Historical fiction that, sadly, didn't impress me.
At first I was intrigued by this book. The theme of Christians living in Japan before and during WWII was fascinating, especially with all the difficulties and prejudices they faced. However, there was just such a disconnect between the theme and the execution that I couldn't get into it at all. I couldn't feel the emotions, the difficulties or the urgency that I was expecting.
👎 What I Disliked 👎
Parallel stories: This book features two parallel stories. One takes place in Nagasaki and follows Sachiko and Shuhei, two childhood lovers who face the difficulties of wartime Japan. The other takes place in Auschwitz and follows a young man named Henryk and a Christian priest, Father Kolbe. Father Kolbe has been in Japan and has met Sachiko and Shuhei. But other than that the two stories don't have anything to do with each other. The have no impact on one another. And they don't merge or meet at the end, leaving me very unsatisfied.
Resolution: The best story, as far as I'm concerned, was the Auschwitz story. It had the rawest emotions and the realest people. However, that story was never actually resolved. It was just... abandoned. We never get to know what happened to the people we meet there. Most unsatisfactory.
Emotions: I was expecting so many emotions from this story - perhaps a bit understated and hidden as I have encountered in Asian literature before. I was expecting understated. I didn't expect non-existing. But that's what they were. Except for few glimpses of raw, painful emotions during the Auschwitz story, emotions were a true rarity in this book.
Characters: Neither Sachiko, Shuhei or any of the other minor characters seemed to have any real personality. They felt wooden and I never actually got a feeling for any of them. They didn't endear themselves to me.
Plot: It just didn't attract me or speak to me.
Gloss: There was something about the story that made it feel superficial. As if everything had been glossed over. Like there was an inability to dig deeper and get to the true root of the characters, the emotions or the plot.
⭐⭐
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Comments