jstilts's reviews
116 reviews

Another Japanese "comfort novel"? This one packs a punch that will bring tears to your eye.

This magical book sees the mysterious-even-to-himself Hirasaka running a photography studio housed between death and the afterlife, where the recently deceased stop to sort through photos of their life to assemble a somehow necessary "life-flashing-before-their-eyes" montage, with an opportunity to revisit one day of their life to capture a better photo.

It's again a repetitive novel but with only three iterations: a 92 year old lady with a full life, a middle-aged Yakuza gangster with a strange crew (it's a great tale!), and MILD SPOILER finally in the shortest tale a severely abused child who is only briefly there because she is enduring a near-death experience.

The conclusion is satisfying in that Hirasaka's story is - with a little reflection and 4th-dimensional thinking - almost fully revealed.

Rating this highly as in my opinion it uses the "Japanese Comfort Novel" genre as a bit of a sly disguise to take us by surprise with something slightly more impactful - one that will stick with me.

A classic that hasn't aged entirely well, but worth a read.

It starts off with the odd air of an Agatha Christie (without a murder) as a lawyer locates and works out a trust fund for a young woman. It's a little dull but mercifully a small part of the book, yet almost enough to put me off continuing except I knew a rough outline of the plot to come.

She - Jean - tells him of her experiences as a prisoner of war during WWII in Malaysia, and this tale is a large part of the book and by far the most enthralling. Based on a true story we follow a group of women forced to march around the country as everywhere they are sent they are sent on (still under guard). There are many sad tragedies and feats of endurance along the way, proving Jean to be a strong and capable person.

Without spoiling the romantic  heart of the story, the second half finds her in remote Australia with lofty ambitions to turn a ghost town around, and here it's less compelling - it's an okay tale but not a patch on the Malaysian half, and I find the main Australian character to be boorish and a "simple-minded farmer" stereotype of rural white Australians.
 
My real trouble is with some aspects of the book that now seem archaic and at times offensive. While the lead character is the young woman Jean, the author insists on returning to the male Lawyer as the narrative character, with long chapters seemingly from Jean's perspective turning out to be Noel's re-telling of her letters to him (some of which is highly unlikely to have been committed to correspondence). It's as if the author doesn't trust the reader to be interested in a woman's story, or doesn't have confidence in committing to telling one.

Elsewhere there is a lot of racist language used to refer to the Malaysians, the Japanese and to Australian Aboriginals - much of it from the main Australian character. While this may be an accurate retelling of the times, at publication in 1950 other authors of Australian Fiction such as Arthur Upfield were not doing this without other characters or the narration calling them out on it or examining it in interesting ways.

Also disappointing is Aboriginal characters having ridiculous names from products such as "Palmolive", "Bournville" etc. While it's true that white Australians did indeed name or rename Aboriginal people in this manner, not even the character Jean - who is newly arrived in Australia - remarks on this odd practice, which seems both a missed opportunity and an endorsement by the author of this degrading racist practice. 

All the stories in this book are each themselves a incoherent rambling messes but in such similar ways I can only assume is deliberate.

When I reached Chapter Two I thought I was on to the second story as there's no connective tissue, the characters are indistinct and mostly there is little to no plot to speak of.

Sometimes it gets interesting only for the author to abandon that train of thought without bothering to take it anywhere.

If I was being generous I'd say this book has a dream-like quality, but any night my dreams are more interesting, engaging and coherent than this.

0.75 stars as I can't recommend this book at all - I can't score it any lower as there's not anything actively offensive about it, it's far too bland for that.

Great fun!

An unusual entry into the series of Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte novels as it takes place entirely in a city rather than at a Homestead or rural location, but Boney seems quite at home solving a series of murders in Broken Hill as anywhere else - openly teaming up with the local constabulary rather than going undercover for once. Mind you he does at times, rather inconsistently, use a false name - Inspector Knapp - but that could be the characters arrogance that his name would precede him, and his probably right.

Bonaparte also joins forces with a cat burglar, with great glee on the Inspectors side but understandable reluctance on the burglars side - and much of the joy of the book is seeing these two commit crime in order to solve murder, leading to an ending that is by turns intense and hilarious.

Also notable is that very little attention is drawn to the fact that Inspector Bonaparte is Aboriginal. Normally his heritage makes a large mark in the book, both on his thoughts and the opinions of others (written and set in the late 40s early 50s this is significant whichever way you look at it) - and there were quite a few moments where I expected characters to take issue with it, but didn't.

That curious footnote aside, a highly recommended read but not a typical entry in the series.

Having disliked the first in the series and then very much enjoyed the second, I'm glad to say this third book is again a step upwards! 

While the first clashed too much between gritty realism and comedy, the second smartly paired it's comedy with character caricature, the third finds balance between murdering real people with a light comedic touch. There's no clashing of gears here and the meta-ness of the detective being the author is at a comfortable level. Basically, Stevenson has got the tone just right.

It's shorter than usual, but the accelerated pace suits Stevenson (I'm a huge fan of his two novellas published together as "Fool Me Twice") and the mystery is still complex enough to be satisfying to explore.

There are many potential suspects, and Benjamin weaves motivations and opportunities interesting enough that all of the outcomes my mind was steered to conjure would have each made for a satisfying solution - but the final full revelation still came as a surprise. I successfully picked up on a key clue that revealed the murderer, but happily kicked myself that I hadn't propely seen the full picture at all.

Highly recommended as a fun read, and if you're looking for a stocking filler this has been very carefully crafted to fit the bill - and it's 24 chapter structure intends for you to buy it early and read a chapter a day as a literary advent calendar (if you can resist, which I couldn't).

Disclaimer: I obtained a free copy of the book as I'll be interviewing the author in a few weeks, but as I happily gave the first book in the series only 2 stars in the course of my research, I hope you can trust my solid 4 star rating for this book is genuine.

Absolutely loved this audiobook regardless that it's aimed at kids - it's an extremely funny Australian school dramedy from the 80s, set in a rough primary school that see's new girl Alison from the posh end of town join the school due to a re-zoning fluke.

Main character Erica and (only self-proclaimed) smartest kid in the school is at first in awe of Alison but quickly becomes envious of her smart, quiet and perfect ways. Erica invents all sorts of outlandish lies to make her own life sound better while lashing out at Alison's imagined snobbery, not realising Alison's life is far from perfect - and ignoring that the rest of the school has no trouble accepting the new girl.

Things come to a head at the school camp, and it all ends rather neatly where Erica has a chance to both address her self-confidence issues and see the real Alison Ashley.

The narrator really throws herself into each role with gusto, bringing to life the whole school and family of characters. I haven't read the original book, and while it's regarded as a classic I imagine the narrator is still elevating it.

In a genius move, Benjamin Stevenson has his lead character (the supposed author of these books) be emotionally vulnerable to criticism of the first book and wracked with self-confidence issues on his right to be considered an author at all - to the point where I felt guilty giving that book a scathing 2 star review and fully committed to giving Ernest Cunningham a second chance.

I wasn't disappointed - this was a huge improvement over the first book - genuinely funny, more distinct characters, rattles along at great pace - and a final mystery that didn't require a pin board and red string.

That doesn't mean it's simplisitic - there are plenty of mini-mysteries amongst the suspects that are connected enough to make an interesting whole without making that whole a muddle.

I think I complained last time about the genre-critiquing style of the book and narrating lead character - perhaps setting this book in the publishing world makes that meta-critique a better fit, but I found the style more settled, less intrusive - and much funnier.

It certainly had me laughing out loud - there's an excellent scene with a Landcruiser that I can see perfectly in my mind's eye, absolutely ripe for a hilarious movie adaptation. The overall tone is quite light-hearted (the first book veered to hard for me between real-life awful tragedy and jokes), but nevertheless the twists still hit hard - the arrest in particular!

I'd definitely recommend this book - you don't need to read the first in order to enjoy the second, although it will certainly tempt you to go back for it - as the lead character is well aware!

I disliked this book so much I almost threw it across the room until I remembered I was reading it on my phone.

I had to read this book for work reasons, and it was a slog. It rambles, it has anecdotes within anecdotes, it never fails to fail to get to the point. 

You could skip the first 60 pages and not miss a thing. Frankly you could skip a whole lot more. As a fellow dog owner I can still say the subject matter is of very little interest - this guy has dogs. Big deal? 

Strangely he's proud of the fact that his dogs are dangerous dogs that he cannot handle. They fight with him in the street. They destroy and chase native animals. They bite people, to the point a visitor to their home needs stitches. They rejoice when she 'gets over' her fears that they might easily savage a visiting child and doesn't report their dangerous animals, who then go on to destroy a family pet they've spent their whole lives with. Loveable, apparently.

Then the dogs die, eventually, as all dogs do - but after stupid amounts of money are mentioned on vet bills, perhaps to impress us?

Then they get another dog they can't control as a happy ending.

Do not recommend either writing style nor subject matter.

When StoryGraph asks "are the flaws of the main characters a main focus of the book" that's all the description you really need of this collection of comic strips.

This surprisingly charming group of absurd characters definitely do not have their shit together, aren't trying to achieve much and develop very little, but each short strip rings true to our lazier, most self-doubting and angry-at-the-world tendencies.

Humour is subjective, so if lines like - "Why do you always have an unlit cigarette in your mouth?" / "because I don't smoke" - or -  "Bird, let go of your anger, look within and find your deeper feelings" / "I feel something... it's anger!" - get you chuckling, this is for you.

At over 200 pages this is a decent sized collection, but alas I can't help but binge them when they should be savoured one each day.

Bought this second-hand on a whim for a dollar while traveling.

Not a bad little kids info book to broaden their horizons into history - that human culture is neither a monoculture nor linear in developing sophistication.

In a quick literary style each chapter gives an insight into the day-to-day life of a dead culture (as best it can, considering) then details why we believe that civilization is no longer with us. Unfortunately the answer is usually some variation on "somebody invaded and killed them all" which can make for a bit of a grim tone, but there is some nuance beyond that - and the occasional out-and-out mystery too.

Considering when this was published it's no surprise that the lense it looks through history at is a white western colonialist one, but this is more an unconcious bias than an overt philosophy - while you won't find the author consulting the lost cultures nearest descendants for insights and theories in favour of white explorers discoveries, neither will you find them espousing "white western culture survived because we are the superior one" trains of thought either.

If nothing else in modern hands this book could send children down some tantalising internet rabbit holes - a brief search for each lost civilization in Wikipedia alone gives greater insight into how our understanding of these lost cultures has broadened in the last century, with detailed archaeological information that will fascinate the curious young mind.