Monday, August 21, 2006

Book Review - Four Seasons in Belgium

The second book I read, Four Seasons in Belgium, is actually an Indonesian novel, sort of chick-lit, but grown up chick-lit (well, at least it’s not about college girls love).

I discovered it unintentionally, while strolling myself into a newly opened bookshop. The title got my attention because stories with a travel-place setting always attract me, it was set in a place I've gone too, & also the fact that there was only 1 book left with this title in the shelf The comments on the cover were done by Dian Sastro, Aditya & Ninit. Although I'm not sure about the taste of Dian's in reading, at least I’m quite familiar with the taste of the later 2 (well, at least I’ve read their books before & follow their blogs). The book was tightly plastic wrapped & I bought it without opening it, trusting my instincts.

The thing about chicklit is it doesn’t require you to concentrate to read it. This book, I finished reading it in a night, maybe 2.5 hours. The story turns up to use Antwerp as a setting, where I went for holiday to visit my brother last spring. It's an enjoyable book, about a young female worker & her love life. The plot is light & it feels like reading your friend's life story or a short story in one of those female magazines. It's a good book to read if your brain cells are already suffocating from overwork or maybe bring it to the swimmingpool to accompany you sunbathing. I got to be honest, I still liked TestPack (by Ninit) better as a book in the same genre & I would just classify this novel as an 'intermezzo'.

When I told my brother about this book, it turned up the storywriter was my brother’s senior & a lot of the story in the book used glimpses of a life of trainee in the company my bro worked. This is the 2nd trainee employee in my bro’s company to publish a fiction.

Verdict: 3 stars.

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