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mrswythe89's review against another edition
4.0
Really liked this, and will look out for the next book. I found Mas interesting and sympathetic and liked the portrayal of a multicultural community -- felt much more convincing than the whitewashed pictures of USA you get via TV and movies. Also thought the portrayal of the dilemma of the PoC growing up in a white-majority country -- what am I, what should I be etc. etc. -- was interestingly done. It had nuance.
I'm not sure if the way Hirahara transliterated Japanese-accented English is how I'd have done with it, but I prefer it to a pretence that all Englishes are the same. And I liked it in a way; having the main character and many of his friends speak "broken" English made it the norm. So I guess I fall on the side of thinking it's cool. (I probably would be more dubious if Hirahara was white -- when Alexander McCall Smith made the opposite decision in writing Malaysian English, writing Malaysian characters' dialogue in perfectly grammatical standard English, I thought that was the right decision for him and would probably have been annoyed if he'd tried writing Manglish.)
I'm not sure if the way Hirahara transliterated Japanese-accented English is how I'd have done with it, but I prefer it to a pretence that all Englishes are the same. And I liked it in a way; having the main character and many of his friends speak "broken" English made it the norm. So I guess I fall on the side of thinking it's cool. (I probably would be more dubious if Hirahara was white -- when Alexander McCall Smith made the opposite decision in writing Malaysian English, writing Malaysian characters' dialogue in perfectly grammatical standard English, I thought that was the right decision for him and would probably have been annoyed if he'd tried writing Manglish.)
tshrope's review against another edition
3.0
First off I wouldn't categorize this as a Mystery as the publisher has done. Most of the mystery is about the reader finding out what the main character, Mas Arai, already knows.
What this book is really about is Mas, a 69 year-old Japanese-American who lived through the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, moved back to his birthplace, California, after the war and settled down into a "typical" American life in the suburbs of LA. But Bachi (sort of the Japanese version of Karma) seems to find him and he must come to terms with Hiroshima and the role he played in his friend's death.
Hirahara certainly knows the Japanese-American community in Southern California. This knowledge gives the book credibility and an insider's feel to it. She takes the reader to a predominantly Japanese cemetery, Little Tokyo, a Ramen House, even a Japanese Gentleman's Club. Her use of Japanese, and heavily accented English also lends authenticity to the story.
I agree with the blub on the back of the book by Denise Hamilton, "A novel about social change wrapped inside a mystery..." Hirahara does a nice job of doing just that, and most readers will finish this book knowing a lot more about the effects of the bombing on Hiroshima on the Japanese who lived through it and about subsequent generations of Japanese-Americans.
What this book is really about is Mas, a 69 year-old Japanese-American who lived through the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, moved back to his birthplace, California, after the war and settled down into a "typical" American life in the suburbs of LA. But Bachi (sort of the Japanese version of Karma) seems to find him and he must come to terms with Hiroshima and the role he played in his friend's death.
Hirahara certainly knows the Japanese-American community in Southern California. This knowledge gives the book credibility and an insider's feel to it. She takes the reader to a predominantly Japanese cemetery, Little Tokyo, a Ramen House, even a Japanese Gentleman's Club. Her use of Japanese, and heavily accented English also lends authenticity to the story.
I agree with the blub on the back of the book by Denise Hamilton, "A novel about social change wrapped inside a mystery..." Hirahara does a nice job of doing just that, and most readers will finish this book knowing a lot more about the effects of the bombing on Hiroshima on the Japanese who lived through it and about subsequent generations of Japanese-Americans.
gigglesbanana's review against another edition
3.0
Elderly Japanese-American protagonist of a mystery that ties back to the bombing of Hiroshima. I found it to be an interesting look into the Nikei community.
ameliareadsstuff's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I first learnt of the Mas Arai series when it was mentioned amongst, I believe, books with unusual protagonists in the great How to Write a Mystery. And Mas certainly is an unusual mystery protagonist, a Japanese-American gardener in his 70s who returned to America after being present for the bombing of Hiroshima in WW2. It'd be easy to make the the leap from old man gardener to cozy mystery, but you can probably guess from the second part of the last sentence that this isn't that kind of story.
Mas is a potentially frustrating protagonist, but an eminently believable one. He's stubborn and unwilling to change, at a point in his life where it seems too late to make up for his mistakes. He feels like a real old man with a life time of regrets, written by someone who has known actual men just like Mas. One of the strengths of Summer is placing us in the shoes of such a specific kind of person that, as an Australian, I never would have known otherwise.
As the mystery/conflict winds to its conclusion, things wrap up a bit too easily, but perhaps that's the only way it could have. Mas isn't a private eye; he's not even a busybody like Miss Marple. He's just an old man who wants things to settle back down. The story is as much him coming to terms with the ghosts of his past and symbolically making amends as it is him actively solving a problem.
I'm not rushing out to read the sequel, but if anything's motivating me to, it's the hope that Mas might still able to find some measure of happiness or reconciliation. If, of course, it's that kind of story.
Mas is a potentially frustrating protagonist, but an eminently believable one. He's stubborn and unwilling to change, at a point in his life where it seems too late to make up for his mistakes. He feels like a real old man with a life time of regrets, written by someone who has known actual men just like Mas. One of the strengths of Summer is placing us in the shoes of such a specific kind of person that, as an Australian, I never would have known otherwise.
As the mystery/conflict winds to its conclusion, things wrap up a bit too easily, but perhaps that's the only way it could have. Mas isn't a private eye; he's not even a busybody like Miss Marple. He's just an old man who wants things to settle back down. The story is as much him coming to terms with the ghosts of his past and symbolically making amends as it is him actively solving a problem.
I'm not rushing out to read the sequel, but if anything's motivating me to, it's the hope that Mas might still able to find some measure of happiness or reconciliation. If, of course, it's that kind of story.
margaretefg's review against another edition
3.0
More than a mystery, this book explores how Hiroshima survivors, Nissei who were imprisoned and those who fought for the US make sense of their lives in LA many years later. It's a much more complex picture of a Japanese American community than I have read. The characters keep surprising me, too, becoming more nuanced as the book concluded.
matildahasopinions's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
astrangerhere's review against another edition
3.0
Not bad for Hirahara-san's first attempt. I suspect this book was as much her exercising a Nisei past as much as it was for her characters. I'll be picking up the next book to see how it all shakes out. And to meet the mysterious Mari.