A Lost Paradise

Rating:
Summary: A look at the Japanese view of love
Review: I knew the ending of this book before I bought it, but I still wanted to find out why I had heard so much about it, so I bought it. It is a beautiful story of middle aged love and how two people not from my own culture handle the situation. The story deals with eroticism, love, seduction, and the subsequent quilt of cheating on a spouse. I didn't agree with how the protagonists dealt with their situation but Wantanabe delves into their minds and souls so completly that their fate is understandable. The author made me feel as if I was there with them and inside their heads as they enjoyed each and every experience they shared, all the way to the end.

Rating:
Summary: Read it, it will awaken you to life.
Review: Mr. Watanabe has thrown paradise at us in the form of a book. "A Lost Paradise" is a wonderful story of love, passion and obsession. It's well written and well crafted and flows like the waves of a calm ocean gently awaking emotions each time they caress the shore. Mr. Watanabe presents us with a story of Kiko and Rinko who are two souls lucky enough to find that elusive "true love" in each other, only to realize all to quickly its frailty. The perspective of love presented is truly eastern in flavor and that makes it that much more endeering and enticing and exciting. A story like this places itself snugly with the likes of Shirin & Farhad, Zulekha and her lover, Jahangir and Anarkali.

Rating:
Summary: Read it, it will awaken you to life.
Review: Mr. Watanabe has thrown paradise at us in the form of a book. "A Lost Paradise" is a wonderful story of love, passion and obsession. It's well written and well crafted and flows like the waves of a calm ocean gently awaking emotions each time they caress the shore. Mr. Watanabe presents us with a story of Kiko and Rinko who are two souls lucky enough to find that elusive "true love" in each other, only to realize all to quickly its frailty. The perspective of love presented is truly eastern in flavor and that makes it that much more endeering and enticing and exciting. A story like this places itself snugly with the likes of Shirin & Farhad, Zulekha and her lover, Jahangir and Anarkali.

Rating:
Summary: Porn masquerading as literature
Review: This novel is a fake. It's not mainstream fiction, it's just porn, dressed up in fancy clothes but otherwise porn. One chapter equals one sex scene. Chapter after chapter of the two philandering characters who excel only in rapturous leading to violent leading to dangerous sex. I'm dismayed that people seem to have been misled by it, perhaps because it's a Japanese novel. Believe me, good Japanese novels are not like this.