Time does fly fast. Just like that, we are already on the last Wednesday of May. In a couple more days, we’re already in June. I can’t help but look back at the events that transpired. In five months, a lot has happened and it seems just like yesterday when we were all celebrating the dawn of a new year.

I am getting carried away again. Time to return to the essence of this weekly update. WWW Wednesday is a bookish meme was originally hosted by SAM@TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS. The mechanics for WWW Wednesday is quite simple. You just have to answer three questions:

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What have you finished reading?
  3. What will you read next?

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What are you currently reading?

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Minae Mizumura’s A True Novel is my eighth book for the month and will also be my concluding read for my May 2020 Japanese Literature month. It is a rather thick read, with over 800 pages. It is also the primary reason why I held back on reading this book. Had it not had a better Goodreads rating than Kenzaburo Oe’s Death by Water then this book would’ve probably waited for another year.

A True Novel follows the journey of Taro Azuma, a Japanese migrant who moved to suburban New York City when he was just 20-years old. Whilst employed by a Japanese company, he came across the teenage Minae Mizumura. Taro is a recluse who doesn’t drink and rarely socializes with his colleagues. He, however, possesses a tenacious spirit. He learned English and worked his way up from the quagmires of poverty to the pedestals of the rich. The story started to heat up when the lives of adult Minae and Taro started to converge. It is interesting to know how their stories end up.

What have you finished reading?

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Because of work, I only managed to complete reading one book – Keigo Higashino’s Journey Under the Midnight Sun. It was my second Higashino and is a slight deviation from the other Japanese works I’ve read earlier in the month. It is a mystery novel and uncharacteristically for a book of this genre, the plot dragged. I thought that, despite its length, it was going to be a quick read but I thought wrong. The narrative tends to wander; there were too many unnecessary characters subplots. It left me exasperated in the end. The ending was predictable and unsatisfactory.

What will you read next?

I still haven’t made up my mind on how my June reading month is going to take shape. However, I am considering on immersing in American literature. It is at the back of my mind this moment, especially as most of the books in my 2020 Beat the Back List challenge were from American writers. It is certainly an idea. I think The Help (because of numerous positive feedback) is going to be a great start for a good reading journey.

Happy reading everyone! Happy midweek!

 

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