Belajar Tinggi-Tinggi Akhirnya Ke Dapur Juga

I wanted to get The Haunted Bookshop from Kino, to read over the (slightly) long(er) weekend, but it is listed to be over RM100. Thus I decided to consult a friend who's rated it 4 stars on Goodreads. She recommended it, and also the prequel - Parnassus on Wheels. Kino has Parnassus on standard paperback price, hence I was less reluctant to purchase it.

I read Parnassus expecting it to be a book about books, but I discovered it was so much more than that. It was a classic ode to feminism! Haha.

Helen McGill has been keeping the farm household for her brother, farmer-turned-author Andrew McGill for 15 years. During that duration, she has compiled an 'anthology' of 6000 loaves of bread and collected 1300 dozens of eggs while he vanished some time or other on his vagabond trips to find materials for his books, shirking the responsibilities on Sabine Farm solely to his sister. Helen was tired of it, she had been hiding, intercepting a lot of messages from publishers and fans alike to prevent Andrew from leading, continuing such 'irresponsible' life but to no avail.

Therefore, when one day, Roger 'Professor' Mifflin in his Parnassus, driven by a horse named Pegasus stopped by with an offer to sell his wagon of a traveling bookshop to Andrew for $400, Helen seized the opportunity to buy it for herself and went on her first vacation in 15 years!

I was amazed by Helen's impulsiveness. She decided in less than 15 minutes, and took another quarter of an hour to write a check, leave Andrew a note, packed and instructed her slow-witted Swede helper about the matter of the household. Then she was off!

Alongside Mifflin who taught her the gospel of good books, Helen learned to embrace her newly found freedom. At one point, she even felt like shouting to a housewife who was busy with chores, "Oh, silly woman! Leave you stoves, your pots and pans and chores, even if only for one day! Come out and see the sun in the sky and the rive in the distance!"

This liberation went further as the plot progressed, Helen learned to take charge of her life, and to acknowledge her desire as a woman - even as a near 40 years old - to love and be loved.

Of course there are other angles on which this book can be discussed, but as someone who loves books and passionate about feminism, I can be a lot biased when books become a device that liberate women from their typical roles.

However, I was less than satisfied with the ending. I was disappointed when Helen referred to Mifflin (who was now the love of her life) as "my master." And when she got back to Sabine Farm, she quickly assumed her role of the woman of the household while the men 'gossiped' (about her) in the sitting room. Like, after all those adventures then you go back to that? It's no different that the famous Malay notion, "belajar tinggi-tinggi pun akhirnya ke dapur juga."

Blrrrgh.