By the Sea

Apabila Rajab Syaaban, seorang bekas warga Tanzania dari Pulau Zanzibar tiba di UK, dia berpura-pura tak tahu berbahasa Inggeris. Tujuannya ke negara bekas penjajah itu ialah untuk menyelamatkan dirinya daripada ancaman bunuh dan memohon suaka politik.

Pihak yang menguruskan hal ehwalnya tiada pilihan selain daripada mencari seorang penterjemah, sebaik-baiknya seorang yang datang tempat yang sama. Orang yang mereka cari dan akhirnya jumpa ialah Latif Mahmud, seorang pensyarah dari London. Latif bersetuju untuk menolong.

Latif ada sebab tersendiri untuk menolong. Rajab Syaaban adalah nama ayah kandungnya. Dia ingin berjumpa dengan orang yang sudah mengambil nama ayahnya, yang juga mungkin orang yang dicari-carinya selama ini.

Jangkaan Latif ternyata benar. Dia merupakan saudara jauh Latif melalui perkahwinan. Seperti Rajab, Latif juga sudah meninggalkan Zanzibar, mutiara Lautan Hindi yang dari berkurun zaman dulu tak putus-putus dikunjungi pedagang dari serata dunia. Bertahun-tahun sebelum itu, beberapa peristiwa telah berlaku di desa mereka di Zanzibar yang menyebabkan keluarga Rajab Syaaban yang sebenar musnah. Latif percaya Rajab Syaaban palsu ini puncanya. Mereka berdua sebenarnya terkait dalam satu siri tragedi yang bermula puluhan tahun lampau di negara jauh dari pulau kampung halaman mereka.

Seperti yang tertera pada kulitnya, tema By the Sea ialah pemilikan. Tentang bagaimana pengkhianatan dan fitnah boleh memutuskan pertalian silaturahim antara ahli keluarga serta kepedihan menerima hakikat pahit mengenai orang yang dicintai.

Sebahagian besar kisah ini ialah mengenai bagaimana Latif dan Rajab (palsu) sama-sama mencari punca pangkal tragedi yang telah menimpa mereka berdua. Mereka bercerita tentang apa yang mereka tahu, faham dan sangka. Cerita mereka membawa para pembaca ke Tanzania, Jerman, Oman, UK, Iran dan, seperti yang saya ada sebut dulu, Tanah Melayu.

Watak-watak dalamnya ramai yang Muslim, jadi penulisnya Abdulrazak Gurnah banyak menyebut tentang solat, puasa serta membaca Al-Quran serta peristiwa seperti Israk Mikraj dan Aidilfitri kerana bagi ini semua perkara-perkara dalam hidup Muslimin. Saya rasa Abdulrazak tidak bercadang untuk menulis sebuah novel Islamik, tetapi lebih kepada novel yang berlatarbelakangkan Muslimin dan Islam. Tapi ini sekadar pendapat saya sahaja, belum tentu betul.

By the Sea berjaya menarik minat saya untuk meneroka buku-buku Abdulrazak yang lain. Adakah yang lain juga akan seindah (dan sepilu) yang ini?

Buku ini beberapa kali merujuk kepada cerpen Bartleby the Scrivener oleh Herman Melville, penulis Moby Dick. Jika berminat bolehlah membacanya di sini.

Che di Pesta Buku

Pesta Buku KL 08. Tak sangka. Punya penuh sesak dengan orang. (Patutkah finding yang mengatakan rakyat Malaysia hanya membaca 2 buah buku setahun dikaji semula?)

Tak cadang nak pergi, asalnya. Tapi malam sebelum tu ada kawan telefon kata anak dia yang tengah cuti baru lepas operation teringin nak pergi, tapi takda kawan. OKlah. Pergi dengan syarat, lepas Zohor kena balik, saya ada kerja.

Anak kawan saya rupanya seorang yang peramah, teman yang tak mengecewakan. Kami merayau-rayau je lebih, sebab tak cadang nak beli sangat. Gerai-gerai yang penuh orang kami tak masuk.

Kami berhenti kat kedai Penguin. Anak kawan tunjukkan saya Martin Luther King pada muka depan sebuah buku tentang tokoh-tokoh dunia. Sebelah dia?, saya tanya. Mandela. Nelson? Nelson Mandela.

Yang seorang lagi? Ada tiga gambar. Anak kawan tak kenal.

Fidel Castro, kenal? Ni kawan dia, Che Guevara.

Kami selak ke halaman 200 lebih, bab tentang Guevara. Baca kat situ je sebab harganya mahal.

Lepas Zohor kami balik, dengan buku yang lain.

This year's?

Girl from Class F. Guy from Class A. Girl has crush on guy. Girl confesses to guy.

Guy rejects.

Girl is speechless.

Guy explains.

Everyone is speechless.

Could Itazura Na Kiss be 2008's Lovely Complex? :)

I feel like a force-bathed kitty

Sometimes.

An excerpt from The Children's Story

The name James Clavell takes me back, 20 years or so. He's the guy who wrote sagas like Tai-Pan, Shōgun and Noble House. I never read those but I did watch the miniseries/movies (Dunhill Double, anyone?). I still remember Bryan Brown Richard Chamberlain in Tai-Pan Shōgun in a scene where he got captured by the Japanese and was thrown in huge hole and then they poured "air siang ikan" over him and his comrades. I thought if I were him at that time I'd die there and then from excessive puking.

(Was it Bryan Brown in Tai-Pai with the Chinese, or Richard Chamberlain in Shōgun with the Japanese?, I can't remember exactly who was it that got poured with fish-entrails-water. Anyone, help, please?)

Clavell did write something besides lengthy sagas, one in particular is The Children's Story. The excerpt below is taken from The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, a book detailing the rise and design of the modern US education system. It's mostly findings and evidences, but a part seems to call out to me is this one. Maybe because it's Clavell. I'm not sure.

Anyway, please read on and ponder. I'll leave you to your own conclusion.

It was a simple incident in the life of James Clavell—a talk with his young daughter just home from school—that inspired this chilling tale of what could happen in twenty-five quietly devastating minutes. He [Clavell] writes: “the children’s story came into being that day. It was then that I really realized how vulnerable my child’s mind was—any mind for that matter—under controlled circumstances.” Some excerpts from the last pages of this remarkable book follow:

“Sit down, Johnny, and we’ll start learning good things and not worry about grown-up bad thoughts. Oh yes,” she said when she sat down at her seat again, brimming with happiness. “I have a lovely surprise for you. You’re all going to stay overnight with us. We have a lovely room and beds and lots of food, and we’ll all tell stories and have such a lovely time.”

“Oh, good,” the children said.“Can I stay up till eight o’clock?” Mary asked breathlessly.

“Well, as it’s our first new day, we’ll all stay up to eight-thirty. But only if you promise to go right to sleep afterward.”

The children all promised. They were very happy. Jenny said, “But first we got to say our prayers. Before we go to sleep.”

The New Teacher smiled at her. “Of course. Perhaps we should say a prayer now. In some schools that’s a custom, too.” She thought a moment, and the faces watched her. Then she said, “Let’s pray. But let’s pray for something very good. What should we pray for?”

“Bless Momma and Daddy,” Danny said immediately.

“That’s a good idea, Danny. I have one. Let’s pray for candy. That’s a good idea, isn’t it?”

They all nodded happily.

So, following their New Teacher, they all closed their eyes and steepled their hands together, and they prayed with her for candy.

The New Teacher opened her eyes and looked around disappointedly. “But where’s our candy? God is all-seeing and is everywhere, and if we pray, He answers our prayers. Isn’t that true?”

“I prayed for a puppy of my own lots of times, but I never got one,” Danny said.

“Maybe we didn’t pray hard enough. Perhaps we should kneel down like it’s done in church.”

So the New Teacher knelt and all the children knelt and they prayed very, very hard. But there was still no candy.

Because the New Teacher was disappointed, the children were very disappointed.

Then she said, “Perhaps we’re using the wrong name.” She thought a moment and then said,“Instead of saying ‘God,’ let’s say ‘Our Leader.’ Let’s pray to Our Leader for candy. Let’s pray very hard and don’t open your eyes till I say.”

So the children shut their eyes tightly and prayed very hard, and as they prayed, the New Teacher took out some candy from her pocket and quietly put a piece on each child’s desk. She did not notice Johnny—alone of all the children—watching her through his half-closed eyes.

She went softly back to her desk and the prayer ended, and the children opened their
eyes and they stared at the candy and they were overjoyed.

“I’m going to pray to Our Leader every time,” Mary said excitedly.

“Me, too,” Hilda said. “Could we eat Our Leader’s candy now, teacher?”

“Oh, let’s, please, please, please.”

“So Our Leader answered your prayers, didn’t he?”

“I saw you put the candy on our desks!” Johnny burst out. “I saw you…. I didn’t close my eyes, and I saw you. You had ‘em in your pocket. We didn’t get them with praying. You put them there.”

All the children, appalled, stared at him and then at their New Teacher. She stood at the front of the class and looked back at Johnny and then at all of them.

“Yes, Johnny, you’re quite right. You’re a very, very wise boy. Children, I put candy on your desks. So you know that it doesn’t matter whom you ask, whom you shut your eyes and ‘pray’ to—to God or anyone, even Our Leader—no one will give you anything. Only another human being.” She looked at Danny. “God didn’t give you the puppy you wanted. But if you work hard, I will. Only I or someone like me can give you things. Praying to God or anything or anyone for something is a waste of time.” [all emphases in original]