"Mother and Daughter" Relationship too close and struggling
After picking these 3 I realised that they are not Japanese books but are all related to Japan and its history. A mother in England reminiscing about her hometown Nagasaki and the woman she met during the war, a Korean mother who lived for her family in Japan throughout the war, a mother who was a popular prostitute in Indonesia colonised in Japan - and their daughters. Powerful.
1. A Pale View of Hills Kazuo Ishiguro, 1982 UK 183 pages [my comment] Etsuko now lives in England, she thinks about her lost daughter while reminiscing about Nagasaki, about a strange woman and her daughter she met. The women's past, future and regrets. [check on amazon.com]
2. Pachinko Min Jin Lee, 2017 US 512 pages [my comment] A young Korean woman crossed the sea to Japan. She lived in the war time Japan as a zainichi, lived entirely for her family. Endless struggles and little happiness. The way of living passed down to her daughter. Life is a pachinko. [check on amazon.com]
3. Beauty is a wound Cantik Itu Luka Eka Kurniawan, 2002 Indonesia 480 pages [my comment] Mixture of history and race, religions and politics and power, and living among men abusing all above. An epic drama of strong beautiful women. Her only hope is her ugly daughter. Blessed ugliness. [check on amazon.com]
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri, 1999
Read in 2018
check on synopsis and details amazon.com
🔽 Intro and review summary 🔽
✔ A collection of short stories from a Pulitzer award winner
✔ Stories of disconnection and disappointments
✔ Depiction of Indian-ness and her origin as not understandable
★★★★☆ A collection of short stories that makes you simply sad. It gets you excited a bit, then in the end you face the cold reality, that you are merely insignificant being.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
A collection of short stories that makes you simply sad.
The author herself is of Indian origin so protagonists are Indian or Indian origin, if not someone looking at Indian.
She depicts these Indian characters as some kind of aliens, someone we cannot understand.
The stories get you excited a bit, then in the end you face the cold reality, that you are merely insignificant being.
It won Pulitzer and other awards so I'd love to read this in English.
Tao Te Ching
Laozi
78 pages
Read in 2023.11
check synopsis and details on amazon.com
🔽 Intro and review summary 🔽
✔ The book of Taoism written in 400 BCE
✔ Basis of Chinese philosophy, influencing Confucianism and East Asian Buddhism
✔ With translation and short commentary for each passage
★★★★☆ The book of Taoism written in 400 BCE. A very short version with the translation and short commentary for each passage. Something to come back to time to time in life, with more knowledge.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The book of Taoism written in 400 BCE.
This edition is very short, with the translation and short commentary for each passage.
It's said to be written by Laozi around that time, but there's an ongoing argument about if it was written by him, or if he actually even existed.
It makes more sense now that Japanese Buddhism turnout out to be different from the original version, the antient Chinese philosophy is very strong and great.
With the Chinese filter, of course it's evolved by the time it got to Japan.
It's something to come back to time to time in life, with more knowledge for sure.
(I don't have BCE in the published year so I just added this to 1-1699)
✔ China, Japan and the war ✔ Nostalgia and unreliable memories from childhood ✔ Friendship between British and Japanese in China
★★★★☆ Nostalgia, it is the big theme in this book. Christopher and Akira playing innocently in their childhood in Shanghai. Full of fun and tender memories. But are they?
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
It's a book from Ishiguro, so the writing is beautiful, that's given. Nostalgia, it is the big theme in this book, full of fun and tender memories.
Christopher and Akira playing innocently during their childhood in Shanghai. After growing up to become a detective in England, though through some slow confusions, Christopher finally decides to take on a mission, the reality, of the disappearance of his parents.
Ishiguro doesn't explain things in a chronological order. How much is real, how much is carefully made up?
He goes wondering around the city of Shanghai blindly without a solid clue or valid understanding, as he is wondering around in his memories. Beautifully written.
✔ History of the ancient India and its soft power ✔ What they don't teach you at school ✔ Insightful history and facts from religion to mathematics
★★★★★+♥ My favourite historian, absolute. It proudly shows off the soft power of Ancient India. It's so vast geographically and in the topics that it leaves you speechless. Powerful and exciting.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽 My favourite historian. How lucky are we to have a favourite? The signed special edition that I finally got my hands on, sure I could buy a regular one on Amazon in Italy, but no, it had to come through the whole long process.
So naturally I had a very high expectation, and, it completely exceeded it
I follow his podcast, tweets and instagram, yeah stalking him, so I knew what kind of things would be in the book, yet, every single page contains mind blowing facts. How is it that I or we didn't know this history, why was it hidden? How is it that we didn't know India's soft power spread around south east Asia in an efficient way and the famous ancient Chinese trades were actually via India? Silk road? Yeah it was India who made a huge profit. Or that "Arabic numerals" are as a matter of fact, "Hindu-Arabic numerals"? That it originated in India in the first century and Europe only started to use it in 11th, 12th century?
As always the history and facts that Dalrymple uncovers for us are fascinating but it's his sheer enthusiasm that is the gem of his work, and the reason he is admired and loved. Who else can be called "rock star historian"? Aren't historian supposed to be boring people? He's so intelligent and intellectual yet he gets told off for spilling beans on the podcast, that he's not great at simple maths, and that he sometimes gets emotional and cry on the podcast. Rock star yes, but kawaii yes too. He simply loves history, and can't help to share it with us. And if he didn't know something, he'd go "oh I didn't know that, tell me more" with (I can easily imagine) his twinkling eyes.
Eye opening, mind blowing, brain exploding, curiosity fulfilled, he writes what he loves, so us readers can't help but be fascinated. His books have that power. It's a love letter to India from a historian who's completely in love and unapologetically curious. Did I say he was my favourite historian yet? I did, but I'd repeat again and again.
✔ History of Sikkim and India ✔ End of the kingdom of Sikkim and political upheaval ✔ No longer allowed to print, thus practically banned book
★★★★★ A dynamic history of the kingdom of Sikkim that got annexed by India. I love this area of the east of Himalaya, it's a total mix of cultures. Soon after gaining an independence from Britain, India "colonised" a small kingdom, a dark page of history that nobody should talk about.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽 The book I had to look for everywhere but couldn't find as a physical book as it was practically banned as soon as it was published.
And, no wonder it was banned (well not banned, as that would be too scandalous, they just did not allow to print any more) it is by a journalist who personally knew the Chogyal, the king, so it's detailed and it's what he saw, heard, conversed and felt, as well as collection of newspaper articles.
And it doesn't look good for India. India, who had until recently suffered the Imperialism is now putting Imperialism on Sikkim. Lies, manipulations, false promises, guaranteeing personal gains, not to mention violence. Anything you can think of that is morally wrong, was done to Sikkim. Cleverly manipulating the media to make people believe the Chogyal was the bad guy. They then tricked the modest simple people - you don't like the monarchy, this bad guy, then vote to be annexed by India. The Indian officer in Sikkim already had all the power he wished, and the last blow was easy, just lie.
As mentioned in this book, the snap referendum was based on manipulations and physically impossible to run it in the remote area so quickly. Of course, if you vote against the annexation you'd likely beaten up, too.
It's very detailed and was difficult to follow for me who had no basic understanding of Indian politics. But what was happening was clear, you cannot believe what you are reading with your eyes, it's incredibly similar to what British did to India; concentration of power in the hands of foreigners and dirty politics. Yes the Chogyal was hostile towards Nepali, but there was certainly a room for compromise and he probably would have been the Chogyal for all. It could have been a republic, also. But no, India wanted it, the perfect location at the border, and took time to absorb it slowly but surely. Now I'd like to know how Indian people think if this today, or maybe first of all if they are at least taught everything.
✔ A satire and critique of media and publishing industry ✔ Asian American women and using the race ✔ Thrilling and gripping
★★★★★ I knew it was super popular, and I agree, it's an absolute gem. Facts are not important here, just like over here in the society we live in. It's like I'm watching (peeking) something I shouldn't, and addictive, can't stop it.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽 I knew it was very popular but I didn't know anything about the story, and it was not what I expected from the title (not that revealing except it's to do with Asian) and definitely better than what I expected. I thought it'd be more simple, more like a story from Athena's point of view, but no, it's June's story, how the white average girl envied the beautiful and talented Asian girl, and went too far and caused such a mess.
It's exciting, it's difficult to pigeon hole, and it's so now, so true and so entertaining. It's a story of a bunch of narcissists bitching about everyone else, the facts are no longer important but that's life and life moves on.
And I know Kuang's new book, Katabasis, is out, and I have to reduce my tsundoku (tbr) to at least 100 to get even more books... if I can resist.
Beauty is a wound
Cantik Itu Luka
Eka Kurniawan, 2002
480 pages
Read in 2024.4
check synopsis and details on amazon.com
🔽 Intro and review summary 🔽
✔ Violent history and society in Indonesia
✔ Mother and daughters strong female
✔ Spirits, ghost and customs★★★★★ The mixture of history and race, religions and politics and power, and living among men abusing all above. Mother's only hope is the ugly, blessed daughter. An epic drama of strong beautiful women.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
It IS a book full of violence, love and curse of the beauty.
A great storytelling, of drama, an epic, of strong beautiful women who are, as it always happens, cursed by their men.
One day the town's dead prostitute comes back to life see her daughters.
She cannot leave this life until she sees them, especially the ugly one, who is leading a happy life, because the outer beauty is nothing but a wound, wound that cannot be healed.
Survived the colonial past and the invasions, their story and history are so unique that this book could have only emerged from Indonesia.
The mixture of history and race, religions and politics and power, and abuse of all above. Full of stories, my first Indonesian novel, and an epic.
✔ One of the best world history books ✔ Interesting and detailed history that reads like a great novel ✔ Rejects to be eurocentric
★★★★★+♥️ This got me interested in history. How the Middle East had a wonderful history and traditions, and how Europe has always been greedy. Frankopan is so serious that it's funny.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
An epic. This got me interested in history, a lot more than before, it has that charm, it doesn't just give you knowledge, it is entertaining.
It is a book about the whole history of the silk roads (plural, because it's not just one road) but surprisingly it's not boring, it is very entertaining and exciting as a book, like a big intertwined story. It illustrates the magnificent and rich history of the Middle East, and how greedy Europe has been using the religion as an excuse, and how Europe faded and in came the US, the new Empire, with its selfish democracy as their weapon.
And after reading this, you know why the Middle East being rich is not a new thing, it's not merely the quick money as the West wants to portrait it. They have a looong history, long and rich.
Maybe it's just the end of the European and American empires, and could be just the return of the Silk Roads.
✔ Poetic writing ✔ Novel about friendship and family complexity ✔ North Korea and cult worship
🔽 Review summary 🔽
★★★☆☆ He follows the mysterious beautiful Korean girl. The dark and raw story about youth and there's a bit of punk a bit of cult. The writing style is refreshing.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The dark and raw story about youth and there's a bit of punk that leads to cult and terrorism, but everything seems to light and superficial, thus, contemporary.
It's new in style, a bit like reading a poem and it's refreshing. But it lacked depth, you can't go deep into the characters, neither the girl or the boy, so it doesn't make you feel lost in the story. But maybe that's the point, and I didn't get it.
✔ Collection of short stories ✔ Nepali living in different places in the world ✔ Diaspora and sense of belonging
🔽 Review summary 🔽
★★★★☆ Nepal and Diaspora, sense of not belonging where they live. Far from home people's tradition and customs are distant memories while the feelings for home gets stronger.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽 A collection of short stories of people who have different ties to Nepal.
It's about lives of people living in diaspora, sense of not belonging where they live. To begin with, Nepalese people in Darjeeling area have a different sense of home, and not necessarily uniformed. And how about Nepalese in Bhutan who got kicked out to Nepal? Or Muslim from Bihar in Kalimpong? A guy from Darjeeling in New York who's never been to Nepal?
The stories are subtly harsh and sad but not exaggeratingly dramatic, just like real lives of real people, they carry their own inevitable drama and the longing, between tradition and practice and sense of home. Nice short stories.
✔ Magical realism ✔ Society and struggles in Sri Lanka ✔ Life after death and the world of ghosts and monsters
🔽 Review summary 🔽
★★★★★ Provocative and rock and roll. It's a fantasy, a magical realism that really tells the reality of Sri Lanka, through the eyes of this dead unreliable photographer/lover/gambler. It's a loud music in a book.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
The book I've been looking forward to read, though I tried not to know the plot in advance. So if you don't want to know anything else, just know that you will love it, and don't read further, even if you do, it'll be beyond your imagination anyway though.
So, first you are dead, and you need to find out why and who did it. There are ghosts and monsters, it's a mystery, in modern Sri Lanka, in a messy war - you can have these key words and still it's way over what you might expect.
It's difficult to get into the story without some knowledge of Sri Lanka but it slowly takes you to its world.
It addresses the protagonist as "you" so it feels like you're discovering it all with him. Him being a lousy war photographer, gambler and a unfaithful lover who's gay; he is an anti-hero who is rather hateful, but, somehow becomes not so hateful after you spend 7 moons with him.
It's provocative, anything can happen here. It's a fantasy as much as it's the reality in Sri Lanka. Non stop greatness that you can't pigeon hole it, a reading experience that's similar to being in a room with loud rock music, or whatever your favourite music is.
✔ History of Asia and British empire ✔ Partitions around Indian empire ✔ Colonisation, independence and new tragedies
🔽 Review summary 🔽
★★★★★ 5 Partitions, not just one. From Yemen to Myanmar, The British India was one entity where cosmopolitan people had lived in a sort of harmony. An important history that was until now "forgotten", and an important book.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
A great book on the topic that is shamefully unknown to a lot of us, even though it's not so long time ago and even though it totally shaped Asia today. All the problems in Asia that we see on the news today are not simply because the local people are "naturally" violent, of course not, there is always a cause.
And the cause is, this. The British Empire had ruled and gained much from the British India and local Princely States (so very wide, from modern day Yemen to Burma, to Qatar. Qatar! And British Empire had 25% of the world population back then) until one day they couldn't financially support it so they dropped the ball, without thinking of the very probable consequences, namely, the shattered lands and shattered people.
The book carefully follows 5 Partitions, rather than only the more widely known THE Partition between today's India and Pakistan. Myanmar, Arabian peninsula, India-Pakistan, Princely States, and Bangladesh. People like me who knew so little would be surprised at how everything fell apart quickly, and be utterly shocked how millions of people crossed newly drawn borders each time. And every one experienced some horror; the violence, looting, rape, and many killing. The consequences of the relocation, the migration, and of course of refugees like Rohingya people still remains as huge problems.
Stereotypically, British officers’ works were full of lies and betrayals, their selfishness with their strong interesting in keeping their hands clean. As a predicable result, people who lived in cosmopolitan societies, were suddenly put in various corners of Shattered Lands, and they turned against their neighbours because they now became their enemies.
What got me thinking most throughout my reading was how pre Partitions era things were more secular, and as the lands got divided it firmly became a matter of religions and ethnicity, it was all about nationalism, of the new nations that were born out of the shattered lands – again and again in the each phase of the Partitions. Not that the colonisation era was good, but you cannot stop wondering, if we now want to end the fighting in Asia would we have to eliminate the notions of religion and ethnicity? Letting go of the sense of community or tradition? The peace of mind it provides? Is it really a dangerous thing to have a tradition?
I heard somewhere that people who experienced the Partitions, probably just like our grandfathers in Japan who were sent to the war, have preferred to keep quiet. They chose to take the horror, errors and shame to their graves, and their children also kind of hesitated to insist. However, now that it’s their grandchildren’s generation, things are now becoming uncovered and dusted off because they are finally opening their mouths to tell us. And this might be one of the reasons why this book is written now at this moment in time, by this brilliant author who is in his 20s, and this is one of the reason this book will remain in the history to come.
The book has great details with wonderful storytelling skills, and most notably it has the marvelous sense of humanity, just like his father, Sam Dalrymple is such a humane human full of compassion and passion, with giggles – but he is already on his own feet, and how exciting is it that two Dalrymples are on the chart? Very.
✔ History of India and the kingdom of Sikkim ✔ Royalty, the American wife of the last king ✔ Colonisation and independence
🔽 Review summary 🔽
★★★★★+♥️ The more I read the more I'm interested in Sikkim, and this is definitely the most thorough book to learn about the end of Sikkim, and of the king, chogyal. It makes you want to go there... again.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽 The history of the last few decades of the kingdom before it was annexed by India and the story of their last Chogyal, their last king, Thondup Namgyal.
The more I read the more I'm interested in Sikkim, and this is definitely the most thorough book to learn about Sikkim. The author on the other hand, is Scottish who loved listening to his grandfather telling him about his journey to Sikkim when he was young. In 2009 he finally managed to get to Sikkim, and in a Buddhist temple near Pelling, he met a strange monk who gave him a book to read. The book was called Smash and Grab (my review here), the monk was Yongda who used to be the chogyal's Captain, and this is how his work has begun. Andrew Duff knew he had a story to tell. And I'm glad he did.
From the 17th century Sikkim had been governed by a Tibetan king, Chyogal. It has borders with Tibet (with China behind), Bhutan, Nepal then India, so it's fortunately or unfortunately located in a strategically important place, as such, of course all the great powers were all over this tiny kingdom. During the British era, British called in Nepali to cultivate the land to boost economy, even though Nepal had been an enemy of Sikkim for centuries. The mass immigration meant that the ruling race, Tibetan, became the minority. Now, Britain has left India, and increasingly the last chogyal was vocally against Indian influence to maintain his kingdom independent. Sikkim was split in half, those who supported the chogyal and those who didn't, which was not an unobvious choice for the majority of Sikkimese who were Nepali origin. Was he only clinging to his personal power? His illusion? Was he unnecessarily influenced by his young American wife (Grace Kelly of the East)? Did he do his politics well? Did he had a choice? It's a fascinating book that goes deep inside the life of the last chogyal.
All the essence of the Himalaya is here, between the big powers, India and China, and of course the British Empire, what could a tiny kingdom do? But it's also his very personal struggles of keeping him kingdom, of his young American wife. Many say he played his cards wrong, but actually, he had no chance of winning anyway against India. Sikkim remains to be a unique little bits of India.
✔ Indian classic ✔ Strong female characters ✔ Strange friendship between the wife and the lover
🔽 Review summary 🔽
★★★★☆ A beautiful widow. She cannot give up her pursuit for happiness. Chokher Bali, the sand in the eye, she disturbs everything she touches and disappears. A strong sense of un-happiness.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
My first Tagore. This is actually popular that it’s made into film and TV series in India. The sentiment is close to what they have in Japan: husband-wife relation, mother-son, or even mother-in-law and wife, it’s something many in Asia can easily understand, and cannot avoid.
Then comes the beautiful widow. Despote “her place” as a widow, she cannot give up her pursuit for affection and happiness. Chokher Bali, the sand in the eye, the annoying thing, she arrives and disturbs everything she touches. And like an eyesore, before you know it it goes away and the life is back to normal, the witch is punished.
Her happiness was taken away because she’s a widow, she brings bad things. Could they ever blame her? A strong sense of un-happiness.
✔ Korean zainichi in Japan ✔ Historical fiction World War Two ✔ Mother and daughter relationship
🔽 Review summary 🔽
★★★★★ Life of a Korean woman who survived all the difficulties the life threw at her. And about her beloved ones, Korean or Japanese. Life is a Pachinko. It’s not fair. You’re bound to lose. But you keep playing. An epic.
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
Life of a Korean woman who survived all the difficulties the life threw at her. And about her beloved ones, Korean or Japanese.
By narrowing down the novel to one woman’s life, it tells about real struggles, somehow making it universal. The history of Japan and Korea, or Japanese and Koreans, is not an easy one to fully grasp – because it’s still alive. The war is partly to be blamed but it’s not that simple. The book is rich, depicts how little luck or timing could change your life, it is probably difficult to understand if you’re not Asian beyond it being “fascinating”.
Again Koreans do better in storytelling. It’s dramatic, but that’s how it was in Japan up to the early 90s.
Life is a party, Fellini says. But here this novel tells you, life is a Pachinko. It’s not fair. You’re bound to lose, but you keep playing.
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