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jothanhtu_'s review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
elenavarg's review against another edition
3.0
(3,5 stars)
I really like reading from the perspective of a complicated person. Her trying so hard to be a good mother yet not being perfect. It made the protagonist feel very real and human. The only reason I’m not giving the book full four stars is that I don’t know if I’d read it again or recommend it.
I really like reading from the perspective of a complicated person. Her trying so hard to be a good mother yet not being perfect. It made the protagonist feel very real and human. The only reason I’m not giving the book full four stars is that I don’t know if I’d read it again or recommend it.
cantordustbunnies's review
4.0
This book contains one of the most complicated characters I have ever come across. While the writing itself can be somewhat uneven and the pacing can be off at times, the main character totally shines through and creates a totally fascinating read. While being enigmatic the protagonist is always fully realized and authentic. Very complex psychology is at play here, and a very nuanced and masterful understanding of people is exhibited by the author. I'm sure the plot would have been much more shocking during the time in which it was published, but the book still manages to be fairly disquieting today. The author provides a totally honest, totally transparent window into the mind of someone many would view as a very unpleasant character and does not glorify her, villainize her, or ask for the audience's pity. I found this to be an especially refreshing and courageous approach to writing. A deeply tender and passionate portrait has been created here precisely because of its unsparing nature. One can fully empathize with her turmoil, malaise, excruciating loneliness, grief, and existential ache. Even her apathy, neglectfulness, and immaturity can begin to be understood although perhaps never fully. Since the only problems I have with the book are with the writing style and pacing I wonder if this is due to the difficulties inherent in translation rather than a fault of the author?
electric_death_'s review
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
kenziekuma's review
challenging
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
trishaa's review
5.0
"One thing, though, was certain: that she had never betrayed the small child she’d once been; the child who had pined for her brother in the institution; the child who had watched her mother and sister resentfully, unable to understand what made them find fault with her grades, her manners, her languages. And she was not betraying that child now, thirty years later. This, she had always suspected, was the one thing that mattered. And although she was often tempted by a growing awareness of the ‘proper thing to do’ once Kayako was born – not only in the harsh advice she was constantly offered by others, but within her own mind – in the long run her choices had always remained true to her childhood self."
sanmeow's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
a book that follows koko, the main character with a very complex personality. in society's eyes, she's failed as a person - but she doesn't seem to care. she's extremely stubborn as a result of the family she grew up in and how men have treated her. despite being stubborn, she often lacks the confidence to make strong decisions and be assertive in who she is.
she also experiences the struggles of being a single mother and feels pressured by society. her main motivations are resisting this pressure and staying with her daughter. koko fights as if to avenge her younger self, the repressed child she once was. koko wishes to be a proper mother, but she is lost in self-doubt, doubt of her own choices, and her sister is practically raising her daughter instead.
the reason why koko is unfit to be a dedicated mother is that she is so focused on the child in her, the child she once was, and protecting that. when faced with an unexpected pregnancy at the age of 36, koko hopes that she could parent this child much better than she did her daughter.
this book offers a wonderfully complex discovery of a woman's psychology and personality - and it is beautifully written.
she also experiences the struggles of being a single mother and feels pressured by society. her main motivations are resisting this pressure and staying with her daughter. koko fights as if to avenge her younger self, the repressed child she once was. koko wishes to be a proper mother, but she is lost in self-doubt, doubt of her own choices, and her sister is practically raising her daughter instead.
the reason why koko is unfit to be a dedicated mother is that she is so focused on the child in her, the child she once was, and protecting that. when faced with an unexpected pregnancy at the age of 36, koko hopes that she could parent this child much better than she did her daughter.
this book offers a wonderfully complex discovery of a woman's psychology and personality - and it is beautifully written.
alpha_build's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
elfs29's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Tsushima’s writing is very somber, and the atmosphere that she creates in her fiction is mesmerising and illusive, allowing the reader to understand her women character’s detached feeling within society. This is possibly my favourite of hers I’ve read so far, and I felt very sympathetic toward Koko and the way her relationships with men have defined her life, and how her love for her daughter is intwined with and hindered by her loneliness, regret, and the way she is so thoroughly disapproved of by all those around her, including her daughter herself. Tsushima’s writing helps me to understand myself, although I am not a mother, and the way she so devotedly writes complex and imperfect women is very special. Once again, she has written of a woman who, despite all misgivings, all loss, refuses to stop living as she wishes, yet in an extremely real and vulnerable way.
How impartial the light was! It streamed into the tiniest crevices between roofs, missing none. It might go unnoticed by people passing in the street, but it was there. Light simply obeyed the physical laws that generated it, dispassionately. Surely nothing else fell on us with such perfect equality? She drew a deep breath at the thought.
How impartial the light was! It streamed into the tiniest crevices between roofs, missing none. It might go unnoticed by people passing in the street, but it was there. Light simply obeyed the physical laws that generated it, dispassionately. Surely nothing else fell on us with such perfect equality? She drew a deep breath at the thought.