Yesterday, I have just finished reading the third novel of Andrea Hirata—if I may say, he’s the best young novelist I know so far—called Edensor. The introduction of me with Andrea Hirata’s novels is a sere coincidence. Before that I had no idea if there was a novelist named Andrea Hirata. I have this usual meeting with my college best bud named Mia. She’s a real busy person, we can meet like every 5 months or so although we live in the same city. It’s about time difference my friend, as if she were living somewhere in the USA. On the day that we had agreed before, we met in our sanctuary place, “Food Court BSM”, one of the biggest malls in Bandung. We usually talk about lives, who has made the progress or is there any news from our friends about the upcoming wedding or our future wedding. The chat started from her life then to mine and how she thought that I was very lucky for having such variation in life through my cyber space life. The moved on to the conversation about traveling. That was the moment when she shared the novels she had read. I couldn’t help to laugh when she told me some pieces from the story. And there’s a feelings of amazement when she told me about the characters in the novel traveled. They didn’t have enough money and to finance their journey they did street performing. My curiosity urged me to borrow the books and read them. I remembered I started to laugh in the public car when I read the novel. I couldn’t help to laugh when I read the part about their adolescence and naughtiness. I kept reading the book. I got addicted. I shared my addiction to my students. I asked them to read the book and make a review about the novel. The novels took me with them. I felt like part of the stories. The novels are really amazing, excellent. I felt like reading “Totto-chan from Tetsuko Kuroyanagi mixed with “Jomblo” from Adithya Mulya. There are education, nationalism, adolescence, mistakes, dreams, stupidities, curiosity, sadness, desperation, ambition, and great jokes. The novels have encouraged me to stick with what I believe. But of course, I also have to keep fighting. The characters are all important even though some of them only showed up in a very short part. They made the story complete. After reading the story I feel like wanting to see Haikal’s father (The quiet dad), Arai a.k.a Simpai Keramat, Oruzgan Mourad Karzani, Friends of Haikal in Sorbonne which belong to the pathetic four, namely MVRC Manooj, Pablo Arian Gonzales and Ninochka Stronovsky, The most wanted Bavarian lady Katya Kristanaema, Nurmala, A ling, Pak Mustar, Pak Balia, Bu Muslimah and last but not least Pak Toha.
Actually I was quite late in knowing these novels but it is better late than never. At least that is for me. Now, I feel like wanting to share these great novels with the rest of the world. I wish, they will be international publisher who is willing to print the books in English translation, so they will understand the story. But for those who can understand Bahasa Indonesia, I recommend these books (Laskar Pelangi, Sang Pemimpi and Edensor) to you all to read.~^^/
I took some quotes from the story, my favorite ones
“Bagiku jilbab adalah piagam kemenangan gilang-gemilang, kemenangan terbesar bagi seorang perempuan Islam atas dirinya, atas imannya, dan atas dunia” Haikal’s
“Tanpa mimpi dan semangat orang seperti kita akan mati.” Arai’s
Bermimpilah dan tuhan akan memeluk mimpi-mimpimu.” Arai’s
Actually I was quite late in knowing these novels but it is better late than never. At least that is for me. Now, I feel like wanting to share these great novels with the rest of the world. I wish, they will be international publisher who is willing to print the books in English translation, so they will understand the story. But for those who can understand Bahasa Indonesia, I recommend these books (Laskar Pelangi, Sang Pemimpi and Edensor) to you all to read.~^^/
I took some quotes from the story, my favorite ones
“Bagiku jilbab adalah piagam kemenangan gilang-gemilang, kemenangan terbesar bagi seorang perempuan Islam atas dirinya, atas imannya, dan atas dunia” Haikal’s
“Tanpa mimpi dan semangat orang seperti kita akan mati.” Arai’s
Bermimpilah dan tuhan akan memeluk mimpi-mimpimu.” Arai’s
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