Journal of Novel Layla Majnun

The novel Layla Majnun written by Syaikh Nizami, adopted into Bahasa Indonesia by Sholeh Gisymar tells about a love story of Layla and Qays. Qays was the only child of Seyd Omri, the leader of Kafilah bani Amir. And Layla was a daughter of the leader of Kafilah bani Qhatibiah. Once they met at school they studied, loved each other. Time went by; Qays had gone crazy on her. Wherever he was, he always mentioned Layla’s name. That’s why people called him Majnun[1]. It brought shame to Layla’s family that her father decided not to allow her to go to school anymore. Being away from Layla, Qays got crazier. Syed Omri felt so sad of him. He tried to propose him marriage to Layla’s father, but then it was turned down. He had been getting crazier on her day after day.

I don’t really think much of this novel. To me, it’s a boring novel of those ever read. The plot was too flat. Well, the love story was amazing, but the way Sholeh Gisymar described it may be the reason why I don’t really enjoy reading this novel. It might be only my subjective view anyway. I probably expected too much. I had heard about this novel several years ago before having it on hand. What people what said about this popular novel gave me a significant effect of how much I had expected how this novel was going to be.

There was only one main conflict told. That may be one of the reasons why I didn’t really enjoy reading the novel. The whole story was about the two tormented lovers—Layla and Qays—that was it. As a reader, I was only brought to one condition. Each page I turned and read just brought me to one imagination. The novel is usually considered to be interesting if only the reader is made questioning of how the story will go. However, when I read this novel I could guess the story would go, even I could predict how the main characters would be in the end of the story.

I come to my conclusion that I don’t really enjoy reading this novel. This was such a boring novel I have ever read.

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[1] Majnun (Arabic) means crazy