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A review by ameliareadsstuff
Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara
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.