I buddy read Heaven by Mieko Kawakami with @literaryamy. So glad this was a buddy read, as talking about it as we read and then seeing Amy’s brilliant review helped me better appreciate and understand this novel. Translated from Japanese, Heaven follows a bullied middle school student, Eyes, nicknamed for his lazy eye. He is friendless until another bullied student, Kojima, starts writing him notes and they strike up a friendship. The bullying they both suffer at school is extreme, and they react differently to it. Eyes seemingly puts up with it, and thinks it is something he can’t change. Kojimi thinks their acceptance of the cruelty of their peers means they understand life in a way that the other students can’t. 

 

The unrelenting brutality of other kids is hard to read at times, and left me asking “where are the parents!” Or the teachers, or any adult who could step in at all the warning signs. But I don’t think this narrative is supposed to be taken completely at face value, as the NYTimes review notes parallels to the philosophies of Nietzsche and Laozi. The story eventually reaches a breaking point, and the ending is beautiful, painful, and perfect. 

 

This is a very different story than Breasts and Eggs. For me it was harder to understand, so I’m thankful that I read it with a friend. I am completely enthralled with Kawakami’s genius, and I’m looking forward to more of her work being translated into English.

Loved this historical fiction about Marie de France. I’m not always a historical fiction person but this book has queer warrior nuns, women working the trades, ruling the convent, having visions from the Virgin Mary, and more. Marie is not beautiful but she is smart and cunning and even winds up being devout. She transforms the convent where her unrequited love/frenemy Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine has banished her from a poor crumbling hovel of old nuns into a powerful rich haven for women. Before reading this I didn’t know pretty much anything about convents in the medieval ages, but now I know so much! And I know about Eleanor and the crusades, and Marie’s lais, and the dissolution of the monasteries. This book is also beautifully written (as is everything by Groff). Very highly recommend!!!

 The second book I read this year easily earned a spot on my favorites list. I loved Intimacies by Katie Kitamura so much! It’s just the kind of quiet, character-driven novel that I’m drawn to these days. The tone was reminiscent of Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy, but much more personal. Intimacies is about a woman who recently moved to The Hague to work as an interpreter at the International Court. She’s there on a one year contract. Over the course of the year, she translates for a high-profile case involving a former president / war criminal who has committed horrible crimes. She balances work with personal relationships, including her lover, a married but separated man. After her year is up, she must decide if she wants to renew her contract and stay in The Hague. 

 

The narrator is untethered and searching, contemplative and still hopeful. I enjoyed reading about the difficulties of interpretation. It felt so human that the narrator found herself subconsciously rooting for a war criminal due to their shared language connection. And I was drawn in by another central tension of the book - what will happen with Adriaan, the narrator’s lover? Would he choose to divorce his wife? Would the narrator even want to stay in The Hague? 

 

I really loved this one. I highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy books focused on one character and their daily life. This book is not plot-driven, and it doesn’t have a lot of action. Instead it’s measured and reflective. Let me know if you’ve read this one! I know reviews have been mixed, but it’s exactly the type of writing I love. 

Would have loved for this to be developed into a full book. It felt like a full book plot distilled into short story form, which didn’t quite work, since the last parts were too fast.