The Nineteenth Century Novel Review

Another actual fact of myself : I have always loved reading. It's so addictive and entertaining! When I was a kid I loved to read folklore and fairy tale you could find in your Bahasa Indonesia textbooks. I guess, the age of 11 was when my love for reading started to grow even bigger. Here goes the story. Back then, there was a comic book rental just exactly next to my school. I could rent up to 15 comics per day, finish them in 2 or 3 days and rent another 15 that the staffs remembered my membership number (I was crazily obsessed with Japanese mangas). I'm quite sure I've read more than 50 titles or even a hundred. My favorite series was Mirumo de Pon. :3 As for novels, I didn't read them that much as a KID of course since they got no handsome Japanese boys in it. HAHA! *crazy 11 yo*

In spite of my love for reading, I've only bought my own books twice. Those are Michel Jackson autobiography, Moonwalk and a biography by his brother, Jermaine, You Are Not Alone. Others were either rented or borrowed from a friend.

I'm lucky to have a fellow who shares the same hobby as me and good news is, he collects good books! I borrowed 4 novels (actually I would not borrow if he never offered me to in the first place *afraid of spoiling his babies lah*) that I've finished reading. I highly recommend them to those who are looking for a good book. ^^ I listed them in sequence of which I read first down below :

1. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

An old novel published in 1943 that tells about a boy who once loved drawing but because the adults mistakenly interpret it and tell him to set aside drawing, he then gave up and grew up being a pilot. One day, his plane crashes in a desert where he meets a boy from another planet whom he refers to as the little prince. The little prince's a boy who travels from one planet to another and lands on Earth.

It's a very educative book and contains so much moral value for children and adults to learn. On the other hand, I found the story not THAT interesting and personally, I don't like how the story's told from two different first-person points of view, the man and the little prince (it focuses more on the little prince though). I got somewhat confused and had to re-read some parts as the point of view changed. Moreover, it doesn't have that kind of climax that surprise me and make me go 'WOAH!" or "OMG!". The book's not so thick, lots of pictures included to help describing the object and atmosphere of the story. Overall, I rate this 3 / 5.

2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Published in 1959, a masterpiece that has won numerous awards and critics. It's a controversial novel and actually got banned in some countries. I kinda lost my respect for the main character, Humbert Humbert, though *that's how deeply immersed I am when I read* on how he loves young children, sees them in sexual ways and how he marries a woman because he falls in love with her daughter whom he refers to as Lolita and even has sex with the teenage Lolita (controversial enough?). Written in memoir format, it's such a great book and each page got me wondering what's gonna happen next.

I only read around 80 pages of it, you know why? The one I read was translated version. I must admit that the author express each character, story, even an object (eg : a room, a woman body) in an incredibly fantastic way and it's literary flawless but no offense, I'm truly sorry to say this but it was translated in horrible grammar and wording hence confusing (this is why I refuse reading translated novels). *translating is not an easy peasy task I know!* In short, I ended up searching for the summary on Google :(. ~~At least I know the main point of this novel. lol~~. The original copy must be real good I believe! 3 / 5.

3. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

I managed to finish this book despite translated version. It has too much repetitive words but I can understand almost everything much better than the previous one. The novel published in 1951 focuses on Holden Caulfield's journey, a 17-year-old boy who's dropped out from school (for the third time) and he's supposed to go back home on Christmas break, the following Wednesday. He leaves school few days earlier as he can't stand being there any longer. He can't return home either or his parents might find out sooner that he's been expelled from school. I felt sooooooo annoyed by Holden characteristic that I almost stopped reading, It's like he hates school, his friends, people, he just hates everything! -_- You'll find non-stop complaint and judgement coming out from the beginning until the end of the book. Rating this 2.5 / 5.

4. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Published in 1966, this is the best of all 4! The best novel I've read my entire life! *it's not like I have read hundreds lah* The protagonist, Charly Gordon, is a 32-year-old man born with a low IQ of 68. He passionately wants to improve and that can be seen from his efforts to learn how to read and write at Beekman so that he can understand what his friends are saying. He simply thinks more people will love him if he gets smarter. In order to increase his intelligence, he's then chosen by his teacher, Miss Kinnian (whom he later falls in love with), to undergo an operation which has successfully worked on a mouse named, Algernon but never been tested on any human being before. You can see how Charly's intelligence increase by the way he writes his daily progress (this whole book is Charly's daily progress before and after the surgery). He used to write "operation" as "operashun" but now he can write properly and even speaks 20 languages.

Being smart doesn't lead him to that kind of life he's been dreaming of, to be loved. Instead, he's fired from his job and his workmates stay away from him too. Will he forever remain a genius? You gotta read the book lah! :D I rate this awesome novel 5/5!!!