Purwokerto, 8th April 2020

"Life is about how you face failures from so many plans that you had meticulously constructed. Life is about how you face fears of uncertainties and various possibilities which may take place any given time."

Several lines above were sentences printed on the back cover of Amigdala (Perjalanan Merepresi Memori). Written by a survivor of domestic violence who prefers to introduce herself under the name Ega Mpokgaga. Definitively, Amygdala is believed as the part of our brain whose role is to conduct processing and memories toward emotional reactions.

This book is the first part of Amygdala's trilogy universe. While waiting for the next tales from Amygdala's second and third session to be released, I will write a modest short review for the first Amydala book -released in February 2020.

Last week I was requested to write a review of this book by a loneliness survivor by the initials of KFR. It did not too long for me to read the book which I finished this first session of Amygdala in exactly under 3 days. Aside from the lightness in language used, everyday language (very typical of the capital) and easy to understand; its very interesting story plotting system also facilitate readers to finish the book in two or three sittings - let alone for a jobless reader like myself.

In general, Amigdala (Perjalanan Merepresi Memori) tells the story of its main character named Ishtar in living life after experiencing domestic violence from her ex-husband. The treatments she endured gave quite massive impacts to her daily life. Starting from her appointments with psychologists and psychiatrist to take away bad memories disturbing her to her love life continuity. 

The shapes and events of domestic violence experiences were wrapped in fictional coating and strung together in 27 parts in the book. The plot and schemes in the first Amigdala session is quite interesting to encourage more brain works for its readers because the book served those pieces separately in non-chronological and quite random orders. 

But readers need not to worry to put together a linear story plot because the writer provided "repeat" tool from a momentum's cut into two different perspectives within one coherent timeline as a medium to strengthen the story and emotions to be conveyed. 

One example is the situation when Ishtar met with Mike. It was presented in one continuous momentum complete with dialogues and narratives in several pages from Ishtar as the main character. The part was then chimed in with continuous sequential chronology before returning to the scene when Ishtar met with Mike - but presented from Mike's perspective. 

The fictional coating started with coinciding lifelikeness several times made me squinted one eye and raised an eyebrow above the other eye. The book's very flowing storytelling technique instead portrayed several distance elements appeared to be hurriedly connected and arranged into threads of ideas crashing with one another. An example of this is the meeting process and relation among its characters which were built or deliberately explored in this story.

Furthermore, those parts were elements with quite high emotional levels because they were oriented in romance troubles of the book's characters. Perhaps all 334 pages of Amigdala (Perjalanan Merepresi Memori) part one is not enough to make elements within in to be more clearly portrayed; considering the story content and ideas elevated were considerably heavy and complex.

Aside from accentuating the dark sides of a domestic violence in young ages and all shapes of gender discrimination - which cases keep on growing until today. This book is also loaded with love convention systems with all sorts of chaotic problems typical to life in the capital. Starting from the characters' lifestyle, the way they communicate, to the cultures portrayed in this book are very relevant to the daily packaging of the Big Durian's life.

But again, those elements eventually lie under the writer's authority to portray and connect relationship between characters. Ishtar's journey in repressing memory is not yet finished and still waiting for its continuity in the second and third edition of Amygdala trilogy.

What triggered my imagination as a reader to delve deeper into the story's atmosphere were the placements of songs' lyrics scattered in various columns of this book. This element has helped to lead me as a reader to imagine more complete illustrations of the scenes including background noises with song lyrics quoted in the texts. Reading this book turned into a very interesting experience to me as a music listener to various genres - from sad music to satanic music. Various lyrical quotes presented in several columns of the story stimulated the brain by mimicking an experience that is similar with watching a film loaded with various original soundtracks. The book's texts transformed into detailed picturesque scenes when I read while imagining excerpts of songs playing in the head. 

The use of song lyrics' quotes as mediums is a mean I rarely encounter in building emotions when reading novels or other forms of texts. For me, reading Amigdala feels just like being taken to watch a film. For example, a film titled Janji Joni which portrayed many original soundtracks excerpts from bands with various genres in bringing certain atmospheric emotions.

I remember the film's ending scene where Konservatif (a song by The Adams) was played at the end of the story after Angelique asked Joni to play the last roll of film because he was late. That is quite similar with the experience I encounter when reading in comparison to a film; atmospheric illustrations, mimics and movements of the characters became more visually detailed in the head. It has been a real pleasure to feel new experience in reading a book. 

Here below is a list of songs which lyrics were tucked away in several momentums with special emotional needs int his book. I would recommend listening to several of those songs while reading this book - or there could even be a dedicated Amigdala playlist to accompany the book's reading activity. This book could be a medium to develop literation and references for those who enjoy listening to music.

1. Come In My Kitchen - Robert Johnson pg. 36

2. King of Sorrow - Sade pg. 47

3. Over My Head (Cable Car) - The Fray pg. 58

4. In My Own Tears - Ray Charles pg. 78

5. Love Lost - Temper Trap pg. 132

6. P.D.A (We Just Don't Care) - John Legend pg. 155

7. Ain't That a Bitch - Aerosmith pg. 165-166

8. Rangkum - Polkawars pg. 175

9. Secret Garden - Bruce Springsteen pg. 185

10. The Space Between - Dave Matthews Band pg. 186 

11. John Hiatt pg. 126 

12. Everything is Alright - Justin Pierre (Motion City Soundtrack) pg. 211

13. Bad - U2 pg. 218-219 

14. Mengunci Ingatan - Barasuara pg. 269 

15. Gotten - Slash ft. Adam Levine pg. 272 

16. Kunto Aji - Pilu Membiru pg. 275

17. Holocene - Bon Iver pg. 295

18. Heartbreak Warfare - John Mayer pg. 303

19. U Got It Bad - Usher pg. 307 

20. Sementara - Float pg. 328

*** 

You can read the original post in Bahasa Indonesia here.

Translation by @deanbenitez.