カテゴリー: English reviews

“(To India)” Tadanori Yokoo (1977) Review | India as fantasy

★★★★★ A spiritual journey to India by this psychedelic graphic designer, but it’s not merely a travel journal. It’s more a journey to India that he holds within himself, his fantasy. Very personal, very 70s.

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(To India)
Tadanori Yokoo, 1977
Read in 2020.01

Not published in English

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

A spiritual journey to India by this psychedelic graphic designer, but it’s not really a travel journal.
It’s more a journey to India that he holds within himself, within his consciousness or subconsciousness, it’s his fantasy and not necessarily a real place, but this is what he saw and felt.

It’s about India that he fantasised and dreamt about, through the drug, hippies, America, 70s, The Beatles and eventually the death of Yukio Mishima, who committed a public suicide, days after he told the author he was ready for India, that became a final trigger.

In this second visit, he goes to Kashmir but mainly he talks about the universe and how he managed to be a part of it.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●
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●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
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●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
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2026-01-18

“Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” Reni Eddo-Lodge (2019) Review | silence won’t protect us

★★★★★+❤ How the author, a young black British woman, got fed up talking to white people while trying to protect their fragile sentiments and trying not to be labelled as “one of those angry black women”. But now she knows, the silence won’t protect us.


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Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
Reni Eddo-Lodge, 2019
288 pages
Read in 2020.01

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

What is wrong then? 
The problem of racism is not the black, brown or yellow people. 
It is the white people who regard the people of any colour other than white as the problem. 
Today it's as if being called a racist is "worse" than being actually affected by the racism. 

It was Stormzy who once said something like, in the UK there might not be "obvious" racism, but though it might be hidden it exists, and today they believe they have the right to be racist in public, and that's the scary thing. (I wrote this note originally in 2020, so it's probably a bit old)

The book is about how the author, a young black British woman, got fed up talking to white people while trying to protect their fragile sentiments and trying not to be labelled as "one of those angry black women". 
But the silence won't protect us. 
So it is actually about how she decides, through complex discourses of feminism, class and one-and-only Britishness, that she still needs to speak up to start this important conversation even if it might be uncomfortable for some, I mean, frankly, even if it pisses off many fragile people.


🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race: The #1 Sunday Times Bestseller

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Perché non parlo più di razzismo con le persone bianche (italiano)

2026-01-18

“Gautama Buddha” Vishvapani Blomfield (2011) Review | Intro to Buddha’s own life

★★★★☆ A sober biography of the Buddha as a person. It follows from his birth to death, through history and myth of 2500 years ago. A perfect introduction, to understand why Buddhism started there and then in India.


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Gautama Buddha
The Life and Teachings of The Awakened One
Vishvapani Blomfield, 2011
416 pages
Read in 2020.02

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

A sort of biography of the Buddha as a person, and is trying its best to stay sober.

It's 2500 years ago so it is difficult to give a chronological order but it follows from his birth to death, with very good description to the background that is the Indian society which itself is mythical.

A perfect introduction, to understand why Buddhism started there in India. 
It was a long read and a difficult one to follow (so many long names!) but now that I finished I miss reading it.
He was a fascinating person and definitely philosophical one which is why Buddhism is still spreading even in the West and is being re-imported back in India.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of The Awakened One

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of The Awakened One

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
ーー

2026-01-18

“Pro Bono” Seicho Matsumoto (1961) Review | A girl just wanna have a revenge

★★★★☆ He made a simple mistake, but now just because of his male pride, his life gets worse and worse. Tough people survive, a classic Seicho Matsumoto.

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Pro Bono
Seicho Matsumoto, 1961
286 pages
Read in 2020.02

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

I was attracted to the Italian title of this book "La ragazza del Kyushu", a girl from Kyushu - just like me she's from Kyushu but her revenge is something a lot more unique.

A girl from Kyushu goes to Tokyo to meet a popular lawyer to prove her brother's innocence, but he turned down because she didn't have money.
Now that might have been rather common, but upon her brother's  death in prison, she decides to go very far to perfect her revenge.

A classic Matsumoto, the author doesn't go in details about anything other than her obsession and revenge, because nothing else matters, it's all about her madness.

Oh and the lawyer, he should have realised earlier, his little mistakes accumulate and he's too proud, he's now completely trapped.

Bad people get punished by the society, and tough people survive, they are the classic characters from Seicho Matsumoto.

🔽 Related pages 🔽
tag

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Pro Bono

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Pro Bono

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
La ragazza del Kyushu (italiano)

2026-01-18

“Deep River” Shusaku Endo (1996) Review | Embracing life and death >>
★★★★★ A group of strangers joins a tour to India, to Benares, a sacred place, a place of death. It asks the question, what is a religion, what is a life itself? They face Mother Ganga who embraces all deaths and lives, of all people. A masterpiece.

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Deep River
Shusaku Endo, 1993
Read in 2020.02

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

Endo Shusaku is now even more known for his more clearly religious book, Silence, since Scorsese directed the movie.

This is a story about a group of strangers who joined a same packaged tour to visit temples in India.
They all had regrets and disappointments in life, with fragile hope in their hearts, they head towards Ganges River.

Benares, Varanasi, is a sacred place, a place of death.
There they face their inner selves and the extreme poverty in a boy who trust absolute power of gods.
It asks the question, what is a religion, what is a death or a life itself?
There they face Mother Ganga who embraces all deaths and lives, of all people.

Endo, a Catholic, was 70 years old when it was written, it was a way for him to look back at his own life to once again ponder his eternal question “what does it mean to be a Japanese and a Christian”
A masterpiece.
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🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Deep River

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Deep River: Shusaku Endo (Pushkin Press Classics) 

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
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2026-01-16
“White Man, Yellow Man” Shusaku Endo (1955) Review | Between the races >>

★★★★★ Christianity and evil. It’s the evil that overflows out of the moral of White Man, of Christianity in which you believe in the one absolute God, or not. / A resignation from good or bad, believe or not-believe, it’s the lightness of living without a sin.

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White Man, Yellow Man
Shusaku Endo, 1955
Read in 2020.01

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

Christianity and evil.

White Man
The protagonist understands his ugliness, and he fantasises his superiority because of it.
Evil is universal, it’s political but above all it’s so powerful that you can destroy the others.
Crushing his friend means crushing all hypocrites, and violating this girl means violating all virgins.
It’s the evil that overflows out of the moral of White Man, the moral that’s cultivated in Christianity where you believe in the one absolute God.
It’s whether you tolerate it, or you reject to tolerate the absolute good and become evil itself.

Yellow Man
In a way this is harsher.
It’s close to the author’s personal yet eternal struggle of “Being a Christian even if I am Japanese”
During the war, a Christian Japanese young man was exhausted.
Us yellow people actually do not truly believe the God you white people fear.
Us yellow people actually do not have Original sin like you, any way Mother Mary is not in this country.

An ex-priest who betrayed his God finally realises that the truth is in the tired eyes of the yellow people.
They don’t fear death or life, they have no sins, they don’t believe in the God, his absoluteness, and in this country even the criminals are saved as they are.
Can we, the men with white hands, come close to these yellow people?
It’s a liberation or rather resignation from good or bad, believe or not-believe, it’s the lightness of living without a sin.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

White Man, Yellow Man: Two Novellas

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
White Man, Yellow Man: Two Novellas

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
ーー

2026-01-16

“Sea of Poppies” Amitav Ghosh (2008) Review | Leading up to Opium War

★★★★★ In India, under British, Opium farming leading up to the Opium War. That’s already enough for me to like the book even without even opening it. Then, you meet some interesting strong characters. It’s gripping, a grand storytelling.

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Sea of Poppies 
Amitav Ghosh, 2008
559 pages
Read in 2025.12

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

I'd heard of it for a while and finally, finally started and instantly it was obvious, this is one if those great books.

In India, under British, Opium farming leading up to the Opium War.
That's already enough for me to like the book even without even opening it. 

And immediately you meet some interesting strong characters.
Deeti who had a miserable married life, Paulette and Jodu and their unique friendship, a delicate Raja, Zachary who leads us into the mesmerising journeys.
They all meet on Ibis the slaving ship, all carrying their own destinies - it's as intense as it sounds.
Some of detailed descriptions of ship and sailing are hard for me to follow but that doesn't stop me from getting excited at every page.

It's a trilogy so there are 2 more books to go to give the full view on the story but so far, it's gripping, grand storytelling.
Need to read 2 and 3 soon.

🔽 Related pages 🔽
tag インド/India

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Sea of Poppies

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Sea of Poppies: Ibis Trilogy Book 1 Kindle Edition

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Sea of Poppies: Ibis Trilogy Book 1 (English)

2026-01-15