Bette Greene – Morning Is A Long Time Coming Book Review

Bette Greene – Morning Is A Long Time Coming
Book Review

By Esther Deborah K.

Morning Is A Long Time Coming is just basically a cliche way of authors to satisfy the readers’ longing to meet the beloved characters again. It’s a sequel that bridges Patty Bergen’s nature as a child towards an eventful journey to her maturity. This is bascially some kind of created reflection of herself which transitioned her childhood into adulthood. I’m glad Bette Greene created this continuing story because it allows Patty to reach a wider scope of the world, seeing that one life’s obsession cannot entirely be fulfilled just because it haunts her childhood days.

[SPOILER ALERT]

The main plot of this story talks about a 19 year old Jewish girl, Patty Bergen, who set out to more to find out about the Anton Reiker, a Nazi soldier whom she helped to escape when she was 12 years old.  Patty wanted to find more about Anton's background and family in Germany, especially  Deborah Reiker, Anton’s mother.

It’s been 6 years since Anton passed away after shot dead in New York. Labeled as ‘Jew Nazi lover’, Patty Bergen grew up as a young woman who just graduated high school. She was determined to go overseas, which is Europe, although her family strongly opposed it.

With her graduation money, she set sail to Paris and met a young photographer and English instructor, Roger, whom she fell in love with. By his gentleness and passionate love for Patty, Roger opened up a whole new world for her. Both became closer through the four months of Patty’s stay in France.

Later when Roger discovered Patty’s main intention to go to Germany, he was very much outraged and hurt. They separated to their own ways after Patty decided to leave for the ex-Nazi country. Patty Bergen was disappointed to learn that she was 7 years late coming to Göttingen; Deborah Reiker was already dead. After her unsuccessful trip to Germany, she returns to France to be reunited again with the warmhearted Frenchman, Roger.

What I liked best about this sequel is that Greene allows the readers to experience another world with the cheerful Roger. I was pretty surprised myself when Roger suddenly entered the picture, slowly replacing Anton Reiker into Patty’s lonely life. It was nice of Greene to create a good natured character, which brought more colors to the story as well as to the reader’s cheeks.

Honestly, when I started to read Morning Is A Long Time Coming I thought it was much different from the first book, which is a little bit boring. The beginnning was rather cold and plain, unlike Summer of My German Soldier with the idea of an exciting love story that driven me to flip the pages till the long-awaited climax. As soon as I finished the first book, I wondered what’s in it for the readers in the next sequel, since Anton Reiker had passed away and Patty was left as a weak, heartbroken little girl. I found out that Morning Is A Long Time Coming was trying to fulfill reader’s expectation on how a romance novel should be, because the previous book was highlighted as more of a life story peppered with glimpses of love, bitterness and an astonishing child abuse.

How Patty Bergen viewed herself was similiar like Anne Frank described her life in The Diary of A Young Girl. Patty and Anne, both of them were trying to prove their existence in the family and put down the underestimations that were attacking them. Both have the same problems: being compared to their siblings, regarded as someone incapable of doing great things, being so talkative, oppressed with racism issues and were too hard on themselves. Despite all their weaknesses, the situation allows their personalities to be shaped as someone strong and have a great deal of fighting spirit to prove their self-worth to the readers, either from their actions, thoughts and expressions through their writing skills.

However, in my personal opinion, this book exposed too much of Patty Bergen’s internal soliloquys expressed in numbers of paragraphs. It caused me to skip reading them because it took a long time to reach the climax of the story, and I grew weary of listening to Patty’s complaints about herself and her brooding thoughts. I can understand Greene was making reflections of her own self, that she were the Patty Bergen in her story (as she wrote the opening affidavit on Summer of My German Soldier).  

Overall, I regard Morning Is A Long Time Coming is a pleasant experience for every young adults who longs for an escape between history, self-discovery and romance. It’s a passionate, unforgettable work of literature that made me long for Paris, as if I already carved my own history there along with Patty Bergen, Roger and Anton Reiker.

Terjemahan Lirik Lagu "Free (Bebas)" - Hillsong United

Unofficial 'Free' lyric translation to Bahasa Indonesia  with matching syllables.

Terjemahan (tidak resmi) lirik lagu 'Free'  ke dalam Bahasa Indonesia dengan suku kata yang pas.

FREE (BEBAS) – HILLSONG UNITED 

Verse 1

Would you believe me if I said

Apakah kamu percaya

That we are the ones who can make the change

Kitalah yang bawa perubahan

In the world today

Ke dalam dunia

Would you believe me if I said

Apakah kamu percaya

That all of your dreams in your heart

Can come true today, yeah

Semua mimpimu bisa terwujud s’karang, yeah

Would you believe me if I said

Apakah kamu percaya

That life could be all that you want it to be today, yeah

Hidup jadi s’mua yang kau inginkan

S’karang, yeah

Chorus

And if I had wings I would fly

Dengan sayap ‘ku terbang

'Cause all that I need, You are

Dan kuperlukan Engkau

And if the world caved in around me

Jika dunia menekanku

To You I'd still hold on
Pada-Mu kupercaya

Cause You're all that I believe
Kaulah yang kuinginkan

And the one that created me

Sang Pencipta hidupku

Jesus because of You

Yesus, kar'na Engkau

 I'm free

('Ku) bebas

Verse 2

Would you believe me if I said

Apakah kamu percaya

That God can make miracles happen today

Tuhan sanggup berikan mujizat

Yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah

Would you believe me if I said

Apakah kamu percaya

That you don't need to wait for the answers before

Semuanya bisa menjadi nyata

You step out in faith

Hanya dengan iman

Would you believe me if I said

Apakah kamu percaya

That nothing is ever impossible for God, yeah

Tidak ada yang mustahil bagi Tuhan, yeah

Bridge

Just live your life with God inside
Hidup dalam, dalam Tuhan

You wont regret one moment of it

Kau tak akan pernah kecewa

And give all that you can for God, for God

Dan berikan s’muanya bagi Tuhan

I Moved! :)

Read more posts on ichocolatic.tumblr.com hehe

The Negatives Sides of Fiction Books

The Negative Sides of Fiction Books
Esther Deborah Kalauserang

 

FICTION: INVENTION AS OPPOSED TO A FACT.

Fiction is a type of book which contains imaginary events and people. Mostly the readers of this genre are teens and young adu lts. Fiction itself is an interesting genre to write because of the things written inside, like adventures and fantasy. This type of book takes us to another new world to explore and entertain us much, a book have to be enjoyed. But, fiction has several negative sides. 

 First of all, fiction is created by our imagination, and our imaginations have their own limits; that is knowledge. We cannot write something outside our knowledge to find something new. Fiction will be boring if we get to read the same main idea from different authors, because the topics—such as mythical super powers, heroes, magic—were spun around over and over. Readers can easily guess what will happen next if they know how fiction’s patterns works.

Another weakness of fiction is that when watched the book-based movie and read actual book after that, our imagination will be the same like in the films. We will find it unsatisfying (or more likely disturbing) to imagine some scenes from the film—especially when it comes to bad scenery or actors in the movies—and our brain memories forced our imaginations to pour all of them into the book. 

  People’s imaginations are different from ours, probably uglier or cooler. That’s why some movie directors make some changes in the script. They didn’t really copy 100 percent from the real book, and some of the readers made a protest about it. But it is true. Who want to watch the exact movie like the book? Boring. Well, a few people want to, but me myself expect some differences inside the movie so we cannot guess how the working of fiction pattern happens throughout the film.

Second, fictions aren’t real. The authors just made up whatever they want to happen in their story. They can create anything that they want and put hidden values behind the books. If a child read a book not for his age, then he still cannot make the difference between fact or fiction. He can copy how the characters think and act according to the story. An author can make wrong things right from his character’s perspective and plant it in the reader’s mindset. They will not notice it, if they’re not smart or detail enough to know the contrasting ideas. This is very dangerous, because they can do something harmful to themselves or to others. 

 

For instance, a Russian boy named Leonid Hmlev made a tragic suicide by jumping off from 30 meters above the ground. Leonid did that after he posted a message on the social media that he planned an ending of a story because his favorite character, Itachi Uchiha lost in a battle against his brother in the animated movie ‘Naruto—Hurricane Chronicle’. Later his father recognized his dead body. Leonid watched too much television; he cannot differ the reality and his fiction world. 

The last one, the morals or values can mislead the readers by their opinion that they think it is true. For example, an author from a random book wrote about the character’s parents. They divorced, and the mom lived with another man in the same roof with her daughter though they are not married yet. This daughter was angry at her mom, at first. But, her situation changed her way of thinking later. She find out that her mom’s other person is okay to live with them because that man was kind and kind of helped her from her troubles. She was happy about it, and finally let her mom lived like that. 

The same thing also often occurs in teen books that a girl has a night with her boyfriend together in a hotel room. The main character thinks it is alright because it is a normal thing to do and everybody did it. She actually knew that her parents forbid it, but because of her friends’ opinion, she did it anyways. And the book ended happily without any regret for it. 

Another example was about a person who made revenge to someone who hurt him. He was very ambitious to murder him, and the readers could see how his mind works. His way of thinking was so clear that people thought his reasons are true. 

So, it was the author who decides that it is the ‘right’ thing to do.  The author can make an incredible reason why it is okay and persuade the readers. Maybe at first the reader who thinks it is a false thing to do can change his or her opposing statement into a 180 degree thought because they were influenced by this book. I sometimes got really convinced too for a minute, because the writer really put them in a smart way. Authors should be careful putting their opinions because they still have to remember that the majority of fiction fantasy book readers are teens. Finally the readers were convinced by the books and have a moral decrease.

Fiction books are really something. It has a positive side and negative side. It has advantage and disadvantage. It gives good and bad influences. The important thing is, that everything has their own balance. Words are dangerous things to mess with, but it can bring an impact to all people. Like people said, a pen is sharper than a sword. So does the book. A book can bring influence to people and can change an entire nation’s mindset, both in the negative and positive way.

Raymond Elias Feist

                              -----RAYMOND ELIAS FEIST-----

One of America’s famous novelist is Raymond Elias Feist. He is the one who drags the readers into a new world of fantasy fiction in The Riftwar Cycle books which were consisted of the famously worldwide-known Riftwar Saga, The Empire Trilogy, Krondor’s Sons, The Serpentwar Saga, The Riftwar Legacy, Legends of the Riftwar, Conclave of the Shadows, The Darkwar Saga, The Demonwar Saga and The Chaoswar Saga series. 

He was born in Los Angles in 1945 with the name Raymond E. Gonzales III until his mother remarried and he took his stepfather’s surname. He was raised in Southern California and now lives with his children in San Diego accompanied by the hobby of collecting fine wines, biographies and history—especially history of American professional football.  The reason he wrote these books was because of an idea that popped out on his head of writing a boy who wanted to be a magician. Finally his writings were transformed into amazing works which are still loved, popular and sold over 15 million copies and translated into multiple languages currently. 

I am a big fan of Feist because of his awesome books. Those books have an interesting plot of a whole new world of Midkemia to explore and a lot of character to meet with fascinating olden lifestyle. There were many surprises in the end of the book, or changes in situation. Sometimes they irritated me and made me wanted to protest, but finally—as the plot developed—I understood why it was like that and it gave a better solution. 

Feist must have done some researches of his own. The life in a castle was easily pictured by him without any difficulties, especially when it came to the feudal system and the position of rulers—for instance, the difference between a squire and a warlord.  He really adopted the culture and habits of medieval times, like when a guard happened to see a prince. The expression and way of speaking of that guard resembled the olden times, even in his courtesy towards the high class members. 

Feist also mastered the politics. He played his puppets well when it came for making an offense, provocation, war and political marriage. Sometimes his depiction about the scene which happened in war or a fight was a bit harsh and bloody. It was like watching the movie “Troy” or “Lord of the Rings” in a book. But I think those times were like that, like in Dark Ages. The funny thing was; Feist had a mind of democracy. He did not like slavery, and he used one of his main characters, Prince Arutha, to go against that. He also made Pug, the magician, to destroy a stadium because of a gladiator show to waste human lives. 

I could learn a lot from his works. That’s why I love to read and study from his writings. He left the readers a message from his life. He spent years of writing—since 1982 until now—and created thousand pages of books. If he could do it, why can’t a younger generation of novelists like us make more creations? When can answer that question with ‘yes’, the only thing we’ll need is determination, diligence and a little bit of perspiration. If we get all those, then get ready to see our books on the bookshelf!

Repentance

A poem made in Reading Class, where the black color shows the 1^st speaker and the blue one is the 2^nd.

Repentance

When I stepped on the world, I was afraid

None can keep me away from danger

Nor flee afar from others’ anger

Scare clothe me when I slept

Amidst my mind was chaos,

 Where worry’s kept

Be still, my friend. 

Scare shall have you jailed, 

But goodness will always prevail.

Victory you shall have

So pray to thy Father

By His mercy you’ll be saved.

Well-spoken, good stranger

But how could I not worry

While my heart is full of anguish? 

It was carving my soul deeply.

So deep it hurts, 

Giving me bewilderments and perplexity

For many times I’ve had the experience

My feet led me to ways of unsecure

I thought to myself I’m desperately confounding.

Nothing change, though myself I blame.

Then I realize. Without Him I’m an empty void.

I called to Him, “Father, to Thee I’m sorry,” repents and felt secure.

Shall I believe in your counsel?

Hesitating, I am, but your words are true.

Help me to run toward Him

So I shall gain victory and secure

As you taught me before.

I’ll be obliged in Him, and trust Him with assurance.

Approach me, my brother.

Let us pray to Him with repentance

And thy good, willing heart

That will give thee a new start.

 

The Adventure

This one poem is made by Agus, also an elementary second grader. He is an easy going kid and really, really loves to read and write. He always made an effort to speak English in Reading class, though it sounds very funny in his Javanese accent. He choose an adventure-themed poem because...Well, because he is that kind of boy. I even heard him that he already ride goats back in his village far away from Jogja. 

The Adventure

When you're up in the sky

By plane

You went up and down the hills,

You'll feel tired.

In the road you'll 

Walk, run and jump.

If you meet a man,

Man made peace.

In the forest,

You are afraid.

Then you'll conquer

Wild animals.