Reunion

by Alan Lightman

Charles, a once-promising poet, is a professor at a minor liberal arts college, admiring of passion but without passion himself. Now living a desperately comfortable existence, he decides to return to his thirtieth college reunion.

While there, he relives an intense love affair he had with a beautiful ballerina that forever changed his life.  At times shocked, admiring, and furious with his younger self, Charles remembers contradictory versions of events, until reality and identity dissolve into a haze of illusion. Reunion explores the pain of self-examination, the clay-like nature of memory, and the fatal power of first love.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Contemporary, American, Romance, Literary Fiction, Psychology

231 pages, Paperback

Published November 9, 2004

About the author

Alan Lightman is an American writer, physicist, and social entrepreneur. Born in 1948, he was educated at Princeton and at the California Institute of Technology, where he received a PhD in theoretical physics. He has received five honorary doctoral degrees. Lightman has served on the faculties of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was the first person at MIT to receive dual faculty appointments in science and in the humanities. He is currently professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT. His scientific research in astrophysics has concerned
black holes, relativity theory, radiative processes, and the dynamics of systems of stars. His essays and articles have appeared in the Atlantic, Granta, Harper’s, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, Salon, and many other publications. His essays are often chosen by the New York Times as among the best essays of the year. He is the author of 6 novels, several collections of essays, a memoir, and a book-length narrative poem, as well as several books on science. His novel Einstein’s Dreams was an international bestseller and has been the basis for dozens of independent theatrical and musical adaptations around the world. His novel The Diagnosis was a finalist for the National Book Award. His most recent books are The Accidental Universe, which was chosen by Brain Pickings as one of the 10 best books of 2014, his memoir Screening Room, which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the best books of the year for 2016,
and Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine (2018), an extended meditation on science and religion – which was the basis for an essay
on PBS Newshour. Lightman is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also the founder of the Harpswell Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to advance a new generation of women leaders in Southeast Asia.” He has received the gold medal for humanitarian service from the government of Cambodia.

Reviews

[Vonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Good:
* Lightman has a gift for writing, a unique ability to write straightforward, sparsely worded sentences that somehow, when read together, become lyrical. Reading his words, one is easily mesmerized and escapes, even though his settings are not necessarily faraway in time or place.
* Exploration of regrets, memory, the choices we make, how love has the ability to change entire lives. I especially liked how Charles explains at a couple different points how he remembers an event differently than the scene he is watching before his eyes. (When he confronts his married professor for sleeping with his girlfriend Julianna, he remembers himself being much more solicitous rather than how he sees it in his visions, threatening to tell his wife, etcetera. The way he remembers it, he fondly takes pride in how he was the one to volunteer to shake his hand as they parted ways, even though he was the one being wronged.)
* "This is not at all I remember it." Furthermore, in my undergraduate studies I did some research on the fallibility of eyewitness accounts in law & psychology. Thus, my special interest in this.
* The theme of ballet, dance. Lightman has clearly does his research. The discipline, often dangerous, and how it runs Julianna's life. The psychology behind this has always been absorbing for me.
* Poetry. Charles is a poet, and this readers are able to see some examples of the best poets. I especially appreciated this because I am not personally a poetry reader and was introduced to something I really liked by Emily Dickinson.

"Love is like Life, merely longer
Love is like Death, during the Grave
Love is the Fellow of the Resurrection
Scooping up the Dust and chanting "Live"!

* Again, the power Lightman has with words. The main character, although unreliable in his memory, gives us random thoughts that are so beautifully said.

"Suddenly a young person wakes up and finds the universe tilting and grasping in front of him. Infinity. So many things are happening for the first time. What young people don’t realize is that so much is happening for the last time, as well. The world is both opening and closing at once.
The first kiss, the first ecstasy of love, the play of light in the trees on a particular fall day, the endless flood of strength in our biceps and thighs. We have the illusion that all of this will happen again and again. In a way, this falseness of youth is even more painful than the branching channels ahead. For the young are very much aware of the moment of the first kiss, the first ecstasy of love, and so on. They are keenly aware. Their terrible miscalculation is thinking that these moments will repeat in the infinity of time, that their bodies and minds will hold."

"Unconditional love. That’s what he wants to give her and what he wants from her. People should give without wanting anything in return. All other giving is selfish. But he is being selfish a little, isn’t he, by wanting her to love him in return? He hopes that she loves him in return. Is it possible for a person to love without wanting love back? Is anything so pure? Or is love, by its nature, a reciprocity, like oceans and clouds, an evaporating of seawater and a replenishing of rain?"

* It feels like there is no excess in this slim, sleek novel. For example, Charles had a classmate, Cunningham, that wrote a biography on a German astronomer named Ulrich Schmecken. In short, the story is that the astronomer carried out his research alone but when it went to the observatory, he would take with him a girl from the village. He would make passionate love to her there and then the remaining hours of the night he would then proceed to search and successfully find new asteroids. One evening in 1898, one young lady refused to engage in his "preasteroidal coition". As he had never been turned down before in his life, he was so defeated that following that night he never returned to his scientific career. Our narrator, Charles, comments on this story a few times, including the psychology behind it, which I greatly appreciated. A favorite thought he had was regarding, of all things, the difference between kissing and licking. The reason for this thought? In his footnotes, Cunningham explained that Schmecken, in his diary, had not used the German word for kiss, but the word for lick. However, in his determination, Schmecken had meant kiss and so he changed it to that in his translation. Charles sees the error in this.

"The difference between kissing and licking is not a small thing. It is the difference between leisurely romance and fierce passion, between cold and hot, between stone and blood, between mind and body. Is it not true that we kiss with our minds but we lick with our bodies? We kiss grandparents, children, familiar spouses. Kissing can be polite, a peck on the cheek, even a full kiss on the mouth, even the French kiss. But licking his never polite. Licking is ill mannered, licking is total surrender to sex, total surrender to body. Licking is the return to primality.

He then quotes from a student's thesis in which he introduces the theory that eating and speaking are minor functions of the tongue, the main one being sex. I found this actually possible. And very fascinating, since that idea had never entered my mind.

The Bad:
* The well done character depth and exploration with Charles was all we really got. I suppose this is to be expected, being told from his perspective, present timeline told in first person, flashbacks told in third person, but still his point of view. Still, more could have been revealed regarding Juliana especially.
* I have said this before and I will say it again: vague endings and unhappy endings have there place. In fact, I hate easy fairytale endings, preferring instead the realistic sad one. This one was not only depressing, but vague. Lightman ended the novel with a little optimism in the last paragraph (with his new love, Sheila, he allows himself to be vulnerable for the first time as he gets ready to go out on the town with her; sadly it is because he begins crying as he reflects on the end with Juliana), but that did nothing but add to the obscurity (it ends with her asking him to tell her what is wrong, which we never read Charles's response to; she also had a surprise for him which will now forever remain a secret).

[Rich Stoehr · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Is it possible for a person to love without wanting love back? Is anything so pure? Or is love, by its nature, a reciprocity, like oceans and clouds, an evaporating of seawater and a replenishing by rain?" - from "Reunion," by Alan Lightman

Every few years, I get a little gift: a new novel from Alan Lightman. He doesn't publish fiction often, but when he does it is invariably worth reading. Best of all, each book is different from the others, while all are good.

Lightman's style is one of elegant language and a unique perspective. In each of his books, I find enjoyment simply in the words he uses, and how they flow together to form his narrative. In this, "Reunion" is no different -- Lightman's use of language is beautiful in and of itself.

In terms of the story itself, "Reunion" is about a man in his fifties who attends his 30th college graduation class reunion. In his own words, he lives a "comfortable" life -- he's divorced, with one child, and basically unremarkable, but "comfortable" nonetheless. At his reunion, he sees some people he remembers from college and meets a few new people. However, the real "reunion" of the story is when the main character (Charles) confronts his memories of the intense love affair he shared with a ballet dancer in his last year of school.

To be honest, this is a story that most of us have read before. It is Lightman's perspective on the story, and his keen sense of observation, which elevate "Reunion" above the trite and pithy messages of other, similar, stories. Lightman offers ideas and viewpoints which are rare in modern fiction -- perhaps even unique to this novel. As such, "Reunion" is a rare and valuable book.

Particularly memorable about "Reunion" is the way Lightman conveys Charles experiencing his memories. In several instances, he sees and hears what happened in different ways -- the idealized version that is what he thought would happen at the time, and the more human version which is probably closer to what really happened. The reader is left to question whether either "version" of Charles' memories is what really happened, or if true events were some unknown mixture of both versions. The subjectivity of memory is one of the major topics of the novel.

"Reunion" is a story about love, to be sure... and a touchingly bittersweet one at that. However, it is also about the changes and compromises that come with age, about the natural fallacy that personal perspective brings to events, and about the fragility of our memories. While it may not be my favorite of Lightman's books (that label still belongs to "Einstein's Dreams"), it is certainly an example of why I always look forward to a new Alan Lightman novel.

[Sadam Faisal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charles muda yang lugu, kikuk & lamban dalam memberikan respon yang tepat di saat-saat penting sehingga momennya keburu lewat lalu merutuki diri sendiri setelahnya.

[MAILA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gila coy, wa baca dari april baru kelar sekarang wqwq

*Catatan*

Ini adalah buku porno


*Boong deng*

Di setengah halaman depan ada beberapa cerita yang menurut saya lebih cocok masuk ke buku stensilan ya. Yang pembahasan soal lidah. Anjir. Itu bikin mbayangkn banget. Edan lah oom Alan. Sekarang saya tidak lagi bisa memandang fungsi sebuah lidah dengan cara yang sama😂

Cukup menyenangkan meski butuh waktu lama tuk merampungkannya.

Kutipan kesukaan:

Hidup hanya bisa dipahami dengan melihat ke belakang, tapi hanya bisa dijalani dengan berjalan ke depan.

Rekumen!

[Yulia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I regard this as an incomplete novel in that its framing device of a college reunion bringing back memories of an ex-girlfriend is never properly justified or brought back for closure. Of course I can't resist stories about the one who got away, the one who will always be "the one," the one who was unlike any other, but must they all have affairs with your professor? It's such a hackneyed betrayal, and the girl is never brought into enough focus for us to understand or empathize with his yearning, that I couldn't miss her when she'd gone. She'd never been tangible or desirable or even mythical enough. My question as a reader is, why can't he get over her all these years later? Has his life disappointed him so much and been so bereft of real kindness and humanity? Because from the glimpses we have of her, there doesn't seem enough to keep me wanting more. This is the problem in many nostalgic heartbreak novels, it seems to me.

[Woolfhead · Rating 1 out of 5]

He's a good writer and I liked Einstein's Dreams very much. And I do like the way he talks about time. But this novel about first love was just too male. The women were shadowy, voiceless bodies. I'm just not particularly tolerant of that anymore.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring and depressing.

[Wahid Kurniawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Reuni" berdiri dalam formula kisah flashback yang bisa jadi klise: kau mengunjungin sebuah tempat, lalu teringat kejadian dan cerita hidupmu dengan seseorang. Tapi sesuatu yang klise bisa tampil sebegitu memukau di tangan penjahit kisah yang piawai. Alan punya itu. Dalam mengisahkan kilas-balik Charles, dosen sastra yang ngenang-ngenang cinta pertamanya bersama seorang balerina, ia asyik memainkan sudut pandang--bergantian dari aku-narator dan ia-Charles. Efeknya, emosi si karakter nyampe secara pas: kita bisa turut larut dalam permenungan Aku di tengah cerita dan memandang ia dalam jarak khusus, sehingga gambaran kenaifan, gairah, semangat, dapat ditangkap dengan jelas. Hal lainnya, Alan pintar memaikan alusi atas tokoh atau melakukan intertekstualitas terhadap kisah lain. Bagi yang ngeh, mungkin kita bisa menemukan pemahaman yang anyar soal, misalnya, interpretasi puisi Dickinson, Blake, atau prosa Calvino. Ia menjadikan potongan teks itu nggak cuma tempelan saja, tapi juga ia meminjam ruhnya, meleburnya dalam bangunan teks utama.

[Ivan Lanin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Setelah dengan susah payah membaca novel pertama Alan Lightman, Mimpi-Mimpi Einstein, saya membaca novel ini dengan bahagia. Ceritanya normal dan penuh kejutan.

Resensi lebih lengkap: https://ivanlanin.medium.com/mimpi-mi...

[Ageng Indra · Rating 3 out of 5]

"...hidup hanya bisa dipahami dengan melihat ke belakang, tapi hanya bisa dijalani dengan melihat ke depan." Kutipan dari Kierkegard yang dikenang oleh Charles ini cukup tepat untuk menggambarkan penceritaan Lightman di novel ini.

Charles yang sudah uzur, 52 tahun, melihat dirinya sendiri yang masih 22 dengan penuh penyesalan dan olok-olok. Gairah muda itu sia-sia di tangan diri mudanya yang polos dan kikuk. Charles muda cerdik, tapi jenis yang lamban, dan tidak pernah memikirkan respon yang pintar sampai momennya lewat. Seperti saat perempuan menggodanya, ia baru menemukan jawaban yang pintar pada malam berikutnya. Penceritaan masa muda yang jujur dan manis -termasuk olok-olokannya juga.

Reuni bukan novel yang memikul tanggungjawab apapun. Di bab awal, pandangan Charles sudah dijabarkan dengan sederhana, "Karena kesejahteraan dan kebutuhan adalah konsep yang betul-betul relatif, tidak ada kemiskinan mutlak, penderitaan mutlak, kedukaan mutlak." Dasar argumen ini mengarah pada tanggapannya terhadap sumbangan korban bencana, dimana ia merasa tak ada yang berhak mengatakan mereka fakir dan tidak bahagia, karena bisa saja mereka tetap tertawa dan dalam keadaan itu sudah memperoleh yang dibutuhkan, "Biar saja mereka, aku tidak bisa memutuskan apa yang dibutuhkan orang, apa yang aku butuhkan bisa." Sungguh keapatisan berdasar!

Charles, muda maupun tua, hanya berkutik dalam kebutuhannya akan gadis -yang sebenarnya ia benci karena membuat menderita. Karenanya, novel ini mungkin termasuk dalam golongan yang oleh Pram dicap sebagai sastra borjuis, sangat subjektif dan cenderung pesimistis -dampak psikologis terhadap negara yang kehilangan jajahannya. Bagaimanpun juga, dengan segala aspek termasuk perpaduan sastra dan 'sience', Reuni adalah sastra borjuis yang ditulis dengan cantik dan diterjemahkan dengan baik.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this didn't quite stack up to Einstein's Dreams for two reasons:

1) It's about nostalgia for first love and all my firsts were even more demoralizing than this.

2) It doesn't feel quite complete. His philosophical musings are intriguing but lack the underlying structure to make the story, itself, entirely believable.

As with Einstein's Dreams, the prose is light, airy and crystal clear. The references to Emily Dickinson and The New York City Ballet made me happy. And I like him. He's something of a kindred spirit, I think.

[Marguerite Hargreaves · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was pretty good, but confusing, in a "Groundhog Day" sort of way, as the narrator character flashed back 30 years and tried to unravel old conversations and events. By the end, it was more annoying than anything else, and the end just petered out, like the author got tired of his characters and story and just ended things on page 231. I picked this up in lieu of The Diagnosis, the book by Lightman that I was looking for in the library stacks. Unless I see some super reviews of that, I might let him drop off my list.

[Biena Magbitang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halfway through the novel, I thought, maybe Billy handed me this book because he sees me in Charlie, I'm as weird and as strange, I even quipped that I'm Charlie with panties, no scrap that, Charlie plus the egg cells.

But as I go through the novel, I gradually saw myself in Juliana, how perplexed can I be? Haha.

However, up until now, I still am thinking about everything I deduced in this work of art, especially the ending. Could be right? I probably am.

[Julz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good to read right before a college reunion. Rather than encouraging sentimentality, it gives a realistic outcome to fantasies about the past.

[Shoshanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thoroughly unenjoyable; incomplete; self-important.

[Nina Majasari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jujur aja, saya bosan membacanya, tidak ada yang membuat saya tertarik untuk meneruskan buku ini dari segi apapun, berhubung udah beli ya mau nggak mau kudu dibaca biar nggak mubazir. Akhirnya toh ya kelar juga.

Ceritanya tentang Charles, seorang profesor berusia 50-an yang datang ke reuni teman-teman kampusnya. Tidak seperti lainnya yang hadir dengan keluarganya, Charles datang sendiri. Ia memang sudah lama bercerai dan memiliki satu anak laki-laki yang sudah berusia 25 thn.

Saat mengobrol dengan beberapa teman-teman kuliahnya. Ingatan membawanya kembali ke masa-masa kuliah dulu. Usia yang masih sangat muda dengan obsesi ingin menjadi penyair.

Kedekatannya dengan Julia, calon penari balet yang cantik, sempat membuatnya ingin menuliskan sajak padanya. Nasehat dosennya saat itu, “Jangan pernah menulis sajak cinta untuk seorang gadis.”

Dalam lamunannya, Charles memutar kembali masa lalu tentang memori romansanya dengan Julia. Ia sibuk menafsirkan dan merenungkan sebab akibat kandasnya berhubungan dengan Julia.

Pikiran Charles di reuni, berganti-ganti dari masa kini ke masa lalu, berulang-ulang.

Sumpah, capek banget bacanya.

Di sepertiga akhir buku, terjawablah sudah mengapa Charles galau ugal-ugalan saat mengenang Julia.

Rupanya saat itu Julia hamil dan ingin aborsi. Sedangkan Charles dengan pede merasa bisa menjadi ayah dari jabang bayi tersebut. Julia tak percaya, mereka bertengkar hebat, keesokan harinya Julia menghilang dan tak pernah kembali.

Sampai kini, Charles tak pernah lagi bertemu dengan Julia. Sejak saat itu, setiap hari ia selalu memikirkan Julia, apakah ia jadi aborsi atau tetap mempertahankan janinnya.

Hidupnya hingga kini hanya berharap mendapatkan kabar dan jawaban atas rasa penasaran yang menghantuinya selama bertahun-tahun.

Reuni memang melelahkan.

Dalam acara reuni, kita sering kali terseret pikiran masa lalu yang akhirnya memunculkan kata “seandainya… ” atau “seharusnya… ”. Ya seperti Charles.

Haduh, capek deh. Memang tidak semua orang mampu datang ke reuni.

Bintang 2/5

[Peter Colclasure · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book from a used bookstore for $4, and only bought it because of I loved Einstein's Dreams, the author's first novel that I've read twice.

Whereas Einstein's Dreams induced a childlike sense of wonder, this felt like spending time with a bitter, resentful crank. From the dust jacket:

"Charles is a middle-aged professor at a minor liberal-arts college, a once promising poet, admiring of passion but without passion himself. Without knowing why, he decides to attend his thirtieth college reunion. And there, he magically witnesses a replay of his senior year."

The college is never named, though it's within driving distance of New York City, and the attendees at the reunion wear pig snouts and tails in honor of their mascot. (One of many implausible details, I just can't imagine hundreds of doctors and lawyers and bankers keeping their fake pig snout on all night while trying to make conversation with old friends.)

Anyway, at the reunion, Charles has a flashback that lasts the majority of the novel, about a "the one who got away," a ballerina named Julianna he dated his senior year who was also sleeping with his English professor. The main problem is that I felt zero investment in this relationship. We never learn how they met, and nothing about their romance defies conventional tropes for college romance.

Another problem is that Charles is thoroughly unlikable. Einstein's Dreams was a leap of whimsy and imagination, but Charles is predictable and humorless and sophomoric.

Also the writing is frequently bad:

I cannot look away. I feel the destruction. I want to rub it all over my body.

Dance with me. Go up and go up. I am your body. Your poem is my blood.

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was quite dull and felt very incomplete, but there were still some very nice aspects.

Alan Lightman's writing flows so well. It's pretty simple and straightforward, but has a marvellous way of describing the indescribable. There was one bit about connecting the time from before you are born to the time after, and it was so well-said. It's definitely thought provoking at times, with wonderful anecdotes. Also, Charles' character developed really smoothly, with well-placed references to the Vietnam War and other events that shaped the 60s.

But the premise is just so unappealing. An aimless man goes to his college reunion and remembers the love of his youth. And not in the slice-of-life entertainment way, but in the way people only like talking about themselves and not listening to other people. The ending had nothing. It wasn't inspiring or devastating or anything. It was just nothing and it was a very unfortunate way for a book to end off. It's an okay book to just read, but definitely not one that sticks in your mind or has a profound impact.

I like what was attempted here, and I think I'll read more of Alan Lightman's books in the future, but this one was just not it.

[Mizuoto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reuni bukanlah kisah tentang pertemuan teman-teman lama, melainkan cerita cinta yang manis-pahit-getir sekaligus. Novel ini tidak sekadar mengajak pembaca kembali pada masa-masa penuh gejolak sang tokoh utama, melainkan juga refleksi diri yang datang seiring bertambahnya usia, tentang sudut pandang peristiwa yang jika ditelaah kembali akan membawa perspektif yang berbeda, serta perihal kerapuhan ingatan manusia.

Saya menyukai cara Alan Lightman menggambarkan reuni yang terjadi saat Charles terperangkap dalam kenangan kehidupan kuliahnya—puisi-puisi, bergulat, perang Vietnam, dan hubungan cintanya bersama Julian—kala itu dengan cara yang berbeda sekarang. Dalam novel ini, masa lalu tidak hanya diingat kembali, melainkan juga ditafsirkan ulang yang akhirnya membawa perenungan terhadap kejadian-kejadian yang dialami sepanjang hidup. Dari peristiwa masa lalu itu pula membentuk pribadi saat ini, membentuk identitas dan kesadaran diri.

Resensi lengkap bisa dibaca di sini

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really glad I decided to re-read his book "Einstein's Dreams" before hitting this because it really informed me about the importance of time and memory in his writing. You can see some of the premises established in that work being investigated in a much deeper way here.

Our main character finds himself trapped in memories of his previous collegiate life while attending a reunion there. It is interesting the ways in which the past is not only being re-membered, but also re-interpreted by the man who has been advanced far along the dimension of time from the young man who experienced it. In fact, he sees his previous self as a nearly separate individual from his present self. He comes to realize that he is fully uncertain exactly how some important scenes had truly played out, and how he felt about them, but little details come back to him in vivid detail. He seemed unaware that his life needed this introspective event to work through some resolution for himself.

[Kerfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a disappointment to me. I had heard wonderful things about the author and I was hoping for something special.

The writing is competent enough, but the characters are ordinary, self-centered, lacking insight--and unlikable to boot. The story itself is pedestrian. It's not that it's bad, exactly, but it failed to engage me on any level. No one ever did or said anything surprising or illuminating. Everything was predictable and I did not care one way or another what was going to happen.

I grew weary of it and skip-read the final 1/3.

We all have "if onlys" in our past, and sometimes they weigh so heavily that we never escape them. But that doesn't mean they will translate into a good book.

[Marissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I typically really like Alan Lightman, but this was just a huge disappointment for me.

The first half was slow and felt pointless. It did pick up about the last quarter, but then it felt rushed and then it was over. I get that it was about first love and all that, and it was also filled with some of the lovely writing and musings I like best about Lightman, but overall, it felt really disconnected.

I can't help but compare it to The Only Story by Julian Barnes that I recently read. It was also about first love...only 100 times better.

Sorry, Lightman. Not your best effort.

[Kim Jordahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the first few pages, and tolerated the rest. There were some brilliantly written passages in that first interlude with Sheila, but I had a hard time following the time travel back, and a really hard time tolerating the protagonists younger self. About 2/3 of the way through the book, it seems a choice got made to use the last third of the book to devolve into the pro-life movement, as presented by a man. I think it would have been more interesting, and less annoying, to resolve the significant issues the relationship had another way

[Caitlin Lamrock · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing itself was quite lovely albeit very flowery but forgivable given the main character is a poet. At the core, this book is misogynistic and incomplete. Juliana is viewed as something to be owned and conquered. The lack of character development for Juliana also reflects the lack of depth she is given. She is an integral part of the story but represented as being shallow and without history.

[Sin Sin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"... hidup hanya bisa dipahami dengan melihat ke belakang, tapi hanya bisa dijalani dengan berjalan ke depan." -Hal.32
•
Inilah yang terjadi jika kau terus saja melenakan dirimu pada kenangan masa lalu. Tentang mereka yang tak bisa kau miliki lagi, dan hanya bisa kau rengkuh dalam ingatan seadanya. Ah, saya sedih...

[Marcia Chocinsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve just spent a little over 200 pages wallowing in the steam of consciousness ramblings of the lovestruck mind of a 22-year old male college student with occasional side trips into his 40-something self. Was it well written? - yes. Was it truly worth the journey? - not so much. I didn’t hate it and I didn’t love it. It just is what it is, as my brother-in-law would say.

[Alpha Hambally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ceritanya memang mewek, tapi cara berceritanya sungguh-sungguh dan patut didiskusikan. Namun sebaiknya saya perlu baca versi Inggrisnya..

[Ace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lightman in this book shows what will happen when the present clash with something in the past.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and set in the 60s which brought back lots of memories.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dives into memory and language reminiscent of Ian McEwan. Has a certain weight of painful honesty.