Told over two different timelines by two different narrators, The Turtle House takes place in Kadoma, Osaka, Japan and Curtain, Texas. Mineko Cope (MiTold over two different timelines by two different narrators, The Turtle House takes place in Kadoma, Osaka, Japan and Curtain, Texas. Mineko Cope (Minnie) has been a widow for many years. She is forced to move in with her son and daughter-in-law after a suspicious fire destroyed the Cope family ranch house. Her granddaughter, Lia, an architect with a promising career in Austin, has unexpectedly returned under circumstances she refuses to explain.
The most obvious thing Minnie and Lia have in common is that they’re in limbo. They share a bedroom in a house neither are really welcomed in. Minnie's daughter in law wants her in an assisted living center. Lia's parents want her to return to her career in Austin and it becomes clear that whatever she went through in Austin had to do with a college professor named Darren Miles.
When Minnie shows Lia her minogame statue (long-lived turtle with long strands of algae growing from their shells that symbolize longevity and good luck). When Lia asks why she never talks about her home in Japan, Minnie begins narrating her story and sharing her love for the turtle house which became a refuge during her childhood. While they had not been particularly close, I really enjoyed seeing them grow closer as they begin to share their stories.
It wasn't until I finished that I found out "The Turtle House" carried an authenticity born from the author’s family experience. In 2009, Churchill interviewed her Japanese-American grandmother, recorded her stories and researched the history of war brides and their experiences. This is a novel, not a memoir, but its compelling detail is written with a genuine tenderness that brings both Mineko and her journey to life.
I was originally drawn to this book by its beautiful cover, and discovered a wonderful debut novel. In fact, I plan to recommend it to my F2F book club....more
Salvation of a Saint is set in Tokyo and begins with the breakup of a marriage. Yoshitaka tells his wife, Ayane, that he’s leaving her after a year ofSalvation of a Saint is set in Tokyo and begins with the breakup of a marriage. Yoshitaka tells his wife, Ayane, that he’s leaving her after a year of marriage because she’s infertile. They agreed before the wedding that they would separate after a year if they didn’t have any children by then. Even though she knew it was coming, Ayane is hurt by his request for a divorce.
A few days later, Yoshitaka is found dead in his living room, apparently poisoned by something in his coffee. Ayane is the logical suspect, but she was hundreds of miles away when the murder happened. There aren’t any obvious clues about how the poison got into the coffee, and the police are at a loss.
Detective Kusanagi begins his investigation, but he is quickly becoming infatuated with the prime suspect and believes she is innocent. But Junior Detective Kaoru Utsumi holds onto her belief that Ayane is guilty. Kusanagi calls on his friend, physicist Dr. Manabu Yukawa, also known as Detective Galileo, a University professor who is devoted to scientific methods to solve crimes by constructing hypotheses and testing them.
The backstory between Kusanagi and Galileo is explained briefly and I realkly liked that there’s a smart female detective. Utsumi brings a female perspective to this case that contrasts beautifully with that of the rest of the male team, which is important as the major suspects in this murder are both female.
I thought the build-up of events and characters started a little slow, but I was immersed in the story from the beginning. The care and intricacies of the way the characters developed was masterful. How do you keep your readers interested in a murder mystery when the murderer is revealed at the very beginning of the book?
Seemingly simple at the beginning, it became a complex, puzzling case with an emphasis on deciphering clues and figuring out how a simple crime could be committed so perfectly. I think Keigo Higashino is a brilliant writer of mysteries in the vein of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. If you're looking for an action packed thriller this isn't for you. If you are a fan of mysteries set in an Asian culture, you will definitely want to read any of Higashino's Detective Galileo mysteries....more
If you are looking for a nice, heart-warming tale similar to The Housekeeper and The Professor, this aint it. Mari, our main character, is a 17-year-oIf you are looking for a nice, heart-warming tale similar to The Housekeeper and The Professor, this aint it. Mari, our main character, is a 17-year-old high school dropout and daughter of the Hotel Iris manager. One day, a man and a prostitute are kicked out of the hotel for causing problems. Mari hears him swear at the woman, calling her a whore and finds herself attracted to his voice.
They begin to talk. He lives across the water on an almost-deserted island, translating Russian books. He’s rumored to be a criminal but we can't be sure because we never see things from his perspective. Everything is seen through Mari's point of view. One day she goes home with him where they begin a relationship based on dominance and sado-masochistic violence. Eventually the Translator's nephew shows up and things get even weirder.
One of the positive aspects of the book was that it is quite short. My copy was only 173 pages. The writing is very eloquent. Also, despite how much sexual violence is done to her, Mari makes no excuses for herself or to tries to shift the blame. In fact, she seemed to be welcoming of what was happening. It was a very fast read with few characters, most of them nameless.
This book certainly won’t be for everyone. Most of the characters were unlikable and there was some graphic scenes of sexual violence. I found myself somewhat uncomfortable and admit to reading those parts very quickly. Mari made me sad. Her loneliness made her sense of worth so low she seemed to enjoy being demeaned.
I felt the ending was abrupt with loose threads left. There are definitely some disturbing themes in ‘Hotel Iris’, so readers sensitive to them should avoid this book. Ogawa's writing is the star and she was not let down by her translator, Stephen Snyder. I was intrigued and repelled at different points and I'm sure I won't ever forget this book....more
A Pale View of Hills is narrated by Etsuko, a Japanese woman, who was born in Nagasaki and now lives in England. Widowed by the death of her English sA Pale View of Hills is narrated by Etsuko, a Japanese woman, who was born in Nagasaki and now lives in England. Widowed by the death of her English second husband, she is mourning the suicide of her Japanese oldest daughter, Keiko, who apparently never adjusted to her life in England. Etsuko has a second daughter with her English husband. Half English, Niki is portrayed as a modern independent young Western woman, proud of her mother’s courageous decision to abandon her traditional Japanese husband and emigrate to a new country.
As Etsuko starts to reminisce about her previous life in Nagasaki, I began to wonder how Etsuko’s memory is linked to her recollections of her friendship in Nagasaki with Sachiko and her daughter, Mariko. Sachiko has an American boyfriend, Frank, with whom she plans on emigrating to the U.S. As the action proceeds the parallels between Sachiko and Etsuko become apparent. One mother and child pair (Sachiko and Mariko), apparently bound for America, and another mother and child pair (Etsuko and Keiko), bound for England.
This was Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel and it seemed like it lacked the finesse of his later books. He does a great job of giving us an unreliable narrator structure. Ishiguro’s novels are heavily populated by secretive people, who suppress their feelings and hold in their emotions. Etsuko is particularly reticent but I wasn't captured by the storyline or the characters. Needless to say, he went on to create better novels down the road....more
A Tale for the Time Being is narrated by two characters, Nao, a suicidal 16-year-old Japanese schoolgirl living in Tokyo who keeps a diary, and Ruth, A Tale for the Time Being is narrated by two characters, Nao, a suicidal 16-year-old Japanese schoolgirl living in Tokyo who keeps a diary, and Ruth, a Japanese American writer living on British Columbia's Cortes Islands. She finds Nao's diary on the beach in a plastic-wrapped Hello Kitty lunchbox that also contains a batch of old letters.
Ruth’s husband, Oliver, is excited by the idea that this package floated from Tokyo all the way to British Columbia. He thinks it’s part of the debris flow from the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011. Ruth is more concerned with Nao’s implicit suicide threat.
Ruth is trying to write a memoir but has been suffering from writer’s block. Her discovery, like the novel that contains it, proves irresistible. Nao’s diary reads like a series of letters addressed to an imaginary “you.” Nao wants to tell the story of her grandmother, Jiko, a 104-year-old Zen Buddhist nun. More ominously, Nao intends to chronicle her own end: she plans to commit suicide when she’s completed her account.
The chapters alternate between Nao’s diary and Ruth’s life. Ozeki skillfully develops the two parallel story lines. Her characters are connected through their deep lonliness. Ozeki's powerful writing explores the intimate human relationships that drive both women. I'm not particularly drawn to this style but I thought it was very good....more
Keiko Furukara has been a worry to her family all her life, bullied and friendless. Her strange behavior made her unpopular with almost everyone. Her Keiko Furukara has been a worry to her family all her life, bullied and friendless. Her strange behavior made her unpopular with almost everyone. Her family has taken her to counseling but she doesn't understand what they want her to change.
When she is 18, she gets a job at the local Smile Mart convenience store. She pays conscientious attention to the training video, and excels at the job. Keiko finds contentment and self-respect by practicing the daily tasks of working in the store. She mimics behaviors of co-workers and feels she has finally “pulled off being a ‘person”’. But, now she's 36 and her family is unhappy that she hasn't fulfilled what they've expected from her. But she is happy.
I enjoyed the deadpan, yet enticingly comic Keiko. When her sister complains that her baby won’t stop crying, Keiko wonders why no-one has thought to stab it with a small knife. She's a completely different character than any other I've ever seen.
This is a short , easy to read novel with very few characters. I thought the author's commentary on the conformity of Japanese society, which enforces the idea that women marry at a certain age and pursue a conventional career path, was detailed perfectly. If you are looking for a quick and quirky character driven novel, pick up Convenience Store Woman....more
In 1938, 20-year old Chinese student, Stephen Chan, is sent to his family's summer house in a small Japanese fishing village to recover from tuberculoIn 1938, 20-year old Chinese student, Stephen Chan, is sent to his family's summer house in a small Japanese fishing village to recover from tuberculosis.
His only companion is Matsu, the caretaker of the house and garden since the time of Stephen’s grandfather. He is a man of almost no words. Matsu decides to take Stephen to visit the hilltop of Yamaguchi, a remote area inhabited by lepers, where he meets an older woman named Sachi. A lovely relationship forms between these three characters. Stephen resonates with the older couple and enjoys listening to their stories.
There are vivid descriptions of simple but elegant Japanese meals, customs, clothing, and different gardens. The major themes include loyalty, and honor. I felt such a connection to the characters in this beautifully written story, but also experienced their hope, heartbreak, sorrow, strength, resilience.
The story moves very slowly, gradually letting the reader into one secret after another. It was such a wonderful reading experience and I look forward to reading something else by this talented writer....more
The Flower Master is the third book in a series set in Tokyo, featuring Japanese American Rei Shimura. Rei has moved to Japan to open an antique businThe Flower Master is the third book in a series set in Tokyo, featuring Japanese American Rei Shimura. Rei has moved to Japan to open an antique business and spend time with her aunt and uncle. When her aunt Nori enrolls her in a beginner flower arranging class readers are given the opportunity to explore the world of ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. Before long, Sakura Sato, one of the senior teachers at the Kayama School for Ikebana, is found murdered.
There are plenty of suspects, including Rei's aunt, who competed against Sato for awards. There are also suspects like Che Fujisawa, a Colombian-Japanese activist. Che and his group, Stop Killing Flowers, protest the sale of flowers imported from Colombia, which are grown with pesticides that harm and kill the mostly young Colombian women who cut the flowers. There also appear to be a struggle between the Master Teacher's two grown children over who will eventualy take over the Kayama school.
I enjoyed this book for the wonderful descriptions of Tokyo's architecture, aesthetic, and customs. The author drew on her own knowledge of the city to make the setting feel very authentic. I loved learning more about the art of Ikebana and the various schools of thought, design, and philosophy.
There was some strong character development and the addition of the Stop Killing Flowers storyline gave me knowledge of an issue I had never been aware of. I enjoyed seeing Rei interract with her very traditional relatives and learning more about Japanese culture. Ultimately, the mystery was pretty weak and the resolution was not particularly exciting....more
The Memory Police is a dreamlike dystopian story set on an unnamed island that’s being engulfed by an epidemic of forgetting; objects disappear from mThe Memory Police is a dreamlike dystopian story set on an unnamed island that’s being engulfed by an epidemic of forgetting; objects disappear from memory as they disappear from real life.
The disappearances range from everyday objects, like hats or perfume, to things like roses and birds. Most residents accept the disappearance, discard the object if possible, then continue with their lives. If they are caught with disappeared objects or indicate that they retain memories, they are taken away by the Memory Police. The Memory Police are a fascist squad that sweeps through the island, ransacking houses to confiscate lingering evidence of what’s been forgotten.
The unnamed narrator is a novelist. Her mother was a sculptor was murdered by the Memory Police. Her late father was an ornithologist, who died five years before the birds disappeared and she is grateful he was spared the sight of his beloved birds being taken away in garbage bags.
The narrator spends much of her time with an old man, a former ferryman, who lives on a boat that now registers to them only as an unusable object. The two of them take care of each other, and they protect the man who edits the narrator’s novels. He still has his memories, so they help him to hide from the Memory Police in a secret compartment in the narrator’s house.
The benign acceptance of smaller disappearances produces a clear line to larger, more devastating disappearances. In the stories the narrator recounts from her mother, the disappearances have happened for some time, giving the islanders plenty of time to become comfortable with the process. Although the islanders call them “disappearances,” the objects do not physically disappear. Instead, the islanders get rid of these objects themselves after their attachments to them are gone, either by destroying them or throwing them into the river. The disappearances are not a physical phenomenon but a mental one. The Memory Police only exist because some on the island are not affected by the disappearances.
It was hard for me to understand what was actually being accomplished with these disappearances. The biggest draw for me was the charm of the characters and their interactions with each other. Ogawa was able to fill me with a sense of anxiety from the first page to the last. Even though I was often unable to envision some of the "disappearances", I thought it was a unique take on the dystopian formula, with an original concept.
After finishing the book I discovered that the similarities I noticed between the diary of Anne Frank and Yoko Ogawa’s story were not a coincidence. In a 2020 interview, Ogawa says “The Memory Police has its origins in Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl. As I wrote, she was always in the back of my mind.”...more
Six Four features a middle-aged prefect policeman named Yoshinobu Mikami. His teenage daughter, Ayumi, has been missing for months, an apparent runawaSix Four features a middle-aged prefect policeman named Yoshinobu Mikami. His teenage daughter, Ayumi, has been missing for months, an apparent runaway. In the novel’s first scene, he and his wife, Minako, are at the morgue to view a body that fits their daughter’s description. Happily it's not her.
He has spent most of his career as a detective, until a recent, unwanted transfer to Media Relations. He's been told to prepare for an important commissioner’s visit to publicize a renewed effort to solve the 14-year-old kidnapping and murder of a young girl. The detectives refer to it as “Six Four” because the crime took place just before the death of Emperor Hirohito put an end to the Showa period, which had lasted into its 64th year.
Mikami feels pulled in all directions, both at home and, especially, at work. He hates that he is forced to give reporters as much information as possible while divulging nothing that could compromise an investigation or violate the privacy of innocent parties. This constantly embroils him in conflicts. The press plan to boycott the commissioner's visit and Mikami is being stonewalled at every turn. He starts to suspect that there’s another agenda, maybe even a cover-up.
The novel is complex, ingenious, and demanding. I found myself caring more than I expected about the bureaucratic maneuvering of the Japanese police system. It was excellent and illuminated Japan's deep tradition of hierarchy and control.
I gave this novel five stars but I understand not everyone will feel the same. Non-Japanese readers may find some difficulty with the many “M” names (Mikami, Mizuki Murakushi, Minako, Mikumo, Matsuoka, Meikawa) and the various positions within the police force. The twists along the way will be less shocking to a lot of American thriller readers. There is a clever twist in the final part of the book, but we spend a lot of time with Mikami before we get there. But that's okay because I really liked him.
Six Four is an oddly gripping and unexpectedly original novel and I don't think I’ve ever read anything quite like it. ...more
This innovative mystery is set in 11th Century Japan in Kyo (modern day Kyoto). Sugawara Akitada is a low ranking nobleman who works as a clerk in theThis innovative mystery is set in 11th Century Japan in Kyo (modern day Kyoto). Sugawara Akitada is a low ranking nobleman who works as a clerk in the Ministry of Justice. His mother is constantly nagging him to better himself.
Akitada receives a message from his former law professor at Imperial University who has found a note indicating someone on the faculty is being blackmailed. He doesn't want the University to suffer from this humiliation so asks Akitada to quietly investigate. It's not long before Akitada is involved in not only the blackmail, but two murders. He also becomes interested in one of his young students whose grandfather died under mysterious circumstances. Fortunately Akitada won't have to do all this investigation on his own. His servant, Tora, a former highwayman has significant role in solving these crimes. What an interesting character. Akitada is also very interesting and this book paints a wonderfully expressive picture of medieval Japan and the precise social order that governs everyday life.
This book is both a mystery and a historical novel. It encompasses Japanese culture, history, religion and superstition. Sometime the writing seems a little too modern but I appreciated that it made the story highly readable. I felt the plot developed a little slowly but once I got about a third of the way I was flying through it.
This is listed as the first of the Akitada mysteries, however there is previous one called Dragon Scroll where we are introduced to Akitada and learn how he and Tora become companions. I loved the scalawag Tora and plan to read that one sometime in the future. I don't feel I lost anything by reading out of order as Rashomon Gate can certainly stand on its own. ...more
The Housekeeper and the Professor is about the relationship between the two unnamed characters and the Housekeeper's son, only referred to by his nickThe Housekeeper and the Professor is about the relationship between the two unnamed characters and the Housekeeper's son, only referred to by his nickname Root. The narrator, a single mother employed by the Akebono Housekeeping Agency, has just started working for the Professor, a genius in mathematics. Due to an automobile accident, he has a memory that only lasts 80 minutes. Every morning, the Housekeeper has to reintroduce herself to the Professor. While the Professor's memory always fails him, numbers never do. It is the only way he can reach out to the world while everything else constantly disappears.
The success of this novel lies in the sense that numbers and their relationship to the world are special. I learned so much about math in a nice gentle way and the author was able to make numbers seem magical. The novel also works because of how fully-realized and thoroughly sympathetic the characters are. The deepening relationship between the Housekeeper, Root, and the Professor as they create a temporary family thanks to the power of numbers, the only thing the Professor can relate to, is powerful and emotional despite the failure of the Professor's memory.
If you're looking for a warm, touching novel that focuses on relationships and caring attitudes toward your fellow human beings, this book definitely fits the bill....more
Sano Ichiro is a newly appointed yoriki (policeman) in 17th Century Feudal Japan. His father, now becoming old and sick, has called in a favor to get Sano Ichiro is a newly appointed yoriki (policeman) in 17th Century Feudal Japan. His father, now becoming old and sick, has called in a favor to get Sano an honored position in the police department. Sano is immediately disliked and resented by his colleagues.
The story begins when the daughter of a powerful Edo family, Lady Yukiko, and a low born artist named Noriyoshi are found bound together in a double love suicide called a Shinju. Sano is assigned to do a cursory investigation of the dishonorable event. Something about the case doesn't seem correct to Sano, so despite orders from his bosses he continues his investigation. Throughout the story Sano jeopardizes his career and family honor to solve the case. He's an idealist in a world of political corruption and feels a real conflict between obedience and honor. He's an unusual and unconventional man of his time, anguished by his sense of Samurai honor.
This mystery had a nicely complex plot that blended Japan's political rivalries and Samurai heritage and culture into a wonderfully readable story. I loved the very detailed atmosphere of Edo and Japan during the rule of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. I thought it was a real page turner and I've already picked up the second of the series, Bundori....more
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