Book Review - Maryamah Karpov

Recently finished reading Maryamah Karpov (Mimpi - mimpi Lintang) by Andrea Hirata. I'd say the book is just okay. I have never expected the book will surpass the first book in the tetralogi: "Laskar Pelangi", but I must say I'm still a bit disappointed by how the story of the book has turned out to be more fictional and un-original than my already lowered expectation.

On the upside, the book still offers me some new cultural and science-related knowledge, a few good laughs and memories.

The first few chapter about Ikal's dad makes me thinking about my dad too, as they're both similar in the ways that my dad was also like his - he was not a man of words but he loved his family more than he loved himself and although he never said the obvious, we, who knew him, knew without doubt that he would sacrifice anything in the world to make all his daughter happy. And then, there was the story about Lintang, which I've been waiting for and never get enough of. Apart from those few chapters, I read the book only to finish it (thus, finish the tetralogy) and move on to my next book. The book has become more and more fictional and I doubt that it was based on true experience, like the story where Ikal & his friends sailed across the supposedly the most dangerous sea and met the most dangerous pirates just to find his dream girl and so on. Then there was the part where Andrea explained about how the Melayu people like to call their peers with names they created themselved based on their habit, bla...bla..bla...and he gave so many examples that I thought it would never ended. And finally, there was the ending that left hanging - I thought the book is the last of the tetralogy, I expected a good ending, or at the least a definite ending.

To summarize, Maryamah Karpov is an okay book but I don't recomment reading it as a single book by itself (I read it because it's part of a tetralogy). But I'm still glad to be part of this tetralogy, which was considered as one of the best Indonesian literature in recent century (this refers mostly to the first book, Laskar Pelangi).