A review by steve_urick
An I-Novel by Minae Mizumura

3.0

In the US media, I often see people talking about whether a typical voter would like to have a beer with a presidential candidate. This is a useful metric for me and books. I would not like to have a coffee with Ms Mizumura. I read 20 pages of this in Japanese, before resorting to the English version, and I think she has a remarkable command of the Japanese language. But in regards to the content, I wished she had made it shorter. Much shorter. It seemed as if she thought she could make a novel by simply writing out in well-crafted Japanese the experiences she has had and some thoughts about them. Forgive me, but she has not had a life interesting enough to do that. She also has no sense of humor, is judgmental, and is even often quite pedestrian in this book. I don't feel that reading it was a waste of my time, but it was not really a pleasure, nor did it do much for me.