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!!)
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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
No STOCK again! Can't pose with my own novel @ bookstores!
