Reviews - Sweet Bean Paste

5.79k reviews for:

Sweet Bean Paste

Durian Sukegawa

4.07 AVERAGE

thegirlinthefishtank's review against another edition

4.0

the setting is very sweet and cozy, and as always i loved reading about food from japanese culture. beautiful writing and a beautiful story.

joanne_price's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful reflective relaxing fast-paced

mecireads's review against another edition

4.5

I had no idea what this book was about when I started it. I went in blind, and it completely surprised me with its depth and the amount of information packed into the story. I love how it shines a light on leprosy, and the main character being a former felon added another layer of complexity. The story explores how we, as humans, try to understand one another, revealing the harsh reality that people with disabilities and those with troubled pasts often struggle to move beyond their histories. I wish the ending had been more fleshed out, but overall, this is a truly beautiful story that deserves to be read by more people. It doesn’t have trigger warnings, but it does include scenes depicting suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts.

Content Warnings

tyngoo's review against another edition

4.0

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

miftahrd's review against another edition

4.0

inspiring reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

lolabee's review against another edition

3.5

emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

hbreader's review against another edition

3.0

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa is mostly what it seems to be and then it takes a dark turn. If you are looking for a sweet, lighthearted book, this is not it. The writing is solid. The story begins sweetly and follows the unusual relationship between a confectionary shop worker and a sweet, somewhat mysterious elderly woman.

Cherry blossoms figure prominently as does the actual process of creating sweet bean paste. The story also includes a schoolgirl. The inclusion of this character was puzzling to me until after the dark turn of the story. There is no violence. Only angst and sorrow. This is a very heavy book and so it surprised me, but not in a pleasant way. The writing, narration performance, and characters were strong enough to keep me listening until the end.

I am grateful for Sweet Bean Paste. I think of myself as a person who harbors very little prejudice and yet this subject matter became a very uncomfortable mirror for me. I learned that I need to do more work!

The writing and research by Durian Sukegawa is very strong. However, the story does not really lend itself to such heavy issues and so I did not rate the story itself as high. The narration performance by Cindy Kay is very good and supports, even expands the material.

I would recommend Sweet Bean Paste to writers who are interested in starting social justice conversations with their work and to anyone who wants to be challenged about their own perceptions and prejudice.