Name : Virel Manuel

NIM : 13020119140136

MONTASE NOVEL REVIEW

 

MONTASE

Windry Ramadhina, Romance, Love

 

This book was published in 2012 with its publisher Gagas Media. This book has about 360 pages. Montase teaches us about how we should appreciate the life we ​​have. This book describes what it is like to living with dying. Live together with a deadly disease that is very difficult to cure and can kill us at any time. The author, Windry Ramadhina, born and lives in Jakarta, she works as a freelance architect and founded her own design agency. She started writing fiction in mid 2007 at kemudian.com

 

If she is compared to other novel writers, I think she is one of the most unusual writers. She is able to provide information that is packaged in implicit ways.

 

This book also provides some interesting quotes. Those are:

·         "Women cannot be asked to think clearly when it comes to men. In a situation like this, their heads are filled with a pink blur called dopamine which poisoning their gray cells with all kinds of absurd romantic ideas. "

·         “Beauty of Sakura is short lived, but this what makes it is precious. Sakura is a trait of life that is not eternal. "

·         “So don't waste time on something we don't want.”

·         “The Sakura trees bloom once a year. Prospective flowers began to appear since mid-January, but will only bloom in early April. The blossoms that have developed last for one to two weeks, then fall and the petals are carried away by the wind. Sakura's beauty is short lived, but because of that she is precious. Sakura is a trait of life that is not eternal."

 

This book contains a lot of interesting things about love, self-reflection, and appreciating life. This book teaches me to appreciate life more. And also this book makes me even more interested in the world of film. This book should be read thoroughly and if you as a reader are interested in this book, you must pay attention to every detail of the message and other interesting things. The author uses a very good method of grabbing the reader's attention. At first it seems normal. But in the middle until the end of the story she makes it even more interesting. She uses memorable and meaningful dialogue. The title of this book makes us completely unable to guess what the book's story is about. This is what sometimes makes readers curious. The depiction of each character is also made with an interesting background, such as the Rayyi character who was forced by his father to study in a major he didn't like, and the character Haru Enumoto who had a deadly disease.

 

Montase, means cinematography, which means a combination of photography and image sequencing techniques. The montage itself according to KBBI (Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia) is a sequence of images produced in a film to illustrate related ideas. Yes!! This novel is about cinematography. The main character in this novel is a young man named Rayyi who studies at IKJ (Jakarta Arts Institute). He is eager to become a professional filmmaker in documentary films while his father, a renowned producer, forces his only child to follow in his father's footsteps to become a commercial film producer.

 

I felt satisfied when I finished reading this novel. The writer comes with the knowledge that he inserts in his novel so that his writing becomes full and meaningful, not only about dim novels. Here, I know a lot about the world of documentary cinematography. I feel that the knowledge shared by Windry is quite useful. There is a lot of knowledge about types of cameras, lenses, and shooting techniques for documentary films such as double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, split screens, extreme close-ups, and so on.

 

Besides that, the most important thing is a message that I get from this novel, which is about the face of the world of Indonesian cinema today. Indeed, it is now very rare to find young filmmakers who are dealing with documentaries, the main factor being that documentaries don't make much money. Money is the main problem faced by filmmakers apart from the fact that the Indonesian market is still unable to accept weighty films. They prefer to watch horror, comedy, or romance films that in my opinion the script is unclear and has no message in it. Hopefully anyone who reads this novel realizes that we as viewers must also be selective in choosing films and always support quality Indonesian films.

 

The writer has experience in writing or creating novels. Her books that have also been successful in the market are Angel In The Rain, Last Forever, Memories, Walking After You, Orange, and many more. All of her works are well-known for their stories that have weight and contain information that is unknown to the common man. She always inserts knowledge that is rarely known by many people, even though the reader may not realize of it.

 

This book is very suitable for reading by teenagers, because the storyline given is very suitable with the way of thinking of teenagers. Many teenagers have the same problem with Rayyi characters. Going to an unwanted major and feeling pressured in studying. There are also many teenagers who do not live less like smoking, drunkenness, and even taking drugs. Well, this story can be a lesson for teenagers who have bad lives and don't appreciate life.

 

The respect for parents is also in this story. The character of Haru Enomoto is described as a person who always obedient to her parents. Not only Rayyi that study in a major that he didn't like, Haru Enomoto was the same. But the difference with Rayyi is, Haru Enomoto is a person who always be obedient to her parents who finally takes the college major her parents want. Meanwhile Rayyi was always angry and he don’t like his father who forced him to take the college majors which he didn't like.

 

The character of Haru Enomoto is a cheerful person even though she has a deadly disease. Meanwhile Rayyi is a character who is always gloomy even though he has a life that many people crave. Rayyi is the son of a successful and wealthy person who is different from the character of Haru Enomoto.

 

Another unique story is about the differences in habits between Japanese and Indonesian which are implicitly discussed in this story. This was proven when Rayyi and Haru wanted to go to the museum, Haru preferred to walk even though the distance from where they were was very far from the museum they wanted to go to. In this section, Rayyi finally complies to walk even though he is very upset.

 

The differences in personality that teach each other new things are also unique and interesting things to tell in this story. Rayyi is a lazy person and a little quiet. Meanwhile Haru Enomoto is a very diligent, polite, and very active girl. This was proven when Rayyi and Haru Enomoto met. Just then Haru Enomoto arrived in such a hurry that she dropped all her stuffs as she puts his pencil case and bag on the table. At that time, Rayyi thought Haru Enomoto was a strange and reckless person.

 

This story also has a good message for unfriendly person. Rayyi is described as a person who has few friends. While Haru Enomoto is a student who from abroad, but she is able to make friends and get along well with many people even including Rayyi who is a quiet person. It was Haru Enomo who had turned Rayyi into a kinder and more open person. Haru Enomoto has taught Rayyi many things, such as being more respectful and polite to parents, teaching Rayyi to be more diligent, and she even helped Rayyi when Rayyi was in trouble with his college problems.

 

The difference between college students in Japan and in Indonesia has also been told several times in this story. One of them was when Rayyi was in trouble in his studies, and he was helped by his close friends including Haru Enomoto, Haru Enomoto said that in Japan, all students compete fiercely. Nobody wants to help each other when their friend is in trouble. This is totally different from in Indonesia where students still like to help each other and even want to give cheating to their friends. This made Rayyi laugh and said that if he had studied in Japan, he would have been expelled because of the many problems he had and no one that wanted to help him.

 

The joy of a quiet person who has a friend who has taught him many things and changed him a lot is also implicit in this story. Rayyi is described as a more open person and often feels happier when he is with Haru Enomoto. Even Rayyi, at the first who always felt uncomfortable with Haru Enomoto, became more enjoy when he with Haru Enomoto. He even often sent emails to Haru Enomoto at the last moments of Haru Enomoto's life in Japan. He really hopes that Haru Enomoto can be recover soon and become his lover forever, even though he also knew that Haru Enomoto's life doesn't seem like much longer. Haru Enomoto also had a chance to feel what it was like to have a lover before she died. In the last moments of her life, she could only read the email from Rayyi without being able to reply. This teaches us how precious life is.

 

I highly recommend this book for those of you who are interested in a story about love that is different from the usual. You will not be disappointed after reading this book. Very interesting story. This book also sometimes presents some very interesting plot twists.

 

 

References

https://indonesiaebook.com/novel/montase-windry-ramadhina/

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/22430413-montase

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