Haji Backpacker is a film based on a novel by Aguk Irawan. Without having the benefit to watch the film, I bought the novel Haji Backpacker during my trip to Bukittinggi and Padang. Since everyone has been talking about Haji Backpacker, I was expecting a book to the standard of 5cm at the very least. As always, I would be very eager to read any travel-related novels and books. I started reading few chapters but I didn’t find it as appealing as 99 Cahaya di Langit Eropah. I had to put it down on the shelf to make way for other interesting books. Recently, I had the time to finish the book.
Haji Backpacker is a story about a man named Mada who gave up on his parents after the lady to whom he was about to get married ran away. Not only that, he deviated from his religion to live a wild and carefree life. He travelled through Thailand – Vietnam – China – Tibet – Nepal – India 0 Pakistan – Iran – Saudi Arabia – Mecca. He turned into a gangster in Thailand and left Thailand after he murdered a man.
Book Review : Haji Backpacker
To be honest, as far as spiritual route is concerned, this isn’t the kind of story line I am interested in. First, the character is too weak so as to allow his unrequited love to bring the worst out of him. I have met people who started to travel because they were divorced, separated and left without words. No issues with that. No issues with those people. We travel for different reasons. But to become a gangster and kill a man? All for the name sake of unrequited love?
Second, the novel is haunted by the unrequited love. Mada refused to move on. Instead, he blamed everything else. As a reader, I would like to read more about the journey and interesting people Mada had met during his travel. Not the story of the past he was trying to run away from. The story for Thailand was too long.
The conversational English language in the book can be improved. I find it hard to understand.
The title of the book is trendy and catchy enough to grab the attention of readers and film-goers. I do enjoy the book starting from Iran until he reached his ultimate destination Mecca.
I rate Haji Backpacker 2/5 stars.
4 Comments
nasib baik tak beli… i flipped through the book and felt that 99 Cahaya di Langit Eropah both movie and book better lah.
Assalammualaikum..
Thanks for the review. Tak pernah baca novel, tapi terus layan movies.
Mula-mula ingat cerita pasal apa lah. But then bila sampai kepada scene akhir baru paham yang mada travels sebab frust bercinta.
Story line simple. Cerita yang sangat biasa tapi bila di beri nafas dalam movies, nampak gempak dan bijak.
Anyway, i do enjoy tengok filem ni sebab scene dalam movie lawa-lawa. =)
regards,
raidah
http://www.blograidah.com
salam , kt mana boleh dpt kn novel ni ya ,nk baca sgt yg versi novel tq
Alamak, saya pun beli di Jakarta. Cuba cari di e-book. Mungkin ada.