The Japanese Lover has been on my radar for some time because it was a past Book of the Month option, but it was sold out by the time I joined BotM, so I didn't get a chance to read it. When it was added to my library's digital book collection, I added myself to the waitlist--only to have about a billion holds all come through at the same time and lead to me scrambling to finish them all!
The story here is on two timelines. We're first introduced to a contemporary timeline, though it still takes place over the span of a few years. The main character in this timeline is Irina, a young woman originally from Moldova who begins working at Lark House, an elder care facility in San Francisco. Through her work, she also ends up being the assistant to Alma Belasco, a still-independent woman who lives at the facility much to the bafflement of her family. Alma's grandson, Seth, also becomes involved as he falls in love with Irina. The second timeline involves Alma's past, from her immigration to the United States from Poland in the days leading up to World War II through her later life, and heavily involves both her cousin/eventual husband Nathaniel and Ichimei, the son of the Belasco family gardener to whom Alma becomes close...and who is, it doesn't take a genius to guess, the eponymous "Japanese lover."
Looking at this book now, I realize that it's been translated, and I bet that explains the problems I had with the book. They are basically the same complaints that I have about every book in translation, which is what leads me to think it's actually the nature of translation rather than some problem intrinsic with the book itself. The problems are twofold: the prose is very tell-y without a lot of emotional depth, and the conversation is very stilted. Honestly, considering that I have these issues so often with translated books, I'm not going to dig into them too much and just kind of accept that it's the way they are. However, I do think that there are a couple of things that are unique to this book that I can go into in a bit more depth.
The two timelines is an interesting and important component of this book, but they're definitely not equal in quality. The contemporary timeline is much stronger than the historical one. Why? Because it covers less time. The book is pretty evenly divided between the two timelines, but with the contemporary one covering fewer years, it means that Allende can examine the characters and events with more depth. In the historical timeline, she tends to glaze over lot of the characters' deeper emotions and motivations, and the writing doesn't end up being as engaging. Additionally, Irina is given a Tragic Past. It is tragic indeed, but it is hard to see what purpose it actually gave to the plot other than making her shy away from Seth (who, by the way, will not take "no" for an answer, very creepy and pushy) and honestly, a girl doesn't need a Tragic Past in order to not want to be with a guy, or to be with anyone. It seemed like Allende was just trying to justify the delay in their relationship, but honestly, you don't need to justify not wanting to be in a relationship with someone. That grated on my nerves a bit; even if Allende wanted the two of them to end up together, there was no reason that Irina couldn't just decide that her life was in a better place for a relationship later in the book than it was earlier.
Overall, I enjoyed this, but the translation meant that it had rough spots, and some of it wasn't engaging. This definitely isn't a "rave" review, but I wouldn't discourage you from reading this, either, if the story seems like it would pique your interest.
3 stars out of 5.
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