Authors seek true self through homebound journey
Galila
By Jessica Huwae
Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2014
Galila presents a good story with a more compelling subtext behind it. The author has long been concerned with the unwritten rules in the culture of her Batak heritage on her mother’s side of the family; unwritten cultural rules that oblige children to marry other Bataks, regardless of their feelings or desires.
Jessica also shares how uncomfortable she feels by the way her extended family treats her because she is half Ambonese.
Several years ago, Jessica visited her father’s birthplace in Saparua, a remote village in Maluku, for the first time since her father’s passing and immediately fell in love with both the place and its people.
From her own life experiences and observations, Galila, Jessica’s second novel, was born.
The book’s title is the name of its protagonist, a young girl from a coastal village in Saparua whose singing abilities catapult her to stardom after she wins a talent show. She sets off for Jakarta to follow her dream, leaving behind her home, family and the past.
She buries the scars from her past and retains the only reminder of it: her surname.
As she tries to deal with people who are jealous of her or who are attracted to her beauty and fame, she meets Eddie Silitonga, the heir of a family corporation.
They fall in love, although Eddie’s conservative Batak family tries its best to break their relationship.
Galila watches her new life crumble around her feet before she decides to return home to seek an answer to one overriding question: Can a girl with a buried past have a future?
Jessica writes the story with the passion of a journalist, the profession from which she retired in order to focus on creative writing.
Once the chief editor of a young adult fashion magazine, Jessica offers detailed descriptions of makeup rituals, the world of fashion and the lives of celebrities and how the media treats them.
Written in the third person, the characters engage readers in their pursuit for happiness while dealing with the psychological conflict that arises from trying to make peace with the past.
On the surface, the novel appears to be a Cinderella kind of story with a twist, offering rich insights into both Maluku and Batak customs.
Appeared in Jakarta Post, here: http://goo.gl/0uc79r
By Jessica Huwae
Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2014
Galila presents a good story with a more compelling subtext behind it. The author has long been concerned with the unwritten rules in the culture of her Batak heritage on her mother’s side of the family; unwritten cultural rules that oblige children to marry other Bataks, regardless of their feelings or desires.
Jessica also shares how uncomfortable she feels by the way her extended family treats her because she is half Ambonese.
Several years ago, Jessica visited her father’s birthplace in Saparua, a remote village in Maluku, for the first time since her father’s passing and immediately fell in love with both the place and its people.
From her own life experiences and observations, Galila, Jessica’s second novel, was born.
The book’s title is the name of its protagonist, a young girl from a coastal village in Saparua whose singing abilities catapult her to stardom after she wins a talent show. She sets off for Jakarta to follow her dream, leaving behind her home, family and the past.
She buries the scars from her past and retains the only reminder of it: her surname.
As she tries to deal with people who are jealous of her or who are attracted to her beauty and fame, she meets Eddie Silitonga, the heir of a family corporation.
They fall in love, although Eddie’s conservative Batak family tries its best to break their relationship.
Galila watches her new life crumble around her feet before she decides to return home to seek an answer to one overriding question: Can a girl with a buried past have a future?
Jessica writes the story with the passion of a journalist, the profession from which she retired in order to focus on creative writing.
Once the chief editor of a young adult fashion magazine, Jessica offers detailed descriptions of makeup rituals, the world of fashion and the lives of celebrities and how the media treats them.
Written in the third person, the characters engage readers in their pursuit for happiness while dealing with the psychological conflict that arises from trying to make peace with the past.
On the surface, the novel appears to be a Cinderella kind of story with a twist, offering rich insights into both Maluku and Batak customs.
Appeared in Jakarta Post, here: http://goo.gl/0uc79r
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Jessica Huwae
Sipping juices and writing under The Jakarta's sun.
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