Baru-baru ini gue baca novel “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” by John Boyne. Buku itu terbitan GPU. Terjemahannya bagus. Di situ tertulis alih bahasa oleh Rosemary Kesauli. Well, she did a great job. Bukunya sendiri tentang seorang anak laki-laki, Bruno, anak seorang komandan yang bertugas di sebuah kamp konsentrasi bagi para Yahudi (kalo menurut Bruno, nama tempatnya “Out-With”). Yang gue salut banget, penulisnya tetap mempertahankan sudut pandang si anak tadi sepanjang cerita, kecuali di epilognya. Tapi bener deh, jarang loh penulis yang bisa setia dengan sudut pandang orang pertama, karena di pertengahan cerita seringnya si penulis udah nggak sabar ingin menjelaskan peristiwa yang dialami tokohnya dengan sejelas-jelasnya jadi tiba-tiba cerita berubah dari sudut pandang orang ketiga. Risiko pendekatan ini adalah kita tidak langsung ngerti apa yang sebenarnya terjadi terhadap para tokoh cerita itu karena pengetahuan kita terbatas pada apa yang dilihat dan didengar serta dipikirkan Bruno yang notabene anak kecil. Kita hanya bisa menebak-nebak. Gue akui setelah membaca beberapa bab baru gue paham apa maksud ceritanya. Kata "holocaust" sama sekali gak disebut-sebut. Di sampul belakang (yang biasanya ada resensinya) tertulis “…sengaja tidak diberikan ringkasan cerita, supaya tidak merusak keseluruhannya.” Eh, berarti gue udah merusaknya, ya? Maaf deh. Spoilernya nggak banyak kok. Tertulis juga gini, “Kalau Anda membaca buku ini, Anda akan mengikuti perjalanan seorang anak lelaki umur 9 tahun bernama Bruno (Meski buku ini bukanlah buku untuk anak kecil).” Untuk menegaskannya, ada juga tulisan “Novel Dewasa.”
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I recently read the novel “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” by John Boyne. In Indonesia it was published by GPU. The translation was good, done by Rosemary Kesauli. The book was about a boy named Bruno, son of the head of a military camp (according to him, the place was called “Out-With”). The word Holocaust is never mentioned. The writer used first person-point of view all through the book, except in the epilogue. It’s rare to find an author so faithfull with it in the entire story. (Not even Jane Austen, my favorite writer ever! I love Persuasion.) That left us wondering the whole time, what was actually going on with Bruno, since we only know what he knows. Only after a few chapters I understood where the story was going. At the back cover it was written, “…we don’t give reviews so not to spoil the whole story.” Oops, I’ve ruined it. Sorry.
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I recently read the novel “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” by John Boyne. In Indonesia it was published by GPU. The translation was good, done by Rosemary Kesauli. The book was about a boy named Bruno, son of the head of a military camp (according to him, the place was called “Out-With”). The word Holocaust is never mentioned. The writer used first person-point of view all through the book, except in the epilogue. It’s rare to find an author so faithfull with it in the entire story. (Not even Jane Austen, my favorite writer ever! I love Persuasion.) That left us wondering the whole time, what was actually going on with Bruno, since we only know what he knows. Only after a few chapters I understood where the story was going. At the back cover it was written, “…we don’t give reviews so not to spoil the whole story.” Oops, I’ve ruined it. Sorry.
Note: The pics was grabbed from amazon.co.uk & amazon.com
