ជួបគ្នា១៥ឆ្នាំក្រោយ (See You in 15 Years)
Source: Facebook
Book information:
Author: Manith (ម៉ានិត)
Co-authors: Mong Manuth (ម៉ុង ម៉ានុត), Mak Sreyneat (ម៉ាក់ ស្រីនាថ)
Page: 250
Language: Khmer
(I) bought from: International Book Center (in Phnom Penh)
Genre: Romance
Mood: Reflective, emotional, sad
Pace: medium pace
Character driven> plot driven
Trigger warning: none
Why I read it: Interesting synopsis
Mood while I read: 🤨😔🥰😣😭😤🥹
Who I will recommend to: Romance/drama lover, Manith’s fans
Rating
Plot: 8/10 ⭐️
Character: 8.5/10 ⭐️
Ease of reading: Easy (if you can read Khmer language)
Overall (not just from the above three): 8/10 ⭐️
1) Synopsis
Chak (ចក្រ), a 15-year-old boy, told his beloved Reasey (រាសី) that he would die the next day. He made promise with her that he would come back in 15 years and that he wanted her to wait for him…
2) Review
Plot
From the title and synopsis, “See You in 15 Years” might give you an impression that it’s a romance novel which talks about a couple loving each other so much that they fight against anything to be together. However, it explores more than that. The fact that it exceeds my expectation makes me love it more than I thought.
At first, I was disappointed that the authors didn’t write in detail about Reasey’s struggle for 15 years while waiting for Chak because I wanted to understand how much she suffered. However, when I continued reading, I finally understood the author direction. I don’t want to talk about the plot too much because I’m afraid that it’ll spoil you. Instead, I want to talk more about the characters.
Characters
In the story, we follow Reasey’s life the most. Simply speaking, she was a kind and honest woman, but she also had complexity in her heart which she herself couldn’t understand, which is realistic. I’ve never experienced the feeling of love or been in a relationship before, so I can’t say for sure that love can make people do incredible (and also questionable) things like Reasey. Nevertheless, what I can relate is the uncertainty in life or decision which she chose. When she was with Koumnour (គំនូរ), a man who has loved her since high school, she missed Chak. But when she was with Chak, she began to ask herself if she really wanted this or not. This may make us think that she’s a bad woman, but I think anyone has experienced this in one way or another. One more thing that I relate to her is the love between mother and children. Honestly, this story made me cry 2-3 times (a silent tear, not ugly cry). It’s not because of the love between Reasey and Chak, it’s because of the love in family. Furthermore, I read this book when I have just left my family for Japan (plus I was having health problem), it’s even easier for me to cry!
Additionally, I want to talk about Chak. Oh… Chak! It’s not like I hate him or anything, but I don’t like his actions at all (not all action, though). I understand that he had his own difficulty and that sometimes we can’t change our fate so we have to do what we can now, but some of his words and actions toward Reasey made me mad! Sometimes it was so bad that I had to say out loud “Man! You’re such a 15-year-old boy!!” even though I knew clearly that his mental age isn’t 15. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve never loved anyone, but while the authors tried to show that his actions were correct, what I saw was a selfishness of a man. His promise changed a woman’s entire life, but instead of trying to understand her, he just thought of one thing only, which is “Now I’m 15 years old! It’s time to meet you and I don’t care about anything! Your situation, you feeling, your need, our age-gap problem, or whatever!” (Not a quote from the novel).
At the same time, I notice that his situation is kind of similar to mine because I left my family and make my parents wait for me, too. Thus, I began to feel guilty and realized their difficulty. However, the big difference between our situations is that my parents’ waiting is worth it as long as I work hard enough. On the other hand, Reasey’s waiting… depend on your viewpoint, it was worth it or it was a huge mistake in life.
Beside these two characters, I also want to talk about Koumnour. He was a man who loved Reasey for very long time. I loved this character so much. He was such a great man that not only I, but also other people think that this kind of man is almost extinct from the world. How long Reasey waited for Chak is how long Koumnour waited for Reasey. While I hate the relationship between Reasey and Chak in the later half, I can’t help but route for Koumnour and Reasey to be together.
Speaking of Reasey and Chak’s relationship, I don’t hate it that much. I don’t mind age-gap relationship as long as they truly love each other. Heck! I’ve shipped characters in an anime called “Koi wa ameagari no you ni (Love is like after the rain)” even though they had 28-year age gap! On the other hand, in this book, I could accept their relationship at first. But later on, I became like “Come on! Guys! Please move on!” If you’ve read it, you’ll understand what I mean.
The Writing
I don’t have any problem with the writing. Instead, I like it! I don’t how the three authors did, but they could manage to make me cry and think about this book for a while even after finishing it. Additionally, I was amazed that the authors could find various words for description. Almost all scenes where the character were in have their own descriptive sentences. But man! Sometimes I was so lazy that I didn’t want to read them carefully because I really wanted to read the real plot! But I had to so that I can improve my writing. The fact that I don’t like reading description of places is maybe the reason why I’m not good at writing it on my own.
If I have to nitpick about the writing, I’ll say that the way characters referred to each other when they were 15 is kind of unnatural. I’m not sure how Cambodian teenagers in 1988 called their friends, but I’ve never referred to my friends as “louk (Mr.)” and “neang (Ms)”, and I’ve also never been referred as ones. Actually, I’ll get offended if I’m called “neang” unless it’s in a formal setting. (I don’t mind being called Ms, though.)
3) Overall
This book was such a fun ride (or a sad one) for me. I reflected a lot and learned a bunch of lessons from it, particularly the concept of “partner for love” and “partner for life”. I don’t have that much experience in life, so I’m not confident enough to say that it works for me or everyone. Finally, I really recommend this book for anyone who loves romance but wants different taste, especially Manith’s fans!
