Go (Kaneshiro)

Go: A Coming of Age Novel , Kazuki Kaneshiro (2000), translated by Takami Nieda (2018)

Not a review. Just a reminder of what I read recently.

I probably would not have read this were it not for Amazon's World Reading Day. As I did last year, I downloaded a bunch of free books from around the world. Last year, I only read two of them (so far).

Once again, I read a book by about a Korean living in Japan, but unlike A River in Darkness, Go wasn't anywhere near as depressing. That said, it wasn't particularly cheery either. The book was from 2000, which is something to keep in mind whenever there are mentions of technology or pop culture. Some references become dated.

The story follows Sugihara, whose family in Korean. When the North Korea had been founded, Koreans in Japan had to choose to register as North or South Korean. The book opens with his parents deciding to switch nationality to South Korean, so they'll be able to go to Hawaii. (At first, I thought they were moving there, but it's just a vacation.) Sugihara takes this opportunity to get out of Korean school and attend a Japanese school.

School life is rough, but Sugihara has an undefeated record beating up all challengers who would make his life miserable. (Not to mention the ones who think that they could make a name for themselves if they get in a lucky punch that takes him down.) Since Sugihara was taught by his father, a one-time professional boxer, who also slaps him around a bit, he isn't easy to take down.

One of his friends is Katou, whose nose Sugihara breaks. No hard feelings, though, because that gives him the excuse to get a nose job. Katou's father is a member of the Yakuza, and he respects Sugihara. Katou throws a big birthday party, and Sugihara meets Sakurai, a bit of mystery girl.

His closest friend in Jong-Il, from the Korean school.

It's a story of love, loss and finding your place in the world, and what nationality has to do with any or all of that. I enjoyed it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bedeviled Eggs (Childs)

Image
Bedeviled Eggs Laura Childs (2010) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) This is the third in the series that started with my pandemic book club selection. THe first one was interesting enoug that iI thought I'd try a couple more. This book was not available as an ebook from any of three NYC library systems, so I had to get it as a paperback, just as I did with the previous two. I also got the audiobook, as I did with the last two. It's good to listen to when I'm out for my walks. The usual gang is back. Szanne, the recent widow, and her new boyfriend, Sam the doctor, along with Petra, whose husband is in a medical facility, and Toni, who is still married to Junior. Junior proves to be little more useful in this book. The relationship stays on-again-off-again. I'd imagined Junior as a cross between Jethro Clampett
Read more

Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Doidge)

Image
Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (The Dowser #1) by Meghan Ciana Doidge (2013) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) I'm pretty sure that this was a freebie in a Book Bub mailing list, but it might've been a random search result when looking for free paranormal cozy mysteries. I don't remember. It was mostly a quick read, and I rushed to finish it because a library book became availalbe and I wasn't go to be able to renew that. As it was, I practically forgot that I'd read it, until I noticed the title again on my phone. (My iPad is loaded with a lot of recent stuff which gets downloaded automatically.) This is the first book in the "Dowser" series. The main character, Jade, is half-witch, half-human, and she knows nothing about her father. Her mother never chose to tell her anything, and sh
Read more

Cibola Burn (Corey)

Image
Cibola Burn by James S. A. Corey (2014) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) I read this nearly a month ago, or at least it seems that way. Once again, I watched the show first which might've made this book go by a little faster. That said, there were enough differences between them. For starters, most of the book takes place on and above the planet Ilus or New Terra, depending upon who's talking. Any of the shows subplots that take place in the Sol system are absent here. There is also some rewriting of settlers. Belters and Outer Planets people (such as refugees from Ganymede) managed to get through the Ring and settled on an inhospitable planet that has a lot of lithium, which they are mining to sell to hire lawyers to stake their claim to "Ilus". They've already been there for a while when a UN/Mars backed
Read more