I am finishing this book in one time-sitting and less than an hour. I was intricate to read this book because the author, the history of this book, and the diversity of topics that was brought and delivered through the storyline.
Most of our historian books had labeled W.R. Supratman as the composer of our nationality song "Indonesia Raya", rarely anyone knew that he was a journalist and a writer. In the short biography that explained in the end of this book, it is even mentioned that W.R. Supratman made the song and play the music as one of his hobby, while his main job is a journalist for one of the newspaper during colonial period named "Sin Po" (This newspaper also being one of the object that being highlighted in the storyline of the novel). Since he worked for the newspaper, his expertise in writing is growing hard like a flames of fire inside of him, then he wrote this novel. I must said that probably he is one of the generation of writer during "Angkatan Balai Pustaka" (one of the oldest period in the Indonesian Literature) since this book was released in 1928 .
In fact, the Dutch colonialism knew that W.R. Supratman is one of the figure that should be suspected as he was an active journalist and a writer. This book is finally being banned by them until he passed away in the Dutch exile. None of the knew that this book exist. This book was lost in Indonesian history for decades until it was discovered again and being republished for a mass so we could enjoy it in the form of paperback.
The premise of the story actually very simple but I really love how W.R. Supratman bring diversity of topics here:
First, he depicted how was the Indonesian in the Dutch colonialism era. Many Dutch words that was being written in this book, adding the sense of how was Indonesian people during colonial times and it also explained well how was the background location of the story.
Second, he is depicted the true colors personality of Indonesian natives while they were grow up in Dutch school (MULO), through the main character (Sitti Adminah and Sarlilah), how was the differentiate personality they gave, Adminah more like enjoying the privilege as the Indonesian natives that grow up in Dutch school and would like to preserve her privilege rather than back to serve her people and country, while on the contrary Sarlilah would love to serve her country and family free from the colonialism through the education that she got from the education that being provided by colonialist (Dutch).
Third, the books also explaining how was the differentiation of treatment between the Indonesian natives, Indonesian natives that worked for colonial government and the Dutch in the society. The differences of treatment was mostly explained in this book from the first page until the end of the story.
Fourth, this book also explained W.R. Supratman perspectives and thoughts about how could Indonesian free themselves from Dutch colonialism and reach "Kemerdekaan" through the dialogue between 2 side characters (the father of Adminah and the father of Sarlilah).
Sadly, the storyline and the plot itself wasnt really engaging and the ending is a cliffhanger so I couldnt really enjoy the whole storyline.
But truly reading this book adding my knowledge and perspectives about how was Indonesian and Indonesian natives during colonial times. I will give rate 3.95 for this book!