An awakening...two occupied homelands...a young woman's personal
growth.
Melati's journey took her from a cloistered Swiss boarding school
to the guerrilla camps of a scorched earth. Her own personal growth
from a naive school girl to an independent young woman closely parallels
the struggle for independence of her reclaimed homeland.
Harumi Wanasita tells the story of one woman(Melati. She also tells
the story of a generation. The Dutch-Indonesian descent people at
the time of Indonesia's declaration of independence were the last
generation of their culture. This is their story.
Reflecting the maturing of her character, Harumi varies her writing
style as Melati develops. Naive at first for Melati's wide-eyed innocence,
the style is gradually refined as the novel moves through wartime
Holland and Melati's life with the guerrilla fighters in revolutionary
Indonesia.
Through all the experiences which make Melati's story, Harumi retains
a language and style reminiscent of an earlier simpler time, when
innocence was its own reward. |