Prose – Simplicities of Life

Book Review: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

February 11, 2017 No Comments

Continuing my quest, I read The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, which have actually been sitting on my shelf for quite a while. Still, better late than never right? Haha. Anywho, I underestimated the power of these short stories, particularly in grabbing my whole attention. Why? Because short stories don’t have the span of pages for steady plot-building and character development. Whether it’s set in America or in India, Lahiri’s characters exhibited to me what it felt like to be foreign in many ways imaginable, even in your own family. Immigrant life is told in the most real way possible by the diversity of characters and circumstances. However, these stories still transcend any cultural and ethnic aspects very similar to my previous read by Raymond Carver. For example, the first […]

Blog post, Books, Literature, Love, Prose

Book Review: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

January 28, 2017 No Comments

My next review is one of Raymond Carver’s collection of short stories I’ve heard nothing but brilliant things about. How it’s like a loving pat in the back and a slap in the face all at once. Now, if there’s one literary fear that I have, it’s short stories. I guess I’ve always been spoiled with an in-depth plot that sudden twists and turns of a short story just puts me off. But this year, I’m determined to put aside that fear and embrace all the surprises and wild guesses that come while reading this form of literature. Anyways, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a spectacular start of my “therapy” because of how honest it was writtan, and I felt every bit of affection and […]

Books, Life, Literature, People, Poems, Prose

Infinite

July 22, 2016 No Comments

On one Friday afternoon, my mother and I went to the grocery store with the sense of everyday normalcy. I was casually scanning the snack aisle like I would often do until I see an elderly figure at the end of the cookies section that looked strangely familiar. With his thin figure and that signature newsboy cap I thought to myself, “No, it couldn’t be.” So I rushed to her, brimming with excitement until she told me to go up to him and introduce myself. Then that’s what I did, I set aside any concerns for my disheveled look and went up to the one and only creator of in my humble opinion, two most earth-staggering sentences in the world of literature, “Aku ingin mencintaimu dengan sederhana” “I want to […]