I always love reading, ever since I could read. Until I graduated from High School, I could sit, lie on my bed, even eat with a book in my hand. I could read from early morning to late at night. If anyone had ever asked me which one I like most: read the novel or watch the film, I would certainly pick the first one. But lately I realized, that for some reason that hobby seemed to fade away. Probably because when I started college I suddenly got too many things to think about, to care about. The assignments, quizzes, middle tests, finals, manicures, shoes, clothes, blushes, EVERYTHING! Suddenly I had no time to read, except for some 'Paman Gober' comics.
So, thanks for a friend who had reminded me about this-long-lost-hobby, I planed to read about 10 books during this college-break. But so far I only managed to read 5 books so far. Ugh..., I'm not sure I could fulfill the target.
Anyway, I just finished this book called Mystic River. Well, yeah, it's also the name of the film where Sean Penn got his first (I think) Academy Award. And it's like... what? Five years ago?? But the translation novel just out this last year, so I guess I'm not that late.
Here's a point that bothers me, so then I didn't put this book in my recently-read-books section. That you never know how a single gesture of yours effecting people around you, and it maybe so much more than you could ever imagine.
In this book, Dave Boyle was kidnapped by a pair of homo-pedophiles when he was an eleven-years-old-boy. He then came back four days later, but still, some part of him was 'infected' by the things those pedophiles did to him. You know, they said when someone do things that hurt you the most, you'd end up hurting more people the way you were hurt before. To make things worse, he was lived alone with his rather-insane-mother, his father was dead. He was someone that you could easily forgotten, a loyal friend that was half pain-in-the-ass, and never got too much attention in his life. So he started to build this character with his perfect normal life, so then no one could see that behind all of his lies, there was still part of the little boy. Who was still haunted by those pedophiles, eager to do things that was done to him long time ago.
Then, there was a murder. Dave's childhood friend's (Jimmy) daughter was killed brutally by the same night Dave came back home with blood all over his body. Dave's wife, who was frightened by the way Dave acted lately, plus the blood and everything, told Jimmy her suspicion. Here's where the prejudge begun. "You should never come back here after they took you by the car, Dave. They'd infected you," was what Jimmy said.
One of Dave's other friend, Sean, in the other hand, kept struggling to find out what's really going on. He didn't believe that Dave was guilty, until there was enough evidence. His clear mind and prejudge-free, that guided him toward right direction.
In the end, Sean was too late. By the time he told Jimmy who's the murderers of his daughter, he already killed him. Leaving Dave's son, Michael, fatherless with his rather-insane-mother, because she felt guilty of her action. See? The history started all over again.
The interesting part of this book was the background of the characters. Jimmy came from a criminal family, married to a woman who had six brothers, all criminals. Jimmy himself was a robber and murder. Sean came from a middle-class family, well-educated, a college graduated, and a super-police. His life was not always easy, but he chose not to be reactive of whatever happened in his life. This certainly made the difference. Dave, as I mention earlier, came from poor family without a criminal record in a criminal neighborhood. He was out of this world.
Jimmy with his prejudice, said that Dave was infected by those pedophiles. So that Dave was now also a crazy-mind man who could even killed his friend's daughter. This didn't fit though, Dave was infected by vampire and now he became a werewolf? But Jimmy couldn't see that, he was being reactive by the lost of his loved one, he needed to do something, anything. Even with the most impossible evidence. Dave, in the other hand was a weak man. He lied to protect his own self, said anything to please Jimmy so then Jimmy would let him go. It turned out that Jimmy didn't, and killed Dave with a gun then threw his body into the Mystic River.
Then I wonder, maybe the one that was infected the most by the kidnapping of Dave, was not Dave. It's his surroundings. Because by that event people started to build a wall, to look at him strangely, to put any possible prejudice. These surroundings that infected Dave, by their rejections and their ways to treat him like a victim. Nobody cared about the boy who had escaped his kidnappers, the pedophiles. All they see was the boy who had been kidnapped by the pedophiles and had possibility to do the same to other children. A victim. A future criminal. Not a survivor, more less a hero. And Dave became more inferior by day, so that he had to keep on building the lies. To keep him on the ground, instead of burying himself...
Maybe, if somewhere in his past there were someone who ask him like, "how did you manage to survive?" or simply offer a genuine friendship or even throw a simple real smile, things wouldn't turn as the way they were. And now, what about Michael? Would people keep seeing him as a-future's-brilliant-baseball-player or simply a son who was left by his father and now lived with his crazy mother? Maybe he wasn't the one who would be infected by his father's death, it's his surroundings, who now labeled him as 'pity child'.
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Minggu, 10 Agustus 2008
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08:18