Review: A Hundred Suns (by Karin Tanabe)

My Rating:  3.5 stars

In 1933, Jessie Lesage accompanies her husband Victor to Indochine (Vietnam)— a colony under French rule at the time — where he has taken up a post overseeing his famous Michelin family's rubber plantations.  Not long after they arrive, the Lesages meet Marcelle de Fabry and her husband Arnaud, an expatriate French couple who, like themselves, are rich and well-connected. The two women quickly become friends, and with Marcelle showing her the way, Jessie starts to dive more deeply into the glamorous, exotic world of colonial Indochine.  When she meets Marcelle's Indochinese lover, the rich silk tycoon Khoi Nguyen, and becomes more immersed in their world, Jessie begins to realize that there is more to Marcelle than meets the eye.  It is also around this time that dark secrets from Jessie's past start to catch up with her — secrets that threaten to upend the family and lifestyle that she worked so painstakingly to build.  Against a backdrop rife with political tension due to colonialism — where the divide between the "haves" and the "have-nots" runs in line with oppression of the native Indochinese by their Western conquerors — a complex story emerges, with characters often required to toe the ambiguous line between self-preservation and "doing the right thing."  

This is a book that I found difficult to rate, as there were things that I liked (mostly the setting and the writing) but also things that didn't work as well for me.  Going into this one initially, when I saw that the story would take place in 1930s Indochine, I was actually looking forward to reading it, as that particular setting isn’t often covered in historical fiction, plus it was a welcome departure from all the WWII-focused historical fiction that I had been reading in recent months.  As is usually the case when I read this genre, I was hoping to learn something new about a country and time period that I was only vaguely familiar with.  While I can't say that I didn't learn anything at all (because I did), I do have to say that this book fell a bit short of expectations for me from a genre perspective.  When I read historical fiction, I expect to be transported to the story's time and place and feel as though I inhabit the same world as the characters – unfortunately, that didn't happen in this case.  Instead, the Indochine setting felt kind of superficial to me, to the point that the main characters could've been transplanted to any other foreign Asian territory (not necessarily Indochine) and the story would've played out largely the same way.  Don't get me wrong -- the author did incorporate some cultural elements into the story that gave us some insight into the historical setting, but the references were few and far between, as the focus of the story on the glamorous lifestyle of the wealthy elite as well as the "mystery" piece of figuring out Marcelle's connection with Jessie, both ended up overwhelming the historical aspects of the story.  To me, this book felt like it should actually belong more in the thriller / suspense category than historical fiction – I think if it had been marketed as such, my reaction would've probably been quite different, as I did like the writing as well as the flow of the story overall, and the plot was intriguing enough to hold my attention from start to finish.

If I had to describe this story in one word, the first word that would come to mind is "lush" — whether it's the descriptions of the characters' decadent mansions, or their vibrant lifestyles steeped in lavish opulence, or even the surrounding landscape (both in Indochine where majority of the story takes place and also in Paris, where critical events involving several of the characters occur), it's hard not to see this story under the light of luxury and privilege.  The narration of the story alternated between Jessie and Marcelle, which made sense given the direction of the story (especially if we look at the story from a "thriller" perspective), but from a historical and cultural perspective, I feel that this format didn't work too well.  To strengthen the historical context, I feel like the other alternating perspective should've been from that of one of the Indochinese characters in the story, such as Trieu (Jessie's servant) or Lanh (the Lesage family's chauffeur) for example – I think this would have provided some much-needed balance to the story, though I guess it can also be argued that this would be an entirely different story then, perhaps not the same one that the author was trying to tell.

With all that said, I feel that overall, this was technically a good read – well-written and well-plotted for the most part (except for the ending, which I wasn't tremendously fond of) – but it could have been so much better.  I would still recommend this book, just with the caveat not to go in with specific expectations in terms of genre.

Received ARC from St. Martin's Press directly as well as via NetGalley.

Review: Yo-Kai Watch, Volume 14 (by Noriyuki Konishi)

My Rating: 4 stars

Continuing on with our tradition of reading the Yo-Kai Watch manga series together, my nephew and I just finished volume 14, which is the latest version released in English and I was able to get an ARC for.  Just like the previous volumes before it, this one continues the adventures of Nate and his various Yo-Kai friends.  Once again, our favorite feline friend, the mischievous Jibanyan, is the focus of majority of the stories and as usual, he gets himself into a pickle each time he is either summoned to help Nate or encounters a fellow Yo-Kai that he of course never wants to fight.  My nephew and I love Jibanyan, so of course having him in every story works for us — with that said though, we also love Jibanyan's camaraderie with Nate and his Yo-Kai butler Whisper as well as the special, irreplaceable chemistry that the 3 of them always have together (the way that Jibanyan constantly annoys Whisper on purpose never fails to make us laugh, lol).  So of course, we were quite disappointed that Nate and Whisper only featured in less than half the stories this time around.  While it's fun to meet new Yo-Kai characters in each volume, it's equally a joy to be able to read about old Yo-kai friends and see what type of new adventures they get to go on — the earlier volumes had a better balance of both, in my opinion.

Regardless of how the book was structured and the lack of usual favorites in terms of characters, getting to spend quality time reading with my nephew is an experience I always cherish.  This is one of those times where the book's content matters much less than the shared experience of being able to read the book with a loved one. These are always a joy to read and definitely, both my nephew and I continue to look forward to reading the next volumes in this much beloved series!

Received ARC from VIZ Media via Edelweiss.

Review: Redhead by the Side of the Road (by Anne Tyler)

My Rating:  4 stars

Anne Tyler has the unique ability to take the most mundane, ordinary of events and combine them with well-developed, relatable characters to create wonderfully nuanced stories that are both heartfelt and earnest.  I love Tyler’s low-key style and the way she presents her characters always as they are — no fan fare, no big attention-grabbing event, no major earth-shattering revelation — just an ordinary character going about their every day tasks. 

This time around, our protagonist is Micah Mortimer, a 44-year-old self-employed tech expert who lives a life of carefully planned routine — from his morning runs that start and end at the same designated times and follow the same exact path each day to the household chores that are meticulously scheduled and performed:  floor-mopping on Mondays, kitchen-cleaning on Thursdays, vacuuming on Fridays, etc.  To say that Micah is a creature of habit is an understatement — run, shower, breakfast, tidy-up, then get ready to start his first call of the day, his mornings consisted of a system rarely deviated from and fastidious to a fault.  But then one day, two things happen that threaten to shatter Micah’s carefully guarded routine:  his “woman friend” Cass tells him that she is on the verge of losing her apartment, and later, the teenage son of an ex-lover shows up at his door claiming to be his son.  How will Micah handle these unexpected disruptions and the aftermath that results? 

I read this book in one sitting this past Sunday morning and let me tell you, it definitely made my day!  I enjoy stories that are witty yet poignant, where the humor is subtle and occurs so naturally that you find yourself chuckling without realizing it (that was me during the “Traffic God” moments).  This was a simple story, but one that had substance and also a lot of heart — a perfect choice during this challenging time.  Every time I pick up one of Tyler’s newest novels to read, I remind myself that I have yet to work my way through her prolific backlist, which I intend to do at one point or another — while still anticipating her next book of course!

Review: Simon the Fiddler (by Paulette Jiles)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

To say that I struggled with rating this book is an understatement.  On the one hand, I absolutely loved the writing!  Paulette Jiles is a masterful writer who has the ability to transport the reader to a completely different time and place — in this case, Texas in 1865, right after the Civil War — through her atmospheric prose.  With the realistic descriptions of the desolate landscape that Simon and his ragtag band travel through, areas mostly devastated by war but yet still contained glimpses of hope for the future, I truly felt like I was inhabiting their world and experiencing the events as they did — which of course is what great historical fiction does.

Despite how much I liked the writing though, I found it difficult to get into the story for some reason.  Perhaps because the story was really really slow-moving, with not much plot to speak of for majority of the book, plus I got tired of Simon’s adventures after a while.  I was actually more interested in each of the characters’ background stories, which sounded much more fascinating, but unfortunately, only tidbits of their stories were shared here and there — instead, most of the narrative was too focused on Simon’s various encounters as he and his friends traveled around trying to find work. It wasn’t until the last third or so of the book that the story picked up enough to keep my interest.

Aside from the story, I also didn’t connect much with the characters, whether main ones or supporting.  I liked Simon as a character and Doris too, but I never really felt invested in their relationship.  It seemed kind of farcical to me the way their relationship progressed, starting with Simon falling in love with Doris (a complete stranger to him at the time) almost instantaneously, then doing everything in his power to make himself worthy enough to pursue her — later when they finally meet, their interaction the entire time felt predictable, clumsy, and largely emotionless.  I basically wasn’t convinced of their relationship, which made those sections where Simon and Doris profess their affinity for each other a bit awkward to read.

My overall sentiment is that I wanted very much to love this book, but ended up merely “liking” it instead.  As I mentioned earlier, the setting was beautifully rendered and the writing was absolutely exquisite, but the story and the characters didn’t quite work for me.  With that said, I seem to be in the minority with this one so I would say please don’t let my review deter you if you were already planning on reading it – if anything, the writing itself makes this a worthwhile read even if the story isn’t great.  Personally, even though, I wasn’t too keen on her newest novel, I am still quite excited to explore Paulette Jiles’s backlist of works, especially her acclaimed News of the World, which has been on my TBR for quite some time.

Received ARC from William Morrow (HarperCollins) via NetGalley.

Review: Daughter of the Reich (by Louise Fein)

My Rating: 4 stars

This is the second book I've read in recent months that is set in the pre-World War II time period of the 1930s in Germany, during which Hitler rose to power and Nazism infiltrated every part of the country.   Though set in a similar time period, the angle that this book explores is markedly different.  The story is told from the perspective of Hetty Heinrich, who, as the daughter of a high-ranking SS officer, was raised to be the perfect German citizen — pure in lineage, patriotic, fiercely loyal to Hitler and the Nazi ideology he espoused.  As a dutiful "daughter" of the Thousand Year Reich, Hetty is prepared to do her part — that is, until one day when she is accidentally reunited with Walter Keller, an estranged childhood friend who had saved her from drowning when she was seven years old.  To Hetty, Walter is perfect in every way — except for the fact that he is Jewish, and also, as Hetty slowly starts to realize, he goes against every belief she had previously been taught.  The two of them end up falling in love and gradually, Hetty realizes everything she thought she understood about her family and country were actually lies, which ignites in her the will to fight against them.  When the tides of anti-semitism in Germany escalate to the point where Walter's mere existence is put into question, Hetty is faced with the ultimate decision to try and save him at all costs.

As is expected when reading historical fiction, the feeling of being transported to a different time and place is one of the things I always look out for, which in this story worked really well.   This book's strongest element though is in the area of character development.  We first meet Hetty when she is 7 years old and subsequently follow her development through her teenage years,  but what stands out the most is her feisty personality and strong-willed nature.  Hetty is a character who both enthralls and frustrates in equal measure, which I guess is what makes her such an interesting character.

Given the historical context, books set against the backdrop of Nazi rule going into World War II are rarely ever "easy" reads and of course, this book was no exception. The sections that described the brutalities inflicted upon Jews (and others who were considered "enemies" of the regime) were difficult to read, yet I understand why such details were necessary to the story.   With that said though, I also felt the writing was a bit uneven in certain areas — the narrative was told entirely from Hetty's first person perspective, yet some sections were descriptive to the point that it didn't seem to match the voice.  I also felt the story dragged a bit in the earlier chapters and it wasn't until around the halfway mark that the story became much more engaging — though with that said, for me at least, the last section of the book was the strongest in terms of plot, character, and emotional nuance.

Despite some issues with pacing and flow, this was a good story overall, and definitely a worthy entry into the canon of WWII-era fiction, in my opinion.  Over the years, I've heard many people complain about the over-saturation of WWII era novels in the market and while I agree for the most part, I also feel it's extremely important for these stories to continue to be told, if anything, to serve as a lesson for us and future generations, that history cannot be forgotten.

Received ARC from William Morrow (HarperCollins) via Bookbrowse First Impressions program

Review: Days of Distraction (by Alexandra Chang)

My Rating: 4 stars

Given the current unprecedented situation, the past few weeks have been one of the busiest and most difficult I've ever encountered — a sentiment I'm pretty sure many others also share at the moment.   Reading has always been a solace for me and this time around is no exception.  I've continued to read every day as I normally do, but the problem is that it's been very hard to concentrate, which has caused my reading to become more "restless" than usual. I've found myself starting a book, but after getting a ways through it, my mind wanders, so I put the book down and, thinking perhaps it's just not the right book for the moment, I start another one, only to have the same thing happen.  As a result, I've got 4 or 5 books that I started and need to finish, though I'm resigned to the fact that it's going to take longer than anticipated and also require more concentration on my part.  

One of the books I started during this time period is Alexandra Chang's fictional novel Days of Distraction, which is a coming-of-adulthood tale based in large part on the author's own life and personal experiences.  The protagonist in the story is a twenty-something Chinese-American woman named Jing Jing (whom we later find out actually shares the same first name as the author) — she works as a writer for a tech publication in San Francisco, California, where she is, notably, one of only two women on the entire staff (the other woman is a photographer named Jasmine, who also happens to be Chinese-American and also Jing Jing's closest work friend).  Jing Jing lives with her Irish American boyfriend J (he is referred to only by his one initial throughout the entire story), who is a research associate at a lab where he spends hours on end with mostly scientists and mice.  Jing Jing is very close with her family — her mother and younger sister and brother who live near her, as well as her dad, who moved back to China after a not-so-amicable divorce from her mother.   When J gets accepted to grad school in New York, Jing Jing decides to move across the country with him, leaving behind her family and her job in a bustling city to settle in the small, quiet, upstate town of Ithaca.   Along the way, mostly to pass the time, Jing Jing begins acquainting herself with stories about her ancestral heritage as well as those of other Asian Americans in history, which leads her on a journey of self-reflection, especially as it pertains to her relationship with her boyfriend J.  

Plot-wise, this is what I would call a quiet, slow-burn type of story where nothing much actually happens.  The closest thing to "action" that ever occurs is the brief "road trip" that Jing Jing and J take across the country for their move.   Aside from that, majority of the story consists of Jing Jing's observations about the mostly mundane everyday things going on around her, and later, it shifts to reflections about her identity within a society that, for the most part, doesn't realize she exists.  The format of the story was one of the main things I had to get used to, as it was told in a way that required a little bit more attention than normal — narrated by Jing Jing in the first person, the narrative jumped around quite a bit, with short sections that at times felt anecdotal, interspersed throughout with excerpts from various articles or other things that Jing Jing happened to be reading at the time.  In hindsight, given the format, this was probably not the best choice of book to read during this time period, but it paid off in the end because the story was one that resonated with me, and the characters too, I felt a connection to. While Jing Jing did come off as annoying at times (mostly in those situations where she would debate things back and forth extensively in her mind but then not take any action), she was a character I was able to relate to on many levels.  With that said though, my favorite characters in the story were actually Jing Jing's mom and dad (especially her dad, whose hilarious quips about society and culture always made me chuckle) — what I loved most was how the parents were written in a way where they did not come across as traditional, stereotypical Asian (specifically Chinese) parents, yet they were still such an important source of cultural insight for Jing Jing (and the reader as well).  In most of the contemporary stories I read where there's a young Asian protagonist at the center of the story, the parents are often portrayed in a very "traditional" manner, which isn't necessarily wrong of course, since there are plenty of Asian parents like that, but on the other side of the coin, there are also many Asian parents who, like Jing Jing's mom and dad, embody both cultural sentiments as well as modern sensitivities  — it was definitely refreshing to see an Asian author tackle this aspect.

On the surface, this may seem like another "immigrant story" that centers around the protagonist's struggle with identity and belonging, but it actually goes so much deeper than that.  In addition to identity and immigration, it is also a commentary of sorts on several hot button societal issues such as racism, politics, interracial relationships, family dynamics, economics, history, culture and tradition, etc.  What made this work for me was the subtleness of the commentary, presented in a way where it was essentially a neutral relaying of facts — rather than "preach" about society's injustices and try to steer the reader toward a certain direction, the author — through the narrator's experiences as well as references from history — offers up examples in a non-judgmental manner and let's the reader decide for themselves. 

This is one of those books where the reaction will be different depending on the audience.  I definitely enjoyed this book and highly recommend it, though with the caveat that it may not resonate with others as much as it did with me.  I look forward to seeing more from this author in the future! 

Received ARC from Ecco (HarperCollins) via Edelweiss.