{"id":3268,"date":"2018-10-05T19:33:02","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T19:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ackgame.com\/onwords\/?p=3268"},"modified":"2018-10-05T19:33:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T19:33:02","slug":"rainbirds-by-clarissa-goenawan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.ackgame.com\/onwords\/rainbirds-by-clarissa-goenawan\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>Rainbirds<\/em> by Clarissa Goenawan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"float: left; padding-right: 20px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/33026565-rainbirds\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.gr-assets.com\/books\/1501005435m\/33026565.jpg\" alt=\"Rainbirds\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/33026565-rainbirds\">Rainbirds<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/author\/show\/16100168.Clarissa_Goenawan\">Clarissa Goenawan<\/a><br \/>\nMy rating: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/review\/show\/2552785356\">3 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since I review a lot of mysteries, I should begin by saying that although there is a murder here, and it does get solved, the book is not really the sort of murder mystery that appeals to mystery fans. It&#8217;s really more of a psychological drama mixed with a bit of a romance novel. The main character, Ren Ishida, a recent Keio University graduate, decamps to a small town to investigate the murder of his beloved older sister. Ren is young and handsome, and apparently quite the roue. He takes a temporary job teaching English at a cram school, the same school where his sister had been working. He soon gets to know the people in his sister&#8217;s life, and gets to know himself a lot better, too.<\/p>\n<p>The most interesting aspect of this book to me was the portrayal of Japanese life. I don&#8217;t know how accurate it is now, but it does not at all comport with the Japan I knew in the 1960s when I was an exchange student there. If accurate, it depicts a much more westernized country at least in the aspect of dating and sex than I knew back then. When I was there most university students still met their spouses through their parents and relatives, and premarital sex was almost unknown, at least among the upper class. If a boy asked a girl out, usually after a year or two working up the courage, it was almost tantamount to a marriage proposal. The characters in this book are as randy and casual about sex as American millenials.<\/p>\n<p>The book is well-written, although stylistically it may sound a bit stilted to American ears. But that&#8217;s because it adheres to the semi-formal and somewhat dated manner of English speech that I know from my Japanese days, so it is authentic. In the end, I felt that the plot didn&#8217;t really lead anywhere very satisfying, but overall it was interesting enough to garner three stars.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/review\/list\/12975428-russell-atkinson\">View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan My rating: 3 of 5 stars Since I review a lot of mysteries, I should begin by saying that although there is a murder here, and it does get solved, the book is not really the sort of murder mystery that appeals to mystery fans. 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