The Great Passage is the first that I’ve actually read of the many, many “Kindle First” books that I’ve downloaded for free in the past year or so since I became aware of the Amazon program. I can’t ignore the opportunity for a free book, but I’ve been so on top of my library queue and meeting self-imposed reading deadlines that I just haven’t gotten to any of these, which I mostly choose either based on the description being the least irritating of the group […]
Origin Story of an Icon
While the link is for the entire Musashi saga, this review is of the first paperback volume which seems to be out of print or otherwise unavailable from Amazon directly. There are five or six volumes of the paperback version of the story. One of the first RPG videogames I ever played was Brave Fencer Musashi on the original Playstation. While the game was fun and lighthearted, I learned from a video game store employee that Musashi was actually an iconic Japanese figure. I wanted to learn more, but […]
Yes, but what’s the name of the translator?
Right from the very first lines this felt wrong. After struggling with the style for almost 15% of the novel, I decided to check the name of the translator and it’s not the same one who did all the other Keigo Higashino novels I have read in English. I understand that it isn’t always possible to work with the same translator but a good translation is supposed to make the reader forget she’s not reading the original work and that is simply not the case […]
Write your own ending
Last year, the estimable yesknopemaybe reviewed this book and found it arduous and almost iredeemable. But her summary of the book left me fairly curious, especially after reading The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino last year, which sounded vaguely similar. Her comparing it to Crime & Punishment didn’t hurt, considering that’s one of my favorite books. So, given what I expected based on her review, I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised for nine-tenths of the book. Though I did find […]