Seize the day

Author: Kusuma Adrianto

Year: 2005

London’s underground? What does it like? Anything associated with London will appear to me as a civilized place, where people like Hercule Poirot and his companion have small talks about weather, horse race, and hot gossip about the royal family. I imagine that the British always wear long coat and hat, never forgetting the umbrella since every season will likely has it’s own rainy days. Too much have been fed by Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton,and recently the famous Mrs. Rowling to my head so what I had in mind might be so misleading.

The above description was surely not what I expected from this book at the first place. Written by a young Indonesian professor of Leeds Metropolitan Univ., it reveals the reality of Londoners, especially immigrants from East Europe. Not too many faces in this book: Donny the student from Indonesia, Monique the stripper, Katerina the doctor, little family of Sophie (Monique’s little sister), then Graham the owner of the Spears, a night club where Donny worked as a cleaner. Donny stayed upstairs the club. He hated Graham and Graham was not so fond of him either. Donny was running out of money, had many debts, and threatened by drop out rules from his campus. His biggest dream at the moment was if only he could afford to be back home. In Indonesia, where poverty lies everywhere over the country, he believed there must be something that could rescue him from this harsh situation.

Monique was a beautiful girl aged in early twenties who worked to amuse the club’s visitor. Donny and Monique related in a friendship through some bottles of beer Monique always asked every time they met. Donny wondered how her stomach can handle such flowing beer which stopped only when she was sleeping, both intentionally or because she got too drunk. Since they lived in the same building, they commonly had kind of short chat about nothing.

The story began shaky when a pregnant young woman came to the building. She had been beaten up by her uncouth and monsterlike husband. She was bleeding and soon got unconscious. Monique persisted not to call the emergency service or hospital, and even the police when the angry husband rushed to come into the building. It was her little sister. They both are illegal immigrants from Balkan, East Europe. That was why she refused Donny’s idea to bring the pregnant woman to hospital. Having no official documents would end them up in prison. How lucky I am compared to this couple, Donny thought despite his own difficulties.

This event brought Donny to come to Katerina, a cleaner in Donny’s laboratory and London City Council (she worked taking care of the dead instead the living one) who was actually a brilliant doctor back then in her country before the Balkan war started. She had been through hard times in war. She had seen a lot of cruelty flowering in wartime. Killing and murdering were better accepted since mutilation while someone was still alive seemed to be a better and fascinating method for both parties. Donny believed she was a genius. So he came to her in order to rescue Sophie’s and her baby’s life. In some minute upon Katerina’s arrival in the building, the baby was born. Sophie named her Sissy.

Monique couldn’t stand seeing her sister and niece in suffer. In coping the problem they faced, she decided to sell one of her kidneys for the sake of ones she loved. She had already find the buyer. A kind of mafia family. She started quitting beer and alcohol, tried her best to stay as healthy as possible. She came up with this idea after finding no other feasible choice. With some grands in hands, Monique would plan to bring her sister and Sissy back to their native land. Monique offered a percentage if Donny could find a cheap doctor to carry on the surgery. Monique told him that the money could help him with his debts and school fees.At first Donny was disagree, he was sure there was something else they could do to earn money. Selling parts of body was the last thing he had ever thought about.

Surprisingly, when Katerina heard this plan, she supported Monique. Donny thought she would done it because of the money. But when Katerina told him that Monique’s condition was not good, she had damaged her kidney with all those liquor she was so addicted to. No kidney, no money. It meant no life anymore since Sophie’s husband started to punish Donny for helping his wife by beating and threatening him. He didn’t really care about his wife, he just wanted his baby girl and planned to sell her.

Donny was so frustrated but when he thought about Monique and her devotion, his heart melted. If Monique, a clumsy and messy girl, could do such a good thing then what should stop him from doing the same? Was he in love with Monique wasn’t the question since he didn’t know how to answer it. At last, he was the one who persuaded Katerina to take his kidney instead of Monique’s. Although Katerina refused at first but they finally agreed to conduct the surgery without Monique’s permission. Monique would not know that her kidneys would still complete yet she would receive the money. Then everybody would be happy. Donny would likely unharmed by the surgery and happy to be home again, Katerina would get her medical license, and the sisters would be safe in their country. But the plan didn’t go that well.

Unless you really curious how the story would end, you might find that nothing’s special delivered by this book. Very few are presented about London. So what I have in mind about the city is nothing more I already had from previous readings.

Rate: 6/10