About Tentang (pun intended)

This is a review on a book written in Malay that is dotted sparingly with English. I imagine that if the book is translated then it'd be an English book dotted sparingly with Malay. That's strange.

But, this shouldn't be shrugged off as an impossibility: many authors have had their works translated, right?

Moreover, this review would be in English. Haha. But hey, maybe using a different language would lead to a pool of audience that is different from the Malay reviews. (I hope).

As evidenced by this nonsensical introduction, I bet that you'd guess by now that my experience reviewing books are at the minimal level. Before this, I've attempted to review Travelog Haji: Mengubah Sempadan Iman by Prof Muhd Kamil Ibrahim. I even did 2 posts about it here and here before I surrendered here. So much for high hopes for self, eh? But reading those posts again made me question, are those actually reviews? Oh, well. That is besides the point, if they aren't then just consider this attempt as the first.

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Title: Tentang

Year: 2011

Author: Saharil Hasrin Sanin

Publisher: Sindiket Sol-Jah

So here goes:

Before anything, the first thing you'd notice is the cover. Maybe it's purposely chosen to grab attention but it can also mean that you can expect the text to be similar with the cover: strange, familiar but only could be contemplated in the mind as words would fail you.

I feel like that sometimes while working my way through the book. I have the habit of reading multiple books in one go and this book makes it easier because after a story I could just stop awhile and then restart where I left off. I was not left hanging, anticipating the next story because one thing you'd learn is that you should expect the unexpected.

Sometimes after finishing a story, I felt a strange aftertaste and I'd look around like I was caught red-handed spying on someone else's life. While reading, a movie would play based on the narrator's text. Or in another instance, you'd imagine a friend, or a stranger on a train telling you his story like its nobody's business. And you, the attentive listener, is just content to stay and listen.

Sometimes, after a story, I fell silent. I think many would identify with many elements played. The honesty of the human perception is evident here. Emotions like melancholy, exhilaration, anticipation, frustration, hope, helplessness and other colors of the heart are manipulated like an elaborate puppet show to illustrate a story or to drive home a point. How it affects me and you would be different.

Everybody says (including the author himself) that the stories possess multiple layers of meaning. I reckon it is like the movie Inception: a dream within a dream. Whether you identify which layer of dream you are in is irrelevant because what you recognize and identify would be real to you. Whatever manifest itself as having significance to you is what is important: all the other layers become immaterial. You are in your own reality. You now have an option to be content with what you understand or to dive deeper.

...Taking a lesson from the movie, I hope you don't fall into limbo ;)

So if you are thinking whether buying this book would be worth it, I'd suggest you read the numerous reviews of Tentang and its twin, Kentang that is filled with praise for the book and author.

To date there's no serious criticism of the book (and if any of you dare, you'd be buried by his legion of die hard fans). The only thing for me is that I am not really into some of the supershort stories because it left too much space bare. I like my books to be filled with words.

But that's about it. I don't particularly care about the typos (deliberate or otherwise) as I feel that's just keeping it real. I already know (from the experience of writing my thesis) that even after a hundred revisions by a hundred eyes: perfection is hard to attain.

So if you're considering a book to buy, pick a wildcard and choose this one :)

The breaking up speech

If my car is my boyfriend, I think he's breaking up with me.

"I've been with you since 2006, I've never failed you in any way. I've taken you to places you have never been, I have never put my interest before you. You remember how I've been with you, took you to fight your battles all because you're chasing opportunities and nursing a scarred sense of dignity when all others left you alone? You remember how I let you cry in the car when the cosmos just seem to be against you in every way? And don't forget how I endured your bad karaoke-like singing everyday when you're alone in the car to work?

And all of that for what?

Ok, I admit. You took care of my batteries brilliantly. You even have a bottle of battery water handy in case you have to top it off. And thanks for the tyres, I know all four of them are shining brand new. But this was all because our past arguments have been about you not caring to look at the battery water levels and I got fed up. The tyres were also because you used the previous ones until they're bald but still I marched on until one rainy day when the tyres can't take it anymore and they died at the side of the road, a motorist wearing a raincoat signalling that I was running flat.

Oh, thank you for finally learning to change my tyres. I fell in love with you again for that.

But now other things are becoming important. I can't help demanding these things if commitment is what you want.

You have never even bothered to check my oil levels, you just left that responsibility to the one servicing me. You never knew the basics of car maintenance: apart from the batteries, you should also check the water levels in the car radiator. I know you asked but you shouldn't be so naive as to expect they teach you the whole syllabus of Car Maintenance 101!

The driver window is already broken but you found a way around it by procuring a Smart Tag, so the necessity to fix the windows are demoted to a lesser priority. My coat is also chipped and ugly everywhere. Running beside a shiny car makes me feel like I'm wearing rags. You don't know the feeling!

But now it is too late. I'm paying you back, with Blu Cantrell singing "Hit em up style" in the background. I'll probably make up with you in a week, but I hope you are not the same person that I left. You have to understand me for a change!"

And with that, Pajero left. I was at the brink of tears when I saw them opening you up, doing all sorts of things I don't understand. I felt like wailing my heart out when I heard their estimate. I think they saw it in my face, because they politely stood out of the way after that for me to call Mom. I felt ill, like vomiting when I had to describe what Pajero had done to me. Mom came, took my zombie-like self as I tried to come to terms to the chain of events that were anticipated to follow.

Pajero, forgive me.

Take me back, please?

A cautionary time

Have you ever eaten sand?

Not little bits of sand that was leftover from inadequate washing of vegetables, but a mouthful of dry fine sand. It creates a painful lump in the throat. I could imagine the noise that the little grains would make as it resounds in the head. It would be difficult to swallow, definitely. That's probably due to the dryness of the sand. That is how the sensation felt like when I was told the news.

Have you ever noticed how the colors seem to fade and with it all reality slipped into a vacuum?

Nothing matters anymore when beauty is lost. And you don't even bother recalling the memories, it would not bring any comfort anyway. Right now, at least. What matters now is only the concern of the present.

...It has started again. It is a time to be cautious. I am thankful for all that Allah has given us,but I am still afraid. I'm praying hard for strength and time for everybody, especially Ayah.

La haula wala quwwata illa billahil 'aliyyil 'azim