One of the problems of reading translations of foreign books is that there is a risk of not completely getting the message that the author gave to the people that share the author’s native language.
Even more so when you have a little background with the language and culture in question. I sometimes found myself second guessing the translations and wondering if it was truly expressing what the author wanted to say. I can only imagine how difficult a task it would be to translate a book like this that deals with such deep psychological and cultural issues.
In the end this book was an interesting read for me, and an exercise into just how introspective some people can be.
The introspective person in this case is the lawyer Kido-san, who constantly considers topics as deep as “what is identity, and how much control do we have over it?” and also things as simple as whether or not the bartender should use the cocktail shaker with gusto. Kido goes deep on just about every topic, and the book hits many current topics in contemporary Japanese culture almost like the author was crossing these off a list he was given.
I’m not sure whether it is the translation or the original author, but I felt that the dialogue sounded forced and unnatural. The dialogue involving children sounded especially strange. The author’s writing style was like reading an information download – just lots of facts lined up for you to process. Many books that I read tend to show situations to the reader and let you make the deductions and inferences, but this book just provides the information without any sort of finesse.
There are some good points to the book – the mystery at the heart of the book is engaging, and the resolution satisfactory. The character of Kido is likable and slightly mysterious enough to wonder about his background. And the real issue in the book – the meaning of identity and how it may or may not be manipulated is intriguing as well.
So despite some rough areas overall I enjoyed the book. There are a few other books by this author, so I may try to read one in Japanese and see how much of what I disliked was due to the translation and how much was simply the writing style.
Coming up next, Slade House by David Mitchell.
