Resensi Pak Harry Suhartanto

Resensi dari Pak Harry Suhartanto, akan dikirim dan/atau dimuat (pasti hehe) oleh:
a. Pikiran Rakyat - Bandung
b. Riau Mandiri - Pekanbaru
c. Sumatera Ekspress - Palembang
d. Sumut Pos - Medan
(Kalau yang meresensi sudah berpengalaman, nulisnya emang beda yah hehehe)

Resensi

Novel "Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama"
Karya : Yunisa Gunawan

Buat para novel addict yang sudah lama menanti kehadiran sebuah novel love story yang khusus mengambil setting Jepang di masa lalu, mungkin karya perdana novelis muda Yunisa Gunawan ini bisa menjadi penawar kerinduan itu. Selama ini memang boleh dibilang sangat sedikit para novelis muda Indonesia yang punya keberanian untuk "lari" dari unsur kekinian dengan segala kemewahan di dalamnya. Apalagi jika target pembacanya adalah kaum ABG (anak baru gede). Ya, mirip seperti tema-tema sinetron lah!

Meski novel "Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama" berlatar belakang jaman kekaisaran Meiji namun jangan harap pembaca akan disuguhi adegan-adegan heroik yang sedang ngetrend pada jaman itu, seperti pertarungan hidup mati antara dua samurai untuk memperebutkan seorang gadis.

Jika Anda pernah menonton film "Titanic"-nya James Cameron yang menempatkan fakta sejarah tenggelamnya kapal pesiar itu hanya sebagai latar saja, maka demikian pula halnya dalam novel "Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama". Jaman kekaisaran Meiji dengan kebijakan restorasinya yang kemudian membuka isolasi Jepang dari dunia luar tampaknya dipilih Yunisa untuk memberi "aroma" lain dalam khasanah tematik novel-novel Indonesia saat ini.

Barangkali boleh diakui bahwa di sini terasa ada kesan "berani" dalam diri seorang Yunisa Gunawan untuk sedikit "nyleneh" dan tidak tunduk dan mbuntut saja pada popularitas genre novel love story yang kerap memamerkan kemewahan dan gemerlapnya kehidupan di kota besar seperti Jakarta.

Walaupun dalam novel ini Yunisa memunculkan banyak nama dan episode, sebenarnya alur cerita yang hendak disajikan Yunisa ternyata simple saja. Yakni tentang kehidupan tokoh sentralnya Yuki Satsuma yang hidup menderita pada awalnya tetapi kemudian menemukan kembali kehidupan yang sesungguhnya menjadi miliknya.

Kegetiran hidup Yuki berawal ketika ibunya meninggal saat melahirkan dia. Yuki, bayi mungil yang sengaja disingkirkan oleh ibu tirinya di awal kisah, kemudian ditemukan dan diasuh oleh para rohaniwan klan Fransiskan London yang mengabdikan diri di sebuah gereja di Yokohama.

Yuki, yang dibaptis dengan nama Michaela, mengabdikan sebagian masa hidupnya menjadi guru sekolah Minggu di gereja tersebut pada usianya yang masih belasan tahun. Padahal biasanya dalam kebanyakan genre novel love story, khususnya yang ditargetkan bagi kaum ABG metropolis, tokoh sentral seperti Yuki sering digambarkan sebagai anak baru gede yang hidupnya penuh hura-hura, seakan tanpa beban hidup dan jauh dari penderitaan.

Romantika dan konflik mulai mewarnai kehidupan Yuki bersamaan dengan masuknya Shinichi "Michael" Serizawa, seorang pemuda Jepang berpendidikan Barat ke dalam kehidupan Yuki. Shinichi sebenarnya sudah bertunangan dengan Keiko Hattori, seorang wanita yang pernah sama-sama kuliah di London. Namun ternyata Michael alias Shinichi ternyata lebih memilih Yuki sehingga membuat Keiko patah hati, kemudian menjerumuskan diri dalam kehidupan "liar" yang akhirnya membuatnya hamil dan bunuh diri.

Untuk memberi kesan dramatis, sebelum mati Keiko, yang menjadi tokoh antagonis bagi Yuki, mengutuk orang-orang yang paling dibencinya termasuk Shinichi yang disumpahi agar tidak bisa menikah dengan Yuki.

Di tengah liku-liku perjalanan hidupnya yang penuh cobaan, secara tak terduga Yuki bertemu dengan ayah kandungnya Takahito Satsuma, seorang pengusaha dan bangsawan kaya di Yokohama, yang akhirnya membuat hidup Yuki berubah drastis 180 derajat. Ayahnya pun akhirnya sadar bahwa Yuki telah menjadi korban kedengkian dan kerakusan istri keduanya, Rika, yang ternyata mengganti Yuki bayi dengan keponakannya sendiri yang kelak diberi nama Masako.

Kebencian Masako dewasa terhadap Yuki gara-gara ia dan ibunya, Rika, diusir oleh Takahito setelah kedok mereka terbongkar meledak menjadi luapan balas dendam berdarah yang akhirnya justru menewaskan Shinichi dan sekaligus menggagalkan niat Shinichi bersanding dengan Yuki.

Unhappy ending? Jawabannya, mungkin "ya", tapi mungkin juga "tidak". Sebab pada akhirnya Yuki Satsuma menikah dengan Takuya Tosha, seorang kawan lamanya, tepat di saat bunga-bunga Sakura bermekaran dengan indahnya di Yokohama.

Meski alur cerita novel "Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama" terkesan begitu sederhana namun Yunisa Gunawan berhasil menyelipkan berbagai episode dan konflik dalam kehidupan Yuki yang bak masakan malah menjadi "bumbu penyedap”. Misalnya tentang Shinichi yang terpaksa menerima pertunangan dengan Masako agar "ayahnya" Takahito Satsuma mau membantu perusahaan milik keluarga Serizawa yang berada di ambang kehancuran.

Atau tentang Keichi, teman senasib Yuki sewaktu di Panti Asuhan Gereja, ternyata diam-diam menaruh hati kepada Yuki.

Selain itu Yunisa juga tampaknya sengaja menyisipkan sense of humor a la Indonesia untuk membuat dialog-dialog dalam novel ini menjadi lebih "hidup" dan semakin nikmat untuk dibaca. Misalnya ketika Yuki setengah bergurau memplesetkan nama Shinichi Serizawa dengan "Serigala". Atau ketika mantan tunangan Shinichi yakni Keiko Hattori suatu saat memanggil Shinichi dengan "Shin-chan", tokoh kartun Jepang yang nakal tapi menggemaskan.

Di penghujung bagian Sinopsis-nya Yunisa Gunawan menulis, "... ada banyak hal yang terjadi di luar perhitungan manusia. Banyak hal pula dalam kisah ini yang tidak diduga pembaca." Ini yang membuat pembaca jadi ingin lebih tahu apakah novel itu berujung pada unhappy ending atau sebaliknya?

Nah, jika Anda penasaran tentang apa yang dimaksud Yunisa dalam penggalan kalimat di atas, silahkan nikmati halaman demi halaman novel "Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama". Seperti tertera di sampul depannya, "Once you pop, you can't stop!" (Sekali asyik menikmati, Anda tidak dapat menghentikannya!!")

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Note to Editor:

1. Yunisa Gunawan now works at a multi national company in Singapore.
2. Keterangan Novel
Judul: Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama
Penulis: Yunisa Gunawan
Penerbit : Theriza Books, Bandung 2006
Tebal : 436 + xii
Harga : Rp. 39.000

Review from Mr Harry Suhartanto

The review from Mr Harry Suhartanto , will be sent and/or published (for sure hehe) by:
A. Pikiran Rakyat - Bandung
B. Riau Mandiri - Pekanbaru
C. Sumatra Ekspress - Palembang
D. Sumut Post - Medan
(If the reviewer is experienced, it does make a difference, yeah? hehehe)

Review
Novel: "Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama"
Author: Yunisa Gunawan

For those novel addicts who have been waiting for a long time for a love story novel with a setting in the pastime of Japan, probably this first work of a young novelist Yunisa Gunawan could become the antidote for the yearning. Until now, indeed there might be very few young Indonesian novelists who have courage to "run" from the current trend element with all luxury inside. Moreover if the target reader is teenager. Yes, similar to the themes of the Indonesian soap opera!

Although "Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama" has a background in the time of Meiji empire, readers please don't hope to be offered heroic scenes that was "in" during that time, e.g. the struggle between life and death between two samurai to fight for a girl.

If you had watched "Titanic" of James Cameron that placed the history fact of the sinking of that cruise ship only as the background, so is "Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama". The Meiji empire time with his restoration policy that afterwards opened the Japanese isolation from the outside world apparently was chosen by Yunisa to give the other "aroma" in the thematic world of current Indonesian novels.

Perhaps it needs to acknowledge that there is a sense of "bravery" in Yunisa Gunawan herself to be a little bit "different" and did not submit and follow the popular genre of love story novels that often exhibit the luxury and sparkling life in big cities like Jakarta.

Although in this novel Yunisa shows many names and the episode, in fact the plot served by Yunisa is just simple. That is about the life of the leading figure: Yuki Satsuma who lived in suffering initially but afterwards she found again the real life that actually belonged to her.

Yuki's bitter life started when her mother died when giving birth to her. Yuki, the little baby was deliberately thrown away by her stepmother in the beginning of the story, then was found and taken care of by the London's Franciscan clan who dedicated themselves in a church in Yokohama.

Yuki, baptised by the name of Michaela, dedicated some of her life period by becoming a Sunday School teacher in that church during her teenage years. Usually, in most genres of love story novels, especially those aimed at metropolis teenagers, the leading figure like Yuki is often depicted as glamorous teenager, as though without the burden of the life and far from the suffering.

Romance and the conflict began to influence Yuki's life along with the entry of Shinichi "Michael" Serizawa, a young Japanese man with Western education into the Yuki's life. Shinichi in fact had ever been engaged to Keiko Hattori, a lady who had been together studied in London. However, Michael alias Shinichi chose Yuki and that made Keiko brokenhearted, afterwards plunged herself into a wild life that resulted in her pregnancy and finally, suicide.

To give the dramatic impression, before she died, Keiko, who became the leading antagonist for Yuki, condemned people whom she hated the most, including Shinichi -- who was cursed not to be able to marry Yuki.

In the middle of the intriques of her life journey, unpredictably Yuki met his biological father, Takahito Satsuma, a businessman and the rich noble in Yokohama, who finally had made the Yuki's life changed drastically, 180 degrees. His father then realised that Yuki was a victim of the hatred and greed of his second wife, Rika, who had replaced baby Yuki with her own niece, which later was named Masako.

Grown-up Masako's hatred to Yuki -- because she and her "mother", Rika, were expelled by Takahito after their cover-up was exposed -- exploded becoming a overflowed bloody revenge that in the end, killed Shinichi and at the same time, thwarting Shinichi's intention to tie a knot with Yuki.

Unhappy ending? The answer is, maybe "yes", maybe "no". Because in the end, Yuki Satsuma married Takuya Tosha, her childhood friend, precisely when Sakura's flowers blossomed beautifully in Yokohama.

Although the story plot of "Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama" apparently is so simple, Yunisa Gunawan succeeded in slipping various episodes and conflicts in Yuki's life -- like cooking, it even became the "spices". For example, about Shinichi who was forced to accept the engagement with Masako so that "her father" (Takahito Satsuma) would help the Serizawa's company that was almost bankrupt.

Or about Keichi, a friend who shared the same destiny as Yuki when she was in the Church Orphanage, secretly was falling for Yuki.

Moreover Yunisa is also apparently deliberately inserting some sense of humour a la Indonesia to make dialogues in this novel to more "lively" and increasingly enjoyable to read.

For example when Yuki half joked calling Shinichi Serizawa's name with (Serigala) "Wolf". Or when Shinichi's ex fiance named Keiko Hattori at one time called Shinichi with "Shin-chan", the naughty and cute Japanese cartoon figure.

At the end of her synopsis, Yunisa Gunawan wrote, "... There were many matters that happened apart from human calculation. There are also many matters in this story that would not have been expected by the reader." This is what makes the readers are more curious whether the novel has unhappy ending or is it the reverse?

So, if you are curious about what Yunisa means to say in the above piece of the sentence, please enjoy page by page of "Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama". As being put in the front cover, "Once you pop, you can't stop!" (Sekali asyik menikmati, Anda tidak dapat menghentikannya!!)
++++

Note to Editor:

1. Yunisa Gunawan now works at a multi national company in Singapore.

2. Novel's information

Title: Sakura Bersemi di Yokohama

Author: Yunisa Gunawan

Publisher: Theriza Books, Bandung 2006

Pages: 436 + xii

Price : Rp. 39.000