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meganoh's review against another edition
3.0
Erika Kobayashi’s Trinity, Trinity, Trinity is meant to be an exploration of the lasting effects of radiation and nuclear power. Being set in Japan, the novel is poised to draw inspiration from a rich and deep well, given its long and layered history with nuclear power. These themes are overlayed with ideas about capitalistic gains and nationalism that could be interestingly explored through another rich source: the Olympics. However, these brilliant premises never really go anywhere. Instead, the novel meanders, and slows to a halt. I found myself wholly disinterested by the third half, which shouldn’t be the case for a novel meant to span such a short time. The overall tone of the novel doesn’t do any favours to the lack of energy.
fransbooks's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
readingtheend's review against another edition
3.5
another weird dark Japanese semi-horror novel. in this one, old people have begun to hear voices in dark stones that tell them to do horrifying suicide bomber-type things, potentially leading up to a major attack on the Japanese Olympics. I did not feel 100% confident that I understood everything that was happening, but that is life!
internationalreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.5
I’m not sure I understood it but I loved it
mcrammal's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This was my second time reading it so it was cool seeing all the little details scattered throughout the book that foreshadows the ending. It had a lot of flashbacks and at some points it was difficult to see how things could have realistically occurred on the timeline proposed. It’s a very unique idea and I enjoyed reading something that felt like it came from a parallel timeline.
emsemsems's review against another edition
2.0
‘The tuna on board, now fearfully called the atomic tuna, ended up buried in the ground beneath the Tsujiki Fish Market. Years later, when construction was taking place to excavate…no trace of atomic tuna was ever found – not even bones…Nine years after the 235-million-yen budget was allocated to develop nuclear power and and the atomic tuna was buried beneath Tsujiki, the first light bulb powered by Japanese nuclear energy switched on in a town called Tokai, in Ibaraki Prefecture. And the following year, the Olympics arrived in Tokyo.’
Found the ‘story’ (if there is even a concrete ‘plot’ at all, I am not even sure) incredibly difficult to follow/hold onto. Halfway through it I was basically lost – basically a ‘Trinity’ (and that’s if I’m even getting the meaning of a ‘Trinity’ in the book right). I thought the first half of the book was fantastic, but it becomes more and more of a mess/blur towards the end. After the ‘grandmother’ went missing, everything just becomes pure chaos. I don’t even know what’s going on anymore. What a shame. I desperately wanted to like this.
‘Apparently people in those times believed that the higher you were, the healthier the air was, so the rich tried to live up as high as possible. They believed miasma – ‘bad air’ – pooled in low places and caused disease. Elites lived as high as they could, ate birds that were as high-flying as they could, drank wine from grapes grown as high up in the mountain as they could.’
Nuclear, radiation; blood, menstruation. And a bunch of historical rambling just shuffled into the narrative randomly. That’s how I feel about it, but perhaps I’m simply missing the point of the book. There must be more to it; and/but I don’t have the patience to re-read and possibly ‘discover’. I just really didn’t like how it was structured and organised. Even the ‘tone’ was somehow (for the lack of a better term) ‘lacking’; the characters felt replaceable/inter-changeable. At some point I couldn’t even tell who the narrator was referring to. The beginning seemed really promising (and I actually thought it would be something I’m going to enjoy very much) but it later ended rather abruptly without making much sense at all. Lack of cohesion, surely. Maybe it’s a translation problem? I wouldn’t know since I don’t plan to compare it to the original text. I don’t think I can read any more of this without more dizzy.
‘Trinities craved radioactivity like junkies craved their high, and they would go anywhere or do anything to get it…It even became a staple horror setup for a while for someone, after the death of a dementia-suffering family member, to take a Geiger counter into the dead person’s bedroom and find it to be radioactive.’
It’s not badly written at all, but I think I’m just not the right reader for it. The constant repetition of very similar events and/or characters made me dizzy and lose interest in it (if not early in the novel, then eventually anyway). Too much (some relevant but mostly unnecessary) cultural and historical references. The entire book’s a chaotic mess. Lots of screaming, fainting, and random blood. And it also ends with a vaguely incestuous note. Yea, no. Not for me.
‘Radiation. It terrified me. When it rained down on you, at first nothing would happen, but then you would lose your hair, you would bleed and be unable to stop, your skin would split and slough off.’