bacaan wajib cerpen di SMA atau bahkan kuliah....more
Fun read. (I've read it before, the free version too, but somehow it's not on my Shelf.)Fun read. (I've read it before, the free version too, but somehow it's not on my Shelf.)...more
Alur novel ini sebenarnya menarik dan tertarik baca karena alurnya itu serta beberapa review. Novel ini berceritDNF chapter 6 (sekitar halaman 150-an)
Alur novel ini sebenarnya menarik dan tertarik baca karena alurnya itu serta beberapa review. Novel ini bercerita audisi untuk adaptasi film sebuah novel. Jadi di novel ini ada cerita di dalam cerita. Para karakter pun muncul untuk adu akting agar mendapat berbagai peran.
Menurut saya ini menarik, apalagi akting itu sangat erat dengan psikologis, dan unsur psikologis itu cukup penting dalam sebuah novel, sehingga menarik banget bisa melihat bagaimana dua karakter utama ini menghadapi akting dan unsur psikologisnya. Novel ini pun menunjukkan beberapa momen psikologis menarik, tapi malah silap di beberapa tempat. Ada dua hal yang mau saya sorot:
1. Karakter
Karakter Elgar (kayak nama komposer) dan Katyana itu sebenarnya menarik. Awalnya dibuat misterius, namun gak lama kemudian... kesan itu hilang. Katyana jadi Mary Sue yang paling jago analisis, social butterfly, cute dan rapuh. It's just inconsistent. Ada bagian Katyana bilang Elgar itu labil, but her characterisation is actually the "labil" one. Kesannya kayak ada karakter yang bakal jadi "anti-heroine" tapi kemudian menjadi tipikal Mary Sue.
Masalah serupa pun muncul di Elgar, walau lebih mendingan. Awalnya dia tampil sebagai aktor yang "distant" tapi cukup manipulatif, tapi gak lama kemudian dia gampang takjub sama Katyana, seakan Katyana paling pinter banget. Karakter Elgar yang awalnya bisa jadi "oposisi" Katyana kemudian berubah menjadi troupe pacar-tajir-serba-bisa-anak-konglomerat, padahal sebenarnya motif karakter Elgar cukup bisa dipercaya dan menarik. Dia tokoh yang kuat, tapi saat dihadapkan dengan Katyana (Mary Sue) kesannya langsung terpesona, dan entah kemana karakterisasi dia yang dibangun sebelumnya.
Selain itu, kesan suspens pun pudar karena sorotan dan "tell" yang terlalu kuat di awal pada dua MC ini, walau di awal sebagai pembaca mungkin tertarik menebak-nebak siapa yang bakal terpilih di audisi ini.
Karakter-karakter lain pun jadinya gak tereksplorasi, padahal ini menarik banget karena mereka karakter yang harus memerankan karakter lain, misal ada aktor muda lain yang jadi orang dekatnya Vino (adik ya kalau gak salah), tapi gak dieksplorasi (at least sampai ke bab 6), padahal menarik kalau bisa melihat Elgar/Vino dari sisi karakter-karakter lain peserta audisi. Dan ada beberapa karakter lain (kru film) yang benar-benar mirip semua suaranya, kecuali mungkin si tokoh penulis novel.
2. Point-of-View
Novel ini memakai multiple povs. Tentu hal itu menarik, cuman saat penceritaan sering banget "bocor". Kadang terkesan orang ketiga terbatas, kadang bocor jadi orang ketiga serba tahu yang banyak "tell".
More often than not, bocornya itu karena ingin menyorot kecerdasan, keterampilan, dan kehebatan analisis Katyana yang menjadi Mary Sue. "Suara" dari Katyana pun kadang gak konsisten antara narator yang serba tahu atau unreliable narrator.
Mungkin dua hal itu aja yang saya sorot. Dari segi ide cerita sih udah menarik ya....more
"I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn't believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost "I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn't believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream."
This is one of those great books that you'd understand it differently when you read it in different period. When you're young, when you're entering 30 (same age as Nick), and when you're older -- you'll feel it differently. I really enjoyed the movie (except that misplaced rap music). But had I rushed myself to read this book years ago, I might have missed its great quality....more
I read The Cultural Revolution first before reading this one, and I think I rated TCR higher (you could actually read TCR before Mao's Great Famin3.5
I read The Cultural Revolution first before reading this one, and I think I rated TCR higher (you could actually read TCR before Mao's Great Famine). So, this book is a good read, especially the first 100 pages when it explains the socio-political conditions in China at that time, including its foreign affairs and how that affected Mao Zedong to unleash this messy Leap Forward. However, I could not give this book a higher rating because of its structure.
Around the first 100 pages are about the politics where you'd spot the the names of Zhou Enlai, Khrushchev, and even JFK. And then Dikotter decided to use the next 200 pages to elaborate the impacts of the Great Famine in industry, trade, housing, health etc. Dikotter's writing is impeccable: he writes the raw conditions that the Chinese people suffered from 1959-1960, you might find all that was wrong with collectivisation, corrupt cadres culture, that disproportionately harmed the villages, however it also made this book a bit repetitive somehow. The terrifying recounts of the mismanagement in 1959-1960, while it invoked strong reactions and emotion in me at first, eventually made me numb because it became so bad and repetitive thematically (I bought this book around 2023, and stopped reading it in 2024, and just finished it now in 2025).
I realized later in the book that I was more interested in the political parts, about what happened in Beijing while this all happened. The author did circle back to Beijing's politics later in the book, but not as elaborate as he wrote it at the first hundred pages, and since I have read The Cultural Revolution, I know the political games at the heart of CCP is more exposed in that book, thus that book is much more intriguing to read.
"...is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone."
Is this a relationship between INFJ and ENTJ? A classic story about separation and"...is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone."
Is this a relationship between INFJ and ENTJ? A classic story about separation and reunion. I got this book more than a year ago, and then I put it down, and then I met someone meaningful to me (also an ENTJ), and it was rare and beautiful, and now we are taking different paths. And then I returned to this book and found this story of separation and reunion between Anne and Captain Wentworth.
I just love the relationship between Anne and Frederick, and their characters personalities as well (The other characters are fun too: Mary, Sir Walter, Lady Russell, and Captain Benwick). I admire Anne's calmness and steadfastness, despite the pain she felt. Their reunion was not a straight path, but all the roads their taken eventually converges. This book gives a warm lesson about hope and dignity in love.
**spoiler alert** 2.5 rounded to 3 for its exquisite prose, the characters felt convincing, the setting is gorgeous, and the ending is actually quite **spoiler alert** 2.5 rounded to 3 for its exquisite prose, the characters felt convincing, the setting is gorgeous, and the ending is actually quite strong (for the better or worse), but I wish Edith's feeling and longing toward David would've been more explained like in the ending....more
4.5 stars rounded to 5 for Jackie Kennedy. She's such a muse. I really like how this book is written. It might not be perfect or as political as some 4.5 stars rounded to 5 for Jackie Kennedy. She's such a muse. I really like how this book is written. It might not be perfect or as political as some wanted, but this book is like a brilliant landscape painting of the White House. It nicely captured various cast of characters, including Bobby Kenendy, Lee Radziwill, LBJ, Bunny Mellons, McNamara, Sorensen, the journalists, the royals, the artists, et cetera. Jacqueline Kennedy was truly the muse in the White House....more
The book is rather fast-paced... too fast. The chapters sometimes are only a page long. It reads like a movie and the main character gives me JenniferThe book is rather fast-paced... too fast. The chapters sometimes are only a page long. It reads like a movie and the main character gives me Jennifer Lawrence movie vibe. And I was just reading the reviews when I found some reviewers pointed out it's a... YA novel? Nowhere in my edition it says YA, but I guess that explains the JLaw vibe.
The best part of the book is how it unveils the other issue of the World War II: the actions of the Red Army against the citizens. The author revealed that she spoke with the survivors of this tragedy which increases the authenticity of her retelling of the tragedy. And I do think people should know more about this story....more
Highly readable and compelling for those who want to enter the discourse of the German Empire from its conception to its end. There is a novel qualityHighly readable and compelling for those who want to enter the discourse of the German Empire from its conception to its end. There is a novel quality in this book. The half part of the book is from the Iron Chancellor's perspective, while the latter half from the Emperor himself. I'm glad I picked this book before exploring this period further....more
This is one of Mantel's early novels. I am a huge fan of the Wolf Hall trilogy (and I expect to be a huge fan of A Place of Greater Safety), but this This is one of Mantel's early novels. I am a huge fan of the Wolf Hall trilogy (and I expect to be a huge fan of A Place of Greater Safety), but this novel is a different genre altogether. It's a contemporary, it tells of a couple who went to South Africa as charity workers, however that theme is mixed with a different timeline of this couple in the future time.
The thing is the two timelines are not intertwined nicely. It's like two different books, one about the apartheid condition in South Africa, the other is about a domestic issue. There are interesting characters from both timelines, Julian is particularly a fascinating character. The wife, Anna, is an interesting character. Julian, the couple's son, is also an interesting character, both from his pov and other people's pov, but his story was sidelined. I'll just continue with the Greater Safety....more
Loading...
