First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

A tale of a green river whose current links the moods and fortunes of three women, three generations. By the author of the award-winning Doctor’s Wife.

Happy Friday everyone! Technically it is already Saturday so I hope everyone will have or is having a great weekend. I hope everyone ended the workweek on a high note. I hope everyone accomplished all their tasks for the week, or at least able to make some headway. After another grueling week at the office, I hope everyone gets to rest this weekend. I hope everyone gets to pursue their passions. Today, I traveled to Taiwan for a badly needed reprieve after grueling three and a half months at work. I hope I can recuperate during this holiday. I hope everyone will have the same. With time passing so fast, we forsake our bodies and our mental health. Do slow down and take as much time as you can to recover and heal. It is true what they say. The body will eventually be the one to send signals once it feels it has been stretched to the limit. That is how it feels for me anyway. With the first quarter of the year coming to its inevitable close, I hope that 2025 is showering everyone with blessings and positive news. I hope all positive energies flow into you. More importantly, I hope everyone will be healthy in body, mind, and spirit.

But even a break is not going to bar me from ending the work week with a fresh First Impression Friday. After all, this weekly update has become a part of my weekly blogging ritual. It has, over the years, developed from a space to take a breather into a springboard for my book reviews. With the new year comes new goals. One of my goals this year is to finish the year with more translated works than works originally written in English. As such, I kicked off my 2025 reading year with the works of East Asian writers. Well, there is a deeper reason for this. The foremost reason for immersing myself in the works of East Asian writers in the past three months is because of my inability to host a Japanese literature month in 2024, the first time in a while I failed to do so. Further, South Korean writer Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in Literature recognition is another reason. Further, an older work by Han, We Do Not Part, which was also cited by the Swedish Academy, was just released in English for the first time last January.

For March, I have been focusing on the works of female East Asian writers. This is also to align with the month’s theme. March is Women’s History Month while March 8 is International Women’s Day. This brings me back to the vast landscape of Japanese literature. While Japanese literature has produced several prominent names, most of the globally recognized are men. It has just been recently that female Japanese writers are taking the global scene. There were, nevertheless, prominent names from the early to mid-20th century. One of the prominent female writers in 20th-century Japan is Sawako Ariyoshi. A prolific writer, she is among Japan’s most famous writers. My first foray into her oeuvre was in 2023 when I read The Doctor’s Wife. This year, I have included The River Ki, a book I previously featured on my Goodreads Monday update, in my 2025 Beat the Backlist Challenge.

Originally published in 1959 in serialized form in the magazine Fujin Gahō between January and May 1959, it was eventually published as a complete book carrying the title 紀ノ川 (Kinokawa). The novel commences at the turn of the 20th century and introduces the beautiful Hana Kimoto and her grandmother, Toyono. We met them as they were visiting a temple in Wakayama (Ariyoshi’s birthplace) before Hana’s impending wedding; Hana was just twenty. Upon Hana’s mother’s untimely death, it was her grandmother who took on the responsibility of raising her. Hana attended the Wakayama Girls School where she excelled in her studies. In the meantime, her grandmother taught her traditions, such as playing the ‘koto‘ (a musical instrument) and the elegance of the tea ceremony. There seems to be a balance but Hana’s marriage is going to disrupt this balance.

However, traditions prevailed as she was set to marry Keisaku Matani, a hard-working and ambitious man from Musota. Her grandmother painstakingly played the role of a matchmaker for the two of them. It was also from her grandmother that Hana learned about the importance of being a good wife and an advocate for her husband. This essentially lays out my expectations of the book. It does not come as a surprise that the novel grapples with the female role in Japanese society. The period in which the novel is set speaks of it. But I expect that the novel will capture the change in attitude or at least carry a hopeful tone for Japanese women. Obviously, the start of Hana’s union with her husband tips heavily in favor of her husband. I just started reading the book while on a train in transit to Hualien so I haven’t gotten too far into the book. I am also exhausted from the trip.

But what I foresee will come between me and my appreciation of the book is the leaps in time, the same concern I had with The Doctor’s Wife as it forced me to fill in the gaps. The book is rather slender but I do realize it resonates with a global message. I am looking forward to the book and how the story evolves. How about you fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!