Failed by Love and Life: How “Olenka” by Budi Darma Became My Favorite Read This Year

In 2024, for about a year, I got caught up in French and English academic journals as additional sources to prepare myself for earning a DELF B2 certificate and a bachelor degree. At the beginning of the year, I befriended bunch of French grammatical books and our relationship went very well to the point that I decided to research a linguistic topic for my thesis. Of course, this held me back from reading other type of publications because, besides not having enough time, my desire to read also disappeared. When I successfully defended my thesis, I made a few plans that I hadn’t been able to do earlier that year, one of which was diving into Indonesian literatures to rekindle a sense of pride and become more cultured about the richness this country has to offer.