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A review by akagingerk
Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara
2.0
I completely failed to connect with the main character, Mas Arai. And that's really too bad, because this novel is more character-study than whodunit. His story is interesting. As a boy, he lived in Hiroshima -- during the second World War. Now an old man, he's a gardener in California. And people are poking around in a past he'd rather forget.
He should be an interesting character.
And yet. I don't know. Maybe it was partly the phonetic Japanese dialect. (Thatsu for that's, heezu for he's.) But I suspect the real reason I felt distanced from Mas is that early on, readers are made privy to how Mas ruined his family life, how much he cost them through... selfishness? Addiction? Machismo? Don't know, don't care. Nothing else I learned about him resulted in more than superficial, transient feelings of sympathy.
He should be an interesting character.
And yet. I don't know. Maybe it was partly the phonetic Japanese dialect. (Thatsu for that's, heezu for he's.) But I suspect the real reason I felt distanced from Mas is that early on, readers are made privy to how Mas ruined his family life, how much he cost them through... selfishness? Addiction? Machismo? Don't know, don't care. Nothing else I learned about him resulted in more than superficial, transient feelings of sympathy.