Found this at the library yesterday, a new Japanese book that I had not seen before. There was an interesting blurb about the author, that this book won the Random House Kodansha Prize. The what? I know Random House, I know Kodansha, but what...? It seems that it might be a prize that the publishers give to their own books. I am unable to find any other references to it.

This is probably a "first book" by this author. It has some promise but it just doesn't keep it. It seems as though it just can't figure out what kind of book it is supposed to be. Part travelogue, part sociological study, part novel but it doesn't successfully fill any of them. The author touches on some potentially weighty topics but never investigates any of them. Too bad. ( )

Expect spoilers. This is a fun read. I enjoyed it. I think that, like many books, it faltered towards the end and I'm not 100% how it ended. I guess in the main character just realizing that by not being able to completely commit to the affair she has lost her love. I wasn't completely sure about the sexual politics, she had this whole thing about staying a woman and about loving her girlfriend as a woman. Like she was afraid she would become de-sexed, or other-sexed? But her history is more alluded to than drawn and it seems like so much of her story is in her history with her mother (and her mother's mother, etc.) So those are the shadows that hold her back? I thought the book gave an interesting picture of Ho Chi Minh City and life there & life among the expatriate Japanese and Korean people living there. I don't know if I believe it is a complete picture and perhaps there could have been more shading. There might have been too many characters, I had trouble keeping them straight and many were such small characters that they didn't have much to do. That's fine, but when the narrator referred to them later I wasn't quite sure who was who. Another comment is that the book contains some set pieces with great detail but no clear role in the story, plot or character development. (or if there was I missed it.) For example, there is a long description of a lunch that the teachers go to, and who has 3 bowls of rice & who just has 2, and it didn't go anywhere that I could see.