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bungadinding's review against another edition
5.0
4,5 bintang. Dinaikin ke atas soalnya saya masih overwhelmed. Twistnya apa-apaan.......
Pasang tag spoiler dulu. Ini cuma review pendek (+ potentially baper) dan nggak bermaksud tebar spoiler yang eksplisit, tapi buku ini jauh lebih nendang kalau langsung dibaca sendiri (+ kaget sendiri). Jadi, silakan.
Sebenarnya ini kisah yang sedih, tragis. Tapi pengarang dan bahkan protagonisnya sendiri pinter banget meramu ceritanya. Patter meramu dongeng-dongeng "tipuan" yang sangat kaya imajinasi sampai pembaca tersesat di dalamnya. Kenapa saya bilang "tipuan", karena ibaratnya dalam novel misteri, dongeng-dongeng ciptaan Patter seolah jadi red herrings, untuk mengalihkan pembaca dari cerita yang sebenarnya. Dalam novel ini, dongeng-dongeng fantastik dan semarak ciptaan Patter mengaburkan atensi pembaca untuk lebih memperhatikan kisah hidup Patter sendiri. Pembaca (baca: saya) jadi nggak terlalu kepikiran, sampai lama kemudian, bahwa pasti ada kisah-kisah tersembunyi yang melatarbelakangi penciptaan kisah-kisah fantastis itu, kisah-kisah yang membentuk pribadi Patter menjadi pribadinya saat dewasa. Andaikan Jostein Gaarder nggak nyelipin foreshadows di sana-sini mungkin saya nerima karakter Patter apa adanya gitu aja dan nggak terlalu bertanya-tanya dia sebenarnya punya masalah apa.
Patter ini, karakter yang.... bagus banget. Kompleks banget. Sepintas dia kayak dingin, nggak punya ambisi yang jelas, tapi sangat confident sama dirinya sendiri. Punya bakat luar biasa tapi dikembangkan dengan cara yang nggak lazim. Beberapa orang mungkin akan ngejudge dia menyia-nyiakan bakatnya, tapi itulah, dia sendiri sangat yakin sama apa yang dilakukannya, jadi kalaupun saya bilang dia aneh ujung-ujungnya saya diem aja dan liat gimana langkahnya selanjutnya. Dia juga suka suka main perempuan and talks about it very casually, kadang bikin gondok saya yang baca :|
Sejak awal Petter membeberkan masa kecilnya ke pembaca, termasuk titik-titik penting dalam hidupnya, dengan nada yang hampir netral dan "berjarak" sehingga pembaca mungkin nggak menyadari kalau dia menyimpan emosi yang lebih mendalam tentang masa lalunya. Iya, Patter memang bilang kalau kematian ibunya sedemikian "meruntuhkan hatinya". Tapi ya gitu, justru karena dia mengatakannya dengan begitu gamblang, saya took for granted aja pernyataannya. Baru di ending buku banget saya kayak ditampar penyadaran kalau sosok sang ibu sebenarnya sangat-sangat mempengaruhi kehidupan Patter.
Gimanapun, di akhir, ke-heartless-annya (bahasa apa ini) akhirnya goyah. Patter akhirnya ngerasa paranoia, lalu penyesalan yang mendalam, tapi dengan open-ending ada sedikit harapan dia bisa mulai awal yang baru. Moga-moga. Seberapa rusak pun dampak yang udah ditimbulkannya.
Patter ini karakter yang kuat banget penggambarannya sampai saya bisa nebak MBTI-nya: INTJ. Anyone agree? =))
Dari buku ini, sebenarnya ada satu hal yang bikin saya bertanya-tanya: apa bisnis yang dilakukan Patter itu bisa dikatakan ilegal? Kalau yang saya tangkap, dia "cuma" menjual ide cerita, dalam bentuk sinopsis dan sebagainya, bukan cerita utuh, dan pembelinya pun diharapkan mengembangkan ide itu dengan bakat masing-masing. Jadi nggak bisa dibilang plagiarisme, kan? Ataukah masalah utamanya memang soal etika? Apakah kalau Patter memberikan idenya secara cuma-cuma bukannya diperjualbelikan, tindakannya lebih bisa dimaklumi? Di sisi lain, dari yang pernah saya pelajari dikit-dikit dari hukum hak kekayaan intelektual, kekayaan intelektual seseorang (termasuk ide cerita Patter yang sudah diwujudkan dalam bentuk sinopsis dsb) memang bisa dikomersialkan, jadi kadang saya rasa sah-sah aja kalau Patter lebih mau menjual gagasan-gagasannya daripada diberikan cuma-cuma. Harusnya bisnisnya nggak perlu setersembunyi itu, dan pelanggan-pelanggannya nggak usah separanoid dan selebay itu, selain karena alasan harga diri masing-masing.
Gimanapun, mungkin emang masih ada aspek yang saya kurang ngerti. Kalau ada yang mau sharing pendapat dan mungkin mencerahkan saya soal ini, silakan ya :)
Pasang tag spoiler dulu. Ini cuma review pendek (+ potentially baper) dan nggak bermaksud tebar spoiler yang eksplisit, tapi buku ini jauh lebih nendang kalau langsung dibaca sendiri (+ kaget sendiri). Jadi, silakan.
Spoiler
Sebenarnya ini kisah yang sedih, tragis. Tapi pengarang dan bahkan protagonisnya sendiri pinter banget meramu ceritanya. Patter meramu dongeng-dongeng "tipuan" yang sangat kaya imajinasi sampai pembaca tersesat di dalamnya. Kenapa saya bilang "tipuan", karena ibaratnya dalam novel misteri, dongeng-dongeng ciptaan Patter seolah jadi red herrings, untuk mengalihkan pembaca dari cerita yang sebenarnya. Dalam novel ini, dongeng-dongeng fantastik dan semarak ciptaan Patter mengaburkan atensi pembaca untuk lebih memperhatikan kisah hidup Patter sendiri. Pembaca (baca: saya) jadi nggak terlalu kepikiran, sampai lama kemudian, bahwa pasti ada kisah-kisah tersembunyi yang melatarbelakangi penciptaan kisah-kisah fantastis itu, kisah-kisah yang membentuk pribadi Patter menjadi pribadinya saat dewasa. Andaikan Jostein Gaarder nggak nyelipin foreshadows di sana-sini mungkin saya nerima karakter Patter apa adanya gitu aja dan nggak terlalu bertanya-tanya dia sebenarnya punya masalah apa.
Patter ini, karakter yang.... bagus banget. Kompleks banget. Sepintas dia kayak dingin, nggak punya ambisi yang jelas, tapi sangat confident sama dirinya sendiri. Punya bakat luar biasa tapi dikembangkan dengan cara yang nggak lazim. Beberapa orang mungkin akan ngejudge dia menyia-nyiakan bakatnya, tapi itulah, dia sendiri sangat yakin sama apa yang dilakukannya, jadi kalaupun saya bilang dia aneh ujung-ujungnya saya diem aja dan liat gimana langkahnya selanjutnya. Dia juga suka suka main perempuan and talks about it very casually, kadang bikin gondok saya yang baca :|
Sejak awal Petter membeberkan masa kecilnya ke pembaca, termasuk titik-titik penting dalam hidupnya, dengan nada yang hampir netral dan "berjarak" sehingga pembaca mungkin nggak menyadari kalau dia menyimpan emosi yang lebih mendalam tentang masa lalunya. Iya, Patter memang bilang kalau kematian ibunya sedemikian "meruntuhkan hatinya". Tapi ya gitu, justru karena dia mengatakannya dengan begitu gamblang, saya took for granted aja pernyataannya. Baru di ending buku banget saya kayak ditampar penyadaran kalau sosok sang ibu sebenarnya sangat-sangat mempengaruhi kehidupan Patter.
Gimanapun, di akhir, ke-heartless-annya (bahasa apa ini) akhirnya goyah. Patter akhirnya ngerasa paranoia, lalu penyesalan yang mendalam, tapi dengan open-ending ada sedikit harapan dia bisa mulai awal yang baru. Moga-moga. Seberapa rusak pun dampak yang udah ditimbulkannya.
Patter ini karakter yang kuat banget penggambarannya sampai saya bisa nebak MBTI-nya: INTJ. Anyone agree? =))
Dari buku ini, sebenarnya ada satu hal yang bikin saya bertanya-tanya: apa bisnis yang dilakukan Patter itu bisa dikatakan ilegal? Kalau yang saya tangkap, dia "cuma" menjual ide cerita, dalam bentuk sinopsis dan sebagainya, bukan cerita utuh, dan pembelinya pun diharapkan mengembangkan ide itu dengan bakat masing-masing. Jadi nggak bisa dibilang plagiarisme, kan? Ataukah masalah utamanya memang soal etika? Apakah kalau Patter memberikan idenya secara cuma-cuma bukannya diperjualbelikan, tindakannya lebih bisa dimaklumi? Di sisi lain, dari yang pernah saya pelajari dikit-dikit dari hukum hak kekayaan intelektual, kekayaan intelektual seseorang (termasuk ide cerita Patter yang sudah diwujudkan dalam bentuk sinopsis dsb) memang bisa dikomersialkan, jadi kadang saya rasa sah-sah aja kalau Patter lebih mau menjual gagasan-gagasannya daripada diberikan cuma-cuma. Harusnya bisnisnya nggak perlu setersembunyi itu, dan pelanggan-pelanggannya nggak usah separanoid dan selebay itu, selain karena alasan harga diri masing-masing.
Gimanapun, mungkin emang masih ada aspek yang saya kurang ngerti. Kalau ada yang mau sharing pendapat dan mungkin mencerahkan saya soal ini, silakan ya :)
abandonedmegastructure's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
"Improvisation is my only true talent"
The Ringmaster's Daughter is perhaps the most self-indulgent piece of fiction I've ever read. At its heart lies a simple fantasy, which goes:
"Imagine that your imagination was so grandiose, so overflowing with ideas, that it set you apart from the common folk for better and worse. Imagine that you were valued, were worshipped, not as a writer but as an inspiration to writers. What if you were, simply put, so good a writer that you could earn wealth and recognition without the burdens of fame or the toil of writing?"
What a concept! Anyone who writes, or who would like to start writing, has to see the appeal in that. The idea that even your drawer of rejected drafts was so valuable a resource that people would pay to obtain the merest sliver - now there's a thought! The Ringmaster's Daughter is Jostein Gaarder diving into this sort of wish fulfillment for two hundred pages.
I don't think this reflects negatively on the book, mind you. It's a fascinating psychological exploration of its main character, a quiet boy named Petter, both loved and hated for his boundless imagination. We watch Petter grow into a purposeless young man, and then into the Spider, an elusive figure who makes a living selling authors plots and phrases from his own boundless repertoire. This all is told through a series of self-contained events involving his writer friends, parents, and lovers. On a technical level, there's little to complain about: Gaarder is clearly a good writer who understands pacing and foreshadowing; the tale rhymes elegantly.
The narrative is somewhat nonlinear, and sometimes multiple pages are spent outlining one of Petter's story drafts, but the storytelling never felt jumble or purposeless and in fact the side stories felt like a nice breath of fresh air (which, through excellent foreshadowing, often ended up gaining relevancy to the main plot). It's all very metatextual; fans of Sophie's World will find much to like here.
The story itself, for all that it's a backdrop to Petter's own character, is decently engaging, and the final twist took juuust long enough to hit me for me to feel it was a good one. Petter is a self-admitted unreliable narrator, and there's some hints sprinkled throughout the narrative to suggest that the entire book (in-universe written by his hand) might be a fabrication altogether, which was an element I felt added to the whole of it.
Still, I can't deny that for many, this work will feel a bit too narcissistic. There's only so many times where Gaarder can regale us with one of Petter's supposedly genius drafts (which aren't bad, mind you! just hardly exceptional) without it starting to feel like the writer patting his own back, and the main character is hardly for everyone. If you get through the first few chapters feeling annoyed rather than fascinated with the main character, I don't recommend holding out to finish the book.
The Ringmaster's Daughter is perhaps the most self-indulgent piece of fiction I've ever read. At its heart lies a simple fantasy, which goes:
"Imagine that your imagination was so grandiose, so overflowing with ideas, that it set you apart from the common folk for better and worse. Imagine that you were valued, were worshipped, not as a writer but as an inspiration to writers. What if you were, simply put, so good a writer that you could earn wealth and recognition without the burdens of fame or the toil of writing?"
What a concept! Anyone who writes, or who would like to start writing, has to see the appeal in that. The idea that even your drawer of rejected drafts was so valuable a resource that people would pay to obtain the merest sliver - now there's a thought! The Ringmaster's Daughter is Jostein Gaarder diving into this sort of wish fulfillment for two hundred pages.
I don't think this reflects negatively on the book, mind you. It's a fascinating psychological exploration of its main character, a quiet boy named Petter, both loved and hated for his boundless imagination. We watch Petter grow into a purposeless young man, and then into the Spider, an elusive figure who makes a living selling authors plots and phrases from his own boundless repertoire. This all is told through a series of self-contained events involving his writer friends, parents, and lovers. On a technical level, there's little to complain about: Gaarder is clearly a good writer who understands pacing and foreshadowing; the tale rhymes elegantly.
The narrative is somewhat nonlinear, and sometimes multiple pages are spent outlining one of Petter's story drafts, but the storytelling never felt jumble or purposeless and in fact the side stories felt like a nice breath of fresh air (which, through excellent foreshadowing, often ended up gaining relevancy to the main plot). It's all very metatextual; fans of Sophie's World will find much to like here.
The story itself, for all that it's a backdrop to Petter's own character, is decently engaging, and the final twist took juuust long enough to hit me for me to feel it was a good one. Petter is a self-admitted unreliable narrator, and there's some hints sprinkled throughout the narrative to suggest that the entire book (in-universe written by his hand) might be a fabrication altogether, which was an element I felt added to the whole of it.
Still, I can't deny that for many, this work will feel a bit too narcissistic. There's only so many times where Gaarder can regale us with one of Petter's supposedly genius drafts (which aren't bad, mind you! just hardly exceptional) without it starting to feel like the writer patting his own back, and the main character is hardly for everyone. If you get through the first few chapters feeling annoyed rather than fascinated with the main character, I don't recommend holding out to finish the book.
annaolivia3's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
aljosa's review against another edition
4.0
He writes so beautifully and it's really engaging, I'm just not sure about the last 20 pages or so. This was the third Gaarder book this year for me and I'll definitelly read more in 2024.
kristinvdt's review against another edition
4.0
Denne overgikk mine forventninger. En annerledes bok som jeg likte godt.
tnt307's review against another edition
2.0
Mělo to hezké části, především synopse knih se mi moc líbily, ale celkově ten příběh byl relativně slabý, zápletka jaksi neoriginální, vyprávění nějaké moc protáhlé.
nikkiisreading's review against another edition
4.0
It's weird, this is one of those books where I wasn't sure I liked it until nearly the end. Around page 160 or so it suddenly started to all make sense and the pace changed completely, convincing me that I did in fact enjoy it! But even in the early pages I couldn't put the book down. Not much happens but it's still a quite intriguing story.
vyamilireads's review against another edition
4.0
Buku ini bercerita tentang seorang laki-laki yg memiliki imajinasi tanpa batas. Bisa dibilang, Petter semacam "Ghost Writer" yg menjual banyak sekali ide-ide cerita kepada para penulis yg kehabisan ide, atau bahkan calon penulis pemula yg belum menerbitkan apapun. Mulai dari kata-kata bijak, sinopsis, juga plot beserta masukan-masukan untuk mengembangkan ide cerita itu. Gila ga sih?
agnes_marie's review against another edition
4.0
Sirkusdirektørens datter ble egentlig bare bedre og bedre etter som jeg las... Blir imponert over hvordan Gaarder klarer å koble ting sammen, og det er helt sikkert en hel del sammenhenger jeg enda ikke har sett. Interessant om skriving, forfatterskap, kreativitet og det å føle at hodet ditt hele tiden er fullt av ideer. Om det å leve så mye i ditt eget hode at du mister deg selv i labyrinten. Om å være en edderkopp som spinner og spinner, for mange tråder på en gang. Som spinner seg selv inne i sitt eget nett.
ericaplapp's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0