Seize the day

Author: Sitta Karina

Year: 2004

Better not to ask me the meaning of the sub title. I guessed it means Rain Painting . This short phrase in Latin was the part that interested me the most. Is it a novel about Indo people in Mexico or the other way around? Will it tell about Latin culture? Does it describe how people from different countries connected to each other? So, I decided to buy it and, since it is claimed as a teenlit, I prepared for the worst: the novel gives nothing but 386 pages of a casual teenage story seasoned with some Latin sentences I don’t understand.

Although it has very little to do, if not nothing, with Latin culture I expected, I find myself enjoyed this book. This fun novel tells the story of a handsome young man (how could he not, he is an Indo-Mexico!) who known to be smart yet too silent, too serious, and of course…too boring. Diaz Hanafiah, the hero, belongs to the famous Hanafiah family, a typhoon dynasty in Jakarta. There is nothing more painful to him than being betrayed by his gf, Anggia, a bloody-hell sexy city girl.

Despite the won’t-go-away pain, Diaz remains missing her ex. Dunno what made the girl left, Diaz tries to assess himself. Yup, finally he comes up with the idea that maybe he was too plain in treating his gf. Maybe he should learn more about what a girl wants. Maybe by trying that, he can prove his feeling to Anggia.

In the same time, a new kiddo comes to the block. This kid is only a naïve high school girl. Her name is Sisy; lives the next door. She is sweet and cute although may be a bit smaller in size for her age. She straightly becomes the numero-uno honey for the block’s boys. But not for Diaz. He is too busy with his own problem and just had a thought that a relationship with Sisy may help him to change toward Anggia’s expectation.

After a while, Diaz and Sisy become friends and under an agreement they fall into bro and sis relationship. So, the rest of the story is much like love-hatred emotion mixed in a circle of confusion, hesitation, and jealousy. What kind of feeling they suppose to have to each other as bro and sis? Their first kiss at the end of part 24 does much to their relationship. They start to reveal what has been kept inside. But Sisy will leave for San Francisco soon.What can they do ?

I am trully relieved that the end is a happy one. It is another bright side of this book, everybody is satisfy. Dark side : decorated by luxurious places (restos, hotels, clubs), high class society talks (who knows who), and interpolitan people (flying to States or Europe is just another usual trip like Bandung-Jakarta), this novel fails to add me a new perspective of life. But at least, at the end of the book finally I know the meaning of the sub title : In the rain, I remember you.

Another book by the author is Kencana, delivering story about other member of the Hanafiah dynasty.

Rate: 5/10

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