Book Review: Big Little Lies By Liane Moriarty

Originally published: July 2014

Genres: mystery, contemporary fiction, thriller, chick-lit, adult

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Publisher The Penguin Group
Country: Australia
Language English
ISBN 0399167064
(Buy it on eBay) 

From the Author website:
Pirriwee Public is a beautiful little beachside primary school where children are taught that ‘sharing is caring.’ So how has the annual School Trivia Night ended in full-blown riot? Sirens are wailing. People are screaming. The principal is mortified. And one parent is dead.

Was it a murder, a tragic accident or just good parents gone bad? As the parents at Pirriwee Public are about to discover, sometimes it’s the little lies that turn out to be the most lethal…  Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, school-yard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

WHOAA...!! I didn't see that coming! That was my reaction to each and every revelation on the book. The plot twist was unexpected and caught me completely off guard. Actually, I had a rough beginning. It has too many characters, names, small talks, rumors, gossips. I put it down a few times, back to read and couldn't remember the previous pages so I looked back, started again and still couldn't follow the story. A friend told me to keep going so I did. The story slowly took shapes and it's getting interesting, then eventually it captivated me and kept me up late because I couldn't put it down until the end.

The things that make this book hard to follow is all these names that appear at the end of every chapter. They were the parents that were present at the night of the tragedy and giving their statements as the witness. The authors put the names on their statements and they seem a lot of people. They talked about their own opinion, gossips, rumors, about the people involved in the tragedy. If it was a detective book there should have been a clue on all those statements. We only knew at the beginning one parent died but who and how would only reveal at the end. All of them are the parents at Pirriwee Public. All those people's opinions which has not or only has a small portion of the story scatter on the books and were hard to follow. Who is who? I might suggest not to pay attention to all these names as it would only make you confuse. Just read what they were saying and focused on the three main characters: Madeline, Celeste, and Jane.

Madeline is a busybody mom, strong value of friendship and has a problem.

Celeste, a beautiful rich woman that seems has everything in life. Oh, how I hate her chatterbox. It's like I was hearing my own chatterbox. It keeps rationalizing that everything is her fault and she deserves it. All those little lies that keep her stay and afraid to move forward.

Jane, a single mom with one kid named Ziggy who was trying to build her life seems the cause of everything in the story.  Her chatterbox is the same. She couldn't move on from the tragedy in the past that still haunted her with the emotional trauma and the odd behavior she is having.

Bullying and domestic abuse are major themes. Those are too heavy for a book with the chick-lit genre. I didn't realize those are the major themes as I was too curious guessing who was killed and how at the night of the trivia. The writer is very witty, to make the plot and put us on a different idea and keep questioning on what happens on the trivia night. I keep guessing that one of the main characters is the victim as they never appear in the opinion section. But all that witty twist only reveal at the end and make sense all that happened before.


Perfect family, perfect marriage, perfect spouse.. all of them are only on the surface. There is no such thing as perfect. Everybody has flaws. Everybody has secrets. Those things you see were chosen to show other people what they want them to see. All is not what it seems. But when we hide them and don't want other people to see our flaws... do we lie? big lies? little lies? or big little lies?

Book Review: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Originally published: January 28, 1813

Country: United Kingdom

Genres: novel, fiction, satire, romance novel, novel of manners

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Format Hardback | 360 pages
Publication date 01 Jun 1996
Publisher Konemann UK Ltd
Language English
ISBN10 3895082074
(Buy it on eBay) 

In this historic romance, young Elizabeth Bennet strives for love, independence and honesty in the vapid high society of 19th century England.  

Oops it's the beginning of May already and I'm only in the book one on my reading challenge list. I picked up Pride and Prejudice assuming it would have been an easy start comparing to Homer. But oh boy I was wrong. I was struggling even with the first part of the book starting from the opening line - one of the most famous first lines in the history of literature, " It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. " The language style, the English in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries is very hard to understand at times was putting me off. Moreover its indirect narrative style I found boring. Which was best described on the Literature Network 's introduction: " The point of view in Pride and Prejudice is limited omniscient; the story is told through Elizabeth, but not in first person. As a result, the mood of the novel lacks dramatic emotions."

I almost put it down and returned the book to the library. But I gave it a chance and decided to watch the 2005 film adaptation starring Keira Knightley first. It worked. I was starting to enjoy the book and somewhat obsessed. This is the first (hopefully not the last) classical book I managed to finish in its original form and language. I feel more literate somehow. :P

The characters are very well written. It is easy to like and dislike them. Jane, the first daughter, is your typical Cinderella-type heroine in a romance book. A pretty, naive, sweet girl who is looking for her prince charming. Elizabeth, the second daughter, is a witty, outspoken girl and less pretty than Jane. The fact that she is the main character of the book instead of Jane made this book different in some way. Mr. Bingley, a rich charming gentleman which his arrival in the nearby village of Longbourn started this story, is either a too naive or just a plain stupid man. I'm not very fond of him. As a man, he was easily stirred by his sister, Caroline, and his best friend Mr. Darcy.

Mr. Darcy, a richer-than-Mr.Bingley-with-10.000 pounds a year (I cringed every time anyone asset was mentioned in the book by another person), is a proud, rude, conceited man. That was Elizabeth's first impression of him and she kept judging him base on that. What I like the most about Mr.Darcy is he doesn't change his attitude toward Elizabeth after the first failed proposal and kindly do anything to make her happy in his way.

Jane and Elizabeth's mother, Mrs. Bennet, is a crazy mama. I just wanted to keep her mouth shut up. But by putting myself in her shoes I somehow understand her obsession. Women’s life at that time was hard and limited. Their main roles were at home and marriage was the main and most of the time the only goal of their life. They expected to marry a man for protection, wealth, and social status. Once you marry your status was higher as what Lydia, the youngest daughter, told Jane the oldest one: “Ah! Jane, I take your place now, and you must go lower, because I am a married woman.” She really got on my nerves. Mrs. Bennet has 5 daughters, and with no son, the family's inheritances go to the cousin male, Mr.Collins. Therefore she was obsessed in marrying them off. I got an impression she doesn't care who the man is as long as her daughter marry her dream come true.

Romance book, with comedy themes and strong female leads, male lead falls in love first, rich/handsome male lead, and rivals become lover categories, work like a charm for me (blame shoujo manga for that :)). This book has them all in one package. It was considered the first book that starting this theme.

I can tell I'm quite obsessed. I watched the 2005 film adaptation while reading the first part of the book. I finished reading it shortly after I finished watching the 1995 BBC series featuring Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy who greatly influenced the late 20th and early 21st-century reception of Pride and Prejudice[1]. I'm now in the middle of reading the Death Comes to Pemberley a British novel by P.D. James that continues the story with a murder mystery. As I am writing this I have finished watching all the 100 episodes of  The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, an American web series adapted from the story and I bought the book adaptation of the series compulsively online. I stumbled upon the old 1940 film adaptation last night and will watch it soon. The last one on the list that will complete my obsession is reading Pride and Prejudice Zombie.

Pride and Prejudice Zombie is missing.

References:
1. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/pride-prejudice-forever/

Critical Eleven - Ika Natassa : a review

Judul: Critical Eleven
Penulis: Ika Natassa
Bahasa: Indonesia
Penerbit: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama
Terbit: 2015
Tebal: 344 hlm.
ISBN: 9786020318929


Ale dan Anya pertama kali bertemu dalam penerbangan Jakarta-Sydney. Sebulan kemudian bertemu kembali, jatuh cinta dalam tujuh hari dan menikah setelah satu tahun pacaran.

Kini, lima tahun setelah perkenalan itu, Ale dan Anya dihadapkan pada satu tragedi besar yang membuat mereka mempertanyakan pilihan-pilihan yang mereka ambil.

Tema yang diangkat buku ini sebenarnya berat tentang kehilangan, memaafkan, dan kesempatan kedua. Tapi penulis berhasil memaparkannya dengan ringan disertai bumbu-bumbu romantis yang bikin baper. Ditambah referensi-referensi yang menarik di sana-sini.

Saya memutuskan membeli buku ini karena di sinopsisnya diceritakan tentang bandara. Tempat yang sejak tahun 2007 menjalin hubungan love-hate dengan saya. Bagi siapapun yang pernah menjalani hubungan jarak jauh dan juga bagi orang perantauan yang satu satunya moda transportasi untuk pulang adalah pesawat, pasti mengerti bahwa bandara mempunyai kesan tersendiri di hati.

Kembali ke buku ini, ternyata saya kecele. Fokus di buku ini bukan tentang bandara atau mengenai cinta jarak jauh. Walau memang kedua hal tersebut merupakan poin penting dari cerita. Bandara diceritakan merupakan tempat favorit Anya sebagai seorang frequent flayer yang merupakan resiko dari pekerjaanya sebagai konsultan management, dan tempat cerita ini dibuka. Sedangkan hubungan jarak jauh dilakukan mereka berdua karena pekerjaan Ale sebagai oil engineer yang bekerja 5 minggu di lokasi tepatnya di teluk Meksiko dan 5 minggu libur yang di habiskannya di Jakarta setelah menikah.

Dengan alur kilas balik diceritakan dari sudut pandang bergantian antara Ale dan Anya, tentang bagaimana mereka bertemu, kenangan - kenangan manis mereka, sampai tragedi yang membuat mereka berada pada keadaan  yang menjadi titik fokus cerita, mereka menjadi seperti orang asing satu sama lain dan harus bersandiwara di depan keluarga mereka bahwa rumah tangga mereka baik - baik saja.

Penulis berhasil membawa pembaca penasaran dan menerka-nerka apa yang dilakukan Ale sehingga Anya begitu tersakiti dan membuat rumah tangga mereka diambang kehancuran. Tetapi ketika saya akhirnya sampai pada bab ketika semuanya terungkap, jalan cerita buku ini kemudian menjadi membosankan. Ceritanya kemudian menjadi lambat, berputar - putar dengan maksud yang sama dan akhir cerita yang mudah di tebak. Hampir saja saya tidak meneruskan membacanya sampai habis. Tapi untung saja buku ini saya baca dalam perjalanan ke kampung suami yang ditempuh dalam waktu 3 jam dengan kereta dari Budapest. Saya tidak punya pilihan lain untuk menghabiskan waktu selain dengan buku ini.

Setelah mengetahui penyebab semuanya, saya tidak terlalu bersimpati lagi terhadap karakter Anya. Dia terlalu keras kepala dan seorang drama queen. Anya sebenarnya mengakui apa yang dilontarkan suaminya adalah benar. Sehingga sebenarnya yang tidak bisa dia maafkan adalah dirinya sendiri. Di sisi lain Ale digambarkan sebagai suami yang masih sangat mencintai istrinya dan berusaha dengan berbagai cara agar Anya dapat memaafkan dan menerima dirinya kembali. Peristiwa - peristiwa yang nyaris membuat mereka merasa akan kehilangan satu sama lain menjadi titik pencerahan bahwa mereka belum siap untuk berpisah.

Kenangan - kenangan  tentang kisah cinta mereka di ceritakan penulis dari sudut pandang Anya dan Ale bergantian dengan manis dan romantis membuat saya senyum - senyum sendiri.

Selain itu gaya bahasa yang campur aduk antara Bahasa Inggris dan Indonesia sesaat membuat otak saya kebingungan apakah ini buku bahasa Indonesia atau buku bahasa Inggris. Susah dijelaskan bagaimana rasanya.. seperti otak saya yang kebingungan memutuskan apakah Conchita Wurst* seorang perempuan atau laki - laki ketika pertama kali melihatnya..

Berkaitan judul yang diberikan penulis Critical Eleven saya sedikit kecewa karena awalnya judul dan sinopsis mengenai sebelas menit paling kritis dalam dunia penerbangan ini yang membuat saya tertarik, tetapi ketika selesai membaca buku ini, saya menemukan bahwa 11 menit paling kritis ini seperti hanya sebuah pembuka cerita yang disisipkan agar sesuai dengan judulnya.

Hal - hal lain yang sedikit mengganggu bagi saya adalah penggambaran karakter Ale yang bisa dikatakan seorang muslim yang taat tapi setengah - setengah dalam penggambarannya. Ale, selalu solat lima waktu ketika berada di rig tempatnya bekerja sebagai "tukang minyak". (Awalnya saya tidak terlalu ngeh dengan hal itu ketika Ale menceritakan kesehariannya di rig dengan jadwal rutin lapor bos besar dari pertama ketika dia baru bangun tidur sampai hendak kembali tidur). Tapi dia memelihara anjing di rumah dan tampaknya terbiasa dengan bar hopping, atau ketika Anya di ceritakan sedang minum red wine dan kekesalannya kepada Jakarta karena untuk segelas Wine di sebuah restauran dia harus berjibaku dengan kemacetan Jakarta. Mungkin penulis bermaksud menggambarkan keluarga muslim liberal modern masa kini yang tetap rutin menjalankan ibadah agama sementara tetap beriringan dengan kehidupan modern kota besar yang diakui atau tidak, ada hal-hal yang tidak sesuai dengan  ajaran agama Islam.

Ini pertama kalinya saya membaca buku karya Ika Natassa. Saya sebelumnya tidak mengetahui tentangnya. Setelah habis membaca buku ini saya googling dan baru mengetahui bahwa buku ini cukup populer sampai terjual 11.111 dalam waktu sebelas menit di awal penerbitannya.. wow.


*Conchita Wurst penyanyi asal Austria pemenang Eurovision song contest 2014 yang berpenampilan wanita cantik berjanggut dan berkumis.