Review: In the Country by Mia Alvar

I read this book with high expectations, and though some stories fulfill those expectations to me, I was gravely disappointed with a couple of them. Though Ms. Alvar's prose is great, sometimes she resorts to cliche and predictable outcomes for her plots. I enjoy "The Old Girl", a story examining the life of a thinly veiled Corazon Aquino in Boston, and immensely like the thriller-like "The Kontrabida" and "The Miracle Worker." Others, like "Legends of the Old White Lady" and "The Shadow Families" offer stark, realistic characterizations. As a whole, I really liked the stories in the book; they are certainly above-average. Masterfully crafted, if not lacking in inventiveness.

However, I was so disappointed with "Esmeralda", written in second person POV. This one story alone drops my grade from four stars to three. It throws me off and sours me to the whole collection. Maybe because it's so different from other stories in the collection. Like I said, it's written in second person, which I find one of the most grating POVs ever. But I can forgive a poor narrative choice if the story is interesting enough; it's not. Unlike others in this collection, I find the plot very unrealistic. I feel like I'm thrown in a telenovela with all the overwrought words and metaphors, and contrived melodrama. The story tries so hard to be meaningful and dramatic that it feel fake. The characters are superficial cardboard cut-outs without any depth. I hate this story, which is disappointing, since I love the rest of the book.

I still recommend this book to anyone interested in short fiction, especially short fiction by women of color. It's a shame that one story ruins the whole experience for me.

Review: Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan

This book has what I call the "Lolita" and "The Virgin Suicides" 'curse' which, although I like the prose and characters, I won't give it more than three stars. Why? Because of it's violence to women.

Eka Kurniawan has been called the successor to Pramoedya Antanta Toer and his books have been likened to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Reading this, I can see why. Mr. Eka has a distinct style that is unlike other contemporary Indonesian authors: poetic and sarcastic without being too overwrought or cheesy. This novel is about a prostitute and the tragedies that befall her family, and has been described as 'grotesque' so I know I'm not going to find rainbows and sunshine and many consensual sex. 

The first and last hundred pages or so are amazing. I like Dewi Ayu's plight and her stories. She is a fierce, amazing woman who knows what she's worth and acts accordingly. Dewi Ayu does not have wool over her eyes like so many of her peers have. She is realistic and pragmatic and also just a touch insane. I immensely enjoy the story when it's focused on her, so that's why I give this book three stars despite my misgivings. The sexual violence in the first Dewi Ayu narrative is shocking, but expected. 

The problem starts when the narrative moves to Dewi Ayu's daughters. That's when the sexual violence, to me, becomes unbearable. It seems like on every page someone is getting raped. Eight-year-old girls described in a sexualized manner. Dewi Ayu and her daughters are the most beautiful women in Halimunda, so every man wants to bone them and damn consent. More mentions of Dewi Ayu's daughters' sexual desirability, never mind the fact that they're ten-years-old. More rape. And this goes on and on for two hundred pages or so.

I'm not a prude who demands every sexual scene to follow the safe, sane, consensual rule. But there's a line between what I call "meaningful sexual violence" i.e. sexual violence that have impact to the story and "gratuitous sexual violence" in which the sexual violence loses all meaning and becomes another source of titillation. The sexual violence in this book falls to the later category. I don't feel shocked when a character is raped; I just sigh, make some disgusted noise, and move on.

Dewi Ayu's and her daughters' misfortune are tied to their sexual desirability. Their tragedy is that they are beautiful women in a chauvinist patriarchal world. And I'm so tired of this narrative. Like many male authors, Mr. Eka is commenting and satirizing the sexualization of women. Like most male authors, his efforts fall short, although I applaud it. 

Maybe I'm just tired of seeing women fall victims to violence. Maybe I'm just tired of how when we heard the words "sexual violence" we automatically assume that the victim is a woman. Maybe I'm just tired of grown men sexually commenting on a teenage girl's body. Maybe I'm just tired of gratuitous sexual violence in my books. Maybe. Maybe.

Review: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Emily's life is shattered when she finds out that her best friend, Sloane, suddenly disappears. It's kinda freaky. Her house is empty and she doesn't answer her calls or texts. Emily's a bit of a recluse before Sloane comes along, so Sloane's disappearance shakes her pretty badly. She belatedly realizes that she has no friend whatsoever beside Sloane, which means she will have to spend the summer alone. However, a letter from Sloane arrives one day. It has no return address or a "hi", just a list of things that Emily should do. Somehow she manages to convince herself that if she does everything in the list, Sloane will magically come back like a genie. So she sets out to do so.

Since You've Been Gone is a typical YA coming-of-age story. Emily is a reclusive girl who finally gets to open up and acquire new friends while doing quirky things. At first I really hate this girl, because she acts like a 10-year-old child instead of a 17-year-old girl. I mean, I'm a recluse who only has like four friends in high school too, but this girl really grates my nerves. Her outlook in life is so child-like and she virtually can't do anything without Sloane telling her to do. She's also incredibly naive. I'm okay with an innocent, naive protagonist, since this is YA we're talking about and all their protagonists tend to be in the "good girls" category, but Emily's childlike-ness is so overtly childish. I feel like I'm reading a story about an elementary school child instead of a high school girl. Even the girls in Jacqueline Wilson's novels have more maturity and they're supposed to be in junior high.

But it gets better as the story progress, although Emily remains annoyingly innocent halfway into the book. Maybe because her initial childishness is so exaggerated, her character development is so satisfying to me. In fact, I grow to like, and even love Emily. I sympathize with her, and I get her fears of being left alone in the world. Though, I find it hard to understand why Emily, an American teenager who shops vintage clothes and goes upstate for flea markets, does not know who Lykke Li and Arcade Fire and Death Cab for Cutie are. "I Follow Rivers" is a pretty big hit for someone like Lykke Li's stature and Arcade Fire is a freaking superstar in terms of indie artists. Hell, even the mainstream knows who Arcade Fire is. I mean, she's into 80s music.

I like the female friendships in this novel. Too often the cool, popular girls like Sloane would be the Mean Girl (tm) but it's not the case in this book, which I find refreshing. The friendship between Sloane and Emily is very sweet and is not poisoned by an undercurrent of "frenemy-ness" that usually makes you wonder why these girls are friends in the first place.

I would've given this book a four star, if it were not for the INCREDIBLY stupid conflict in the end that feels tacked on. And by "incredibly" I mean not even letting the other party finish his sentence. I feel like we could've saved several pages if that freaking party is allowed to finish his sentence. It's stupid and unnecessary, so it gets a one star downgrade. Overall, I think Since You've Been Gone is good and refreshing, light enough for a quick read. Though not the best YA I've ever read, I'd recommend it for anyone that's looking for a good contemporary YA or a palate cleanser after a heavy read (I'm looking at you Lolita).

Review: Crimson Peak

So the other day I got roped in by my friends to see the new Crimson Peak movie and it's really pretty but at the same time it's typical Gothic romance by which I mean there's a lot of stupid decisions made. SPOILERS ABOUND

Review: Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

A quick guide on knowing whether or not to root for a character in an Anne Bronte novel: if they like animals, then they're good, but if they're cruel to them, they're bad. Clearly, Anne was a lady after my own heart.

Review: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

I've got a lot of things to say about The Virgin Suicides. I've spent quite a long time after finishing this book thinking about what to rate it. Technically, it's a great book - Mr Eugenides certainly knows how to write. And yes, this book got me thinking and feeling - disgust mostly, but disgust is still an emotion. But I can't, in good conscience, give this book a five star rating nor can I give this book four star. It just doesn't feel right to me. For all my opinion and feelings, I don't enjoy reading this book at all, and not because of its bleak theme. I've read bleak books before and quite - enjoy it, for a lack of better word. But I don't enjoy reading this book. I think, it's supposed to make me feel that way. to make me feel uncomfortable; nevertheless I can't rate it five stars despite all the critical acclaim and the technically good prose. Here's why.

Review: P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

This book is good, though I think the first one is better. We get to see some more Lara Jean and Peter K being a couple, although paradoxically we see less Peter in this book.

The two best things in this book are Kitty and Peter Kavinsky. Peter is such a sweet guy. He's not perfect, but he tries his best to make his relationship with Lara Jean work because he likes her so much. And he's a great friend! Even though Genevieve's a total bitch and totally doesn't deserve such a beautiful name, Peter still supports her when she's having troubles at home. He knows that she can be manipulative and doesn't hesitate in calling her out, but when she genuinely needs someone to listen to her, he's there (as a friend). Lara Jean, of course, misunderstands the situation and thinks that he still has feelings for Gen, even though he insists that there's nothing between them (which is completely true). But Lara Jean's suspicious when he refuses to tell her the exact reason he still hangs out with Genevieve, saying that it's not his secret to tell (which is also completely true). Meanwhile, he's being such a good boyfriend to Lara Jean: calling her every night, letting her take the charge in the relationship. I love that he respects Lara Jean's decision and never pushes nor pressures her to have sex.

 Which brings me to Lara Jean herself. I find her naivety kind of endearing in the first book, but in this one it starts to irritate me. I love that the 'hot makeout sesh in the hot tub' video leak makes her realize the double standard in how society treats 'slutty' girls and boys. In the first book I thought that she was a little bit of a slut-shamer in how she thinks about Chris and Gen, but now she realizes that "they're all the same". I also love how this book is realistic in that Lara Jean would have had some insecurities in seeing Peter hanging out with Genevieve, but I only like it in moderation. This book gets a little too overboard with it, which in part is fueled by Lara Jean's naivety. She needs to learn to trust Peter a little, since she constantly thinks the worst of him yet every time he constantly proves himself to be better than beyond her wildest dreams. I know that Lara Jean still has to reconcile the Sweet!Peter that she knows now and the Douchebag!Peter that she thought he is, but come on girl, I thought we solved all that in the first book. Give the boy some credit where credit is due.

Plot-wise, I like the first parts, but as we get to the end, things starts to drag. The love triangle is unnecessary and only adds needless drama. It throws off the pacing, imo, and only serves to make me think that Lara Jean is a indecisive simpleton. You can erase John Ambrose McLaren and there wouldn't be any difference to the plot or the characters whatsoever. If he's not there, I wouldn't even notice. I wasn't even interested in seeing his letter; I didn't even realize that we didn't see his letter in the first book. The much-hyped 'love triangle' is virtually nonexistent since the guy only showed up in the 200th pages or so. If you're a k-drama addict like me, you would know that by virtue of screentime alone John Ambrose doesn't have a chance in hell to be a worthy rival for Lara Jean's affections. Also, I think he's bland and boring and unremarkable. When he told Peter K that he'd treated Lara Jean badly, I want to smack him in the face. If anything, Lara Jean has treated Peter badly by constantly thinking the worst of him and not trusting him when he hadn't give her any reason not to doubt him.

I also like how the romance is realistic in that it isn't always perfectly lovey-dovey, but again the drama gets too overwrought in the end. I do love how they have a talk about girls being in charge of their bodies, of how society views girls and sex, of all this 'YAY GIRLS AND FEMINISM!' talk. Lara Jean doesn't want to have sex not because she's not that kind of girl, but because she's not ready yet. And it's okay if you're not ready yet, you'll just have to wait when you decide for yourself that you're absolutely sure that you want it. And you have to have protection of course. In the words of the great Paris Geller: no glove no love.

The ending too fits the book perfectly, but I hate the needless love triangle, and John Ambrose's blandness and Lara Jean's naivety annoys me, so I'm giving this a lower rating than the first book. I'd still recommend anyone who's interested in contemporary YA to check this book and the first one, because it's so refreshing and different than any other YAs that I've read.

Review: Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

The fortieth Discworld novel and Sir Pterry's last before his death, Raising Steam is a treat, not as good as some books in the series, but a treat nonetheless. Truthfully, any novels with Moist von Lipwig is alright with me, as I dearly love the government crook and all the political hijinks he got into. Government procedural and political satire is one of my favorite types of novels, so it's no wonder that Mr von Lipwig's adventures making Ankh-Morpork a better place under the watchful eyes of the Patrician interests me. However, I must admit, even though I love Mr. von Lipwig, I have to admit that this book is not as good as I'd like to think it is.

I have high hopes for Raising Steam. Any novels in which the Patrician drags Ankh-Morpork screaming into the future is always good in my opinion, but even I must contend that Raising Steam does not feel as much as a novel as it is a book full of summaries. Don't get me wrong, it is still okay-ish, but in this book I feel that Sir Pterry is more of a summarizer than a narrator. We'd only get summaries of things happening, with plenty of humorous asides still. When he wrote this, Sir Pterry was very ill, Alzeheimer's, and it clearly shows. 

The recurring characters feel a bit odd. Maybe this is because it's been such a long time since I've last read a Discworld novel, but as I read this book, I feel that there's something off with our friends Moist von Lipwig, the Patrician, and even Commander Samuel Vimes. In the previous books, a big show is made of Moist von Lipwig's very average face, so average that most people couldn't recognize him were it not for his big gold hat. Yet in this book various characters have said that they recognize Mr. von Lipwig's face from the papers, even though he was evidently not wearing his gold hat when they meet him nor was he mentioned wearing the hat when he's photographed in the papers. This was only the first in a list of things that nag me about the characters when I read the novel. One of the most cherished thing about the Discworld series was its continuity and its ability to make long-running brick jokes, so this inconsistencies bother me greatly.

I really like the plot about the trains and the dwarf terrorists however I feel like the pace can be at times stilted again for the fact that the narration felt more like a summary to me. The bit about the wonders and progress new technology can bring is very well written, and I like all the diplomacy and politicking that took place, but again, description was sparse. The plot can feel disjointed, and there are some unnecessary parts that would do well sitting on the cutting room floor. 

At first I'd like to give this book four stars, but upon consideration, the character inconsistencies and the disjointed, stilted pace is much of a bother to me and so I lower it a full star. This novel is good, and I'd still recommend it for Discworld fans, but I wouldn't recommend new-to-Discworld fans to start with this as their introduction to the wonderful world of Discworld, as I don't think it's a great representative of Sir Pterry's writing. There are many other Discworld books that are far, far better than this.

Review: The Weaverbirds by YB Mangunwijaya

So! I finally finished this book. It's been, what, four months since I borrowed it? And I only finished it now. Lovely. The school library is going to rake in lots of money.

This book is, well, it's not difficult, per se. I just had a hard time of getting into it. The book had the double sin of a) written in 1st person and b) contains a lot of sentimental Indonesian-esque romance that I don't really like. Romance is fine, but Indonesian authors tend to have this style that whatever romance they wrote is going to end up really sappy and/or cheesy. Since most old novels are written in 1st person (my most hated POV) and have these sappy romance (that my cold heart does not understand), you can see why I don't really read them much.

But as a book connoisseur, I have to read a lot of books, crossing genre and time, even if that means I have to get out of my comfort zone. Or spend four months reading a 300 page book. 

Okay. So. The review. Right.

The Weaverbirds (Indonesian: Burung-Burung Manyar) tells the story of Setadewa (Teto) and Larasati (Atik). Teto is the son of a KNIL soldier, KNIL being the private army of the Dutch colonist in Indonesia, and an Indo mother. Atik is still Teto's cousin of some sort; her mother is the adopted daughter of Teto's father's uncle. Teto's father comes from a blue-blooded native Javanese family, but he likes being "Dutch" more.

During the Japanese occupation, Teto's father joined the rebellion, and was subsequently caught. Teto's mother was kept as a mistress by a Japanese official to protect Teto's father, and Teto was left in the care of Atik's family. Teto vowed that he will avenge his parents, and joined KNIL once he was old enough. When the Japanese left however, Teto was faced by the Republican factions; that is people who wanted and have declared Indonesia's independence. Teto viewed the Republicans as ex-collaborators with Japan, and thus viewed Indonesia's independence as not something that they earn, but something that is given by Japan. Not to mention, after the war, the fate of his parents is still unknown. Thus, begins Teto's quest to "help" his homeland and find the truth about his parents.

 Structurally, the novel itself is divided into three parts: a prologue of some sorts that tells the story of Teto and Atik's childhood, a middle part consisting the bulk of the action, and an epilogue. 

I find the concept refreshing, because Indonesian novels often have this black-and-white view of the world, that the good guys will always be good and the bad guys will always be bad. This is a boring, not to mention unrealistic, point of view of the world. The good guys is not always good and the bad guys are not always bad. So it's really refreshing to see a flipped perspective; the Republicans became the antagonist and the colonizing Dutch became the protagonist.

Maybe it's because of this I find the middle part to be the most exciting of the three. It details Teto's struggle to reconcile his vision of Indonesia, and the Indonesia he's seeing right now. Teto does not go to war because he hates Indonesia; he loves Indonesia and wants to free her from the Republicans whom he viewed as Japanese collaborators. Teto's mother frequently becomes a sort of allegory for Indonesia herself, in the eyes of Teto: she was a happy housewife in the Dutch period, only to become a trapped mistress in the Japanese occupation, and later institutionalized after the war. Indonesia too, according to Teto, is subjugated but happy during the Dutch period, trapped in a broken promise during the Japanese occupation, and has become insane in her independence.

Teto's views and behaviors is a departure from the usual Indonesian heroes that is usually portrayed as calm and polite even in the midst of gunfire. Here, Teto is brash and foul-mouthed, but he had the heart of a lion, and a firm principle taught by his father. He's an intelligent boy; he knew in the middle that what he's doing, what KNIL and him are doing, is basically worthless but still he fought because his father taught him not to run away from a fight. And by God, he didn't, even if it meant sacrificing his only chance on being with the girl he loved.

I expected Atik to be one-dimensional and flatter than a cardboard, but she was quite fleshed out, which is a nice surprise. Atik too is struggling that she may or may not have feelings for Teto, her childhood friend slash distant cousin and a traitor to the Republic. Atik herself works for the Republic, even becoming an aide for the then-Foreign affairs minster. She has to learn to reconcile her loyalty for her motherland and her affection to an agent of the enemy.

The prose is wonderful and this is one of the few first-person POVs novel that I actually like. YB Mangunwijaya conveys Teto's feelings so perfectly that you can't help to root a little bit for the Dutch, if only to give Teto his happy ending. The changing of POVs is something I severely dislike in most modern novels since it's just hella confusing, but Rama Mangun (as he's affectionately called) uses it so efficiently to portray the characters' feelings, to let us see the two-sides of the coin, that I can't complain about it.

My problem with this novel is that we really don't see Atik and Teto's relationship developing properly. Literally 70% of their screentime are spent apart from each other. We only get to see their interaction in the beginning and in the end; they rarely interact in the middle part. When I first read Teto declaring his love to Atik in his inner monologue I was like "bruh? You only met this girl for two months, tops!" It feels odd to me because they only met each other for a short time in their childhood, and it didn't really make sense for both of them to be violently in love with each other. They talked about their closeness a lot, but we don't actually see how close they are, or how their closeness develops in the first place. As individual characters, they are well-developed, but as a pairing they are not.

I also have issues with the length of the first part and the third part. The first part should be longer, and the third part should be shorter. The ending is firm and resolute, but the execution is off. There's a lot of padding in the third part but the last pages seems rushed, as if the author has a page limit and he's nearing that limit so he better wrap the story up. The conflict in the last part just kind of...hangs there with no development whatsoever beyond a few short paragraphs. I didn't even realize there's a conflict until 3/4 in. Inserting a new conflict at the end of the book is pretty unusual, so I understand if the author wants it to be done quickly, but if that's the case then why does he insert it in the first place? It's completely unnecessary and throws the reader off.

There's also this bizarre subplot involving a minor character that does not have anything to do with the plot, whatsoever. The pages for that, I think, can more efficiently used instead to flesh out the story more, but alas it does not happen. The third part is the most boring of them all, part of the reason why this takes me a long time to finish after whooshing through the middle part.

It is a good book, and it is a good story, but it's marketed everywhere as a love story, and I didn't really feel the whole romance angle. As a war-novel, it's good, it's great; I would've given it a four-star. But you have to call an orange an orange, and as a romance novel it's very unsatisfying. This, coupled with other plot issues and pointless padding, reduces the grade to only three-star.

Final Rating:

Book Information:

Title: Burung-Burung Manyar (English: The Weaverbirds)
Author: YB. Mangunwijaya
Pub./Edition: Fourteenth edition. Jakarta: Djambatan, 2004 (orig pub. date: August 1981)
ISBN: 979-428-560-9