"Tenggelamnya Kapal van der Wijck" - revisited

Tenggelamnya Kapal van der Wijck is the title of a famous novel by Hamka. The first time I read the book was about 35 years ago, when I was still in primary school. I enjoyed the book very well. However, as the years passed by, I gradually forgot the story line- what I could remember was only that the book is about the love story between Zainuddin and Hayati, with a sad ending to it. I also remembered vividly that part of the story was told through the letters written by these two love birds.

I have been looking, though not seriously, for the book. It was only early this month, when I visited the birth place of Hamka did I finally come across a copy of the book - this time with the modified current spelling (the original book was written in old Indonesian language, with a lot of weird spellings to me, such as "djari" for the word "jari", etc..)

During that visit, I bought 2 novels, i.e. this book and "Di bawah Lindungan Kaabah". The latter is much thinner, and I finished reading it soon after we got back from that trip to Sumatera Barat. Two other novels were out of print :-(

It was a pleasure reading the book the second time - now that some of the places mentioned in the book are familiar to me. And the old customs and tradition of the Minangkabau people can be more appreciated now than 35 years ago when it didn't mean a thing to me!

After a few interruptions, last night I finally managed to pick up from where I left, and I finished this book at 1am!!

Remembering my primary school days, and the first half of my secondary school days, I realised that I read quite a number of novels by some famous writers. Among them are Shahnon Ahmad, Marah Rusli, Sutan Takdir Ali Shahbana, Azizi Hj Abdullah, Adibah Amin, Rejaf FI and Khatijah Hashim. And, there are many more whom I can't recall their names :-(

Next "project" would be to locate those books, and read them again!!