Timun's Journey : Chasing Dreams, Defying Time

Do you have a dream? I bet you do, you must reach it. Do you know what makes life more beautiful and meaningful? It happens when you become yourself, being honest in creating something. And you must know, doesn't matter how old you are, you still can reach your dream like TIMUN! 

TIMUN JELITA is a comedy novel written by Raditya Dika, with 171 pages and was published on 6 December 2024 by Gagas Media. This book tells about Timun's life as a 40 years old accountant. He wants to be a guitarist, reviving his old passion when he became a guitarist in Senior High School. His dream became reality when Jelita (his cousins) agreed to make a duo band with Timun. Their group is called Timun Jelita. There are a lot of stories they have passed to create songs, music, practice and promote their band. The background experience of each character in the story teaches the readers about life lessons.

There is a unique fact about this novel. The author of the book in real life also makes album music that represents the story inside the novel. This novel is volume 1 and the album songs of this novel are Bukan orang pintar, Jika bersamamu, Sadar sendiri dan Juga berdua. You can listen to the album on Spotify or YouTube. You can read the novel while listening to the songs, it is interesting isn't it?

Although the conflict tends to be light, this book tells a lot about appreciation, honour, passion and acceptance in life. Timun teaches us not to listen to what other people say and just focus on yourself. Jelita teaches us to bravely forgive people who hurt you in the past then move on. Robert's character teaches us not to try lying to someone you just met to get their attention, just be yourself. Then, Putri as Timun's wife always supports what her husband does and she loves Timun genuinely. Author put light humor in several parts of the chapter. For instance when Timun tries to act like Gen Z from the dress style and uses words like ''bjir'' or ''bro'' but it doesn't match with his age. You will understand the jokes, how funny it is if you read the novel. In addition, since the novel tells about musical story and there is numerous terminology about music, the author put footnotes. It assists the readers to understand a certain definition of technical terms inside the story related to the music. For example the word ''squencer'' means a tool to program and replay all parts or a certain part of a song.

However, a certain part in this story is undetailed. It makes the story feel flat or underdeveloped. Several existing characters do not have a sufficient role to merge and to be told that makes the story feel ordinary. It impacts on the readers' emotional feeling, and explores the whole situation in a certain part of the story. 

This book is suitable for the readers who like a light story with no complicated conflict, especially for those who are pursuing their dream, no matter the age. This book teaches readers that happiness can come from a simple thing, and appreciate the small things that happen in the process of pursuing goals. Despite the story being light, this book gives hope that there is no delay in pursuing goals. As it is stated, if there is hope, there is a way. The message is still meaningful and relevant today to the readers in chasing dreams for life.

Reviewed by Mauri