The Original Dream - Libroj.org

Poŝlibro, 288 paĝoj

Eldonita je 1-a de januaro 2017 de Amazon Crossing.

ISBN:: 978-1-5039-4119-9

(1 recenzo)

For Maya, history is like a dream, and her dreams are like a history of her life and how it relates to others. Effortlessly defying and calling into question time and space, Maya inhabits fantastical realities filled with shamans, romantic longing, a daughter's struggles, and a flying dragon.

Lyrically flowing between Maya's multiple realities, The Original Dream is the story of a young independent Indonesian woman trying to break free from cultural and social conventions while also searching for her place among family and friends. With guidance from her parents, coworkers, and sister, along with a newborn filled with the wisdom of elders, Maya navigates her perceptions, looking for answers to unknown questions. Whether soaring through the nighttime sky, caring for her nephew, or tending to guests at the hotel where she works, she tries to delineate the difference between dreams and reality and if such a difference even matters.

1 eldono

Stephanie Jane recenzis The Original Dream de Nukila Amal

Brilliant, albeit baffling

4 steloj

I loved this novel so much! Reading it was such an incredible, immersive experience for which I feel a lot of credit must go not only to Nukila Amal for her vivid flights of fancy and imagination, but also to Linda Owens for creating such a sympathetic translation for English language readers. The Original Dream does read like trying to follow someone's dream so I think rendering that into another tongue must have been a daunting prospect. The novel has several different narrative threads and I was frequently unsure whether the one I was reading at that time was a depicting a dream, magical realism, or actual reality for Maya (or Maia, depending which was the real girl). I felt The Original Dream was a coming of age story, but it also delves back in aspects of Indonesian folklore and explores themes of social and cultural heritage.

I admit to …

I loved this novel so much! Reading it was such an incredible, immersive experience for which I feel a lot of credit must go not only to Nukila Amal for her vivid flights of fancy and imagination, but also to Linda Owens for creating such a sympathetic translation for English language readers. The Original Dream does read like trying to follow someone's dream so I think rendering that into another tongue must have been a daunting prospect. The novel has several different narrative threads and I was frequently unsure whether the one I was reading at that time was a depicting a dream, magical realism, or actual reality for Maya (or Maia, depending which was the real girl). I felt The Original Dream was a coming of age story, but it also delves back in aspects of Indonesian folklore and explores themes of social and cultural heritage.

I admit to having absolutely no idea what was going on for much of the time! I mean, I understood individual scenes, but where and how they fitted into the whole story was beyond me and yet it didn't seem to matter. In other novels that sense of bewilderment would have been extremely frustrating, but within the context of The Original Dream it worked beautifully for me. I let go and allowed myself to be carried along by Amal's gorgeously evocative prose, much as if I myself were flying with Cala Ibi in Maia's place. As the stories unfolded around me I could picture their detailed locations and imagine being right there alongside the characters. Reading The Original Dream, with its stream of consciousness ideas and imagery was enchanting and also a little exhausting, but I am delighted to have discovered Amal's work - albeit nearly twenty years after the book was first published. I would definitely read more of her writing in the future and would just hope that next time I might even understand it all. Not, probably, that it would really matter if I didn't!