The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida

THE PERFECT WORLD OF MIWAKO SUMIDA had me hooked from the first page. The story kept me guessing the entire time, and I simultaneously wanted to know how it all would turn out and did not want the story to end. Clarissa’s writing here is absolutely spellbinding. I highly enjoyed her first novel, RAINBIRDS, and THE PERFECT WORLD OF MIWAKO SUMIDA didn’t disappoint with her world-building and character development. It was fun to see some of the side characters of RAINBIRDS make an appearance here with some of their own stories to tell and connecting the two novels. (Note that it isn’t necessary to read one book before or after the other; they both exist in the same world, but the stories themselves don’t tie into each other.)

This story is dark and twisty as it’s following characters who are trying to make sense of their friend Miwako Sumida’s suicide, all the while uncovering who she really was and her secrets. In the end, it becomes apparent that no one’s life is as perfect as others believe it is.

The three-voice structure used in THE PERFECT WORLD OF MIWAKO SUMIDA works very well for this narrative. It allows the reader to see much more depth of what is going on in Miwako’s life, while still developing the character who is telling their portion of the tale. By the end, I knew so much about all of the main characters, and I wanted to keep following them, to see where their lives would go.

All in all, this book gave me everything I was looking for and more. The story itself will continue to stay with me, and I look forward to a reread of this in the future. I also am eager to read more by Clarissa Goenawan, as she is a great talent to watch!

Clarissa Goenawan deserves to have a much bigger following than she currently has. In Both her first novel, Rainbirds, and her second, The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida, she shows a talent for painting complex portraits of characters who carry a burden of uncertaintyabout identity, about their own life stories, about the stories of those they love. This results in a sort of tentativeness in her writing, but it’s a tentativeness that engages and opens possibilities, not one that creates distance or disengagement.

The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida follows three different characters trying to understand the suicide of the Miwako of the title. Each of them has parts of the picture, but none of them has the whole. By telling their stories, Goenawan lets readers assemble a portrait of Miwako that’s beyond the reach of the book’s main characters.

I strongly recommend this book for all readers who enjoy cosmopolitan novels (this one is set mainly in Tokyo), mysteries, and/or psychological portraits. The rewards it offers are immense.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

Revolving around three main characters, Miwako, an independent private college girl, Ryesei who want to be her boyfriend, and his sister Fumi. Set mainly in Tokyo, the reader knows from the beginning that Miwako is troubled. She doesnt want attachments to people. Ryesei and Fumi grew up in an orphanage. Both Miwako and Fumi have pasts which have shaped their current lives. Fumi is stuck in a body with which she cant identify. Born male, she is a tall, beautiful female artist, who is a hostess at a bar at night. Slowly, slowly the background of the two are revealed. We may know from the first page that Miwako has taken her own life, but its not until the end of the book that we discover why. If you are looking for a moral, the saying Be kind to people because you dont know what they are going through describes this book. When I read the author was Indonesian from Singapore, I was surprised she had captured the style of many Japanese novels, lean, crisp and direct.

This is my review of the book “The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida” by Clarissa Goenawan. I received an advance copy of the book to review in February 2020. This review is spoiler-free.

This book is told in three parts and includes a short prologue and epilogue. The three main living characters are each given a section of the book and the fourth main character – the deceased Miwako Sumida (whom you know is deceased even before you start reading as it’s mentioned on the flap description) is the main focus of the book. Parts one and two that follow characters Ryusei Yanagi and Chie Ohno are well-written. These two characters are Miwako’s friends and through their eyes you see slices of the lives that they experienced with Miwako while she was alive. The characters were brought to life well and I really felt close to them. The way the story was told was relate-able to me and there was enough information that you really felt a part of these characters’ lives and felt sad that they had lost their friend. By the time I was at this point while reading the book, I was thinking about my 5-star review and how wonderful this book was and was prepared to say a lot of good things about it. But…

Then I got to part three. Part three of the book deals with Fumi Yanagi’s story. This is where the book came undone for me. Instead of trying to find the answers to Miwako’s suicide through character exposition and discovery with Ryusei and Chie, Goenawan used a supernatural plot-contrivance to tell Fumi’s story and to tie up all the loose ends. This gave us, the readers, all the answers to the questions we were asking about Miwako, even if all the characters themselves do not get answers. For me, this plot contrivance didn’t work. The book had mostly been grounded in reality to this point and it felt to me like Goenawan introduced this plot contrivance as a lazy way to wrap up the story without having to make her characters do much. It was really unfortunate, too, because the characters were all interesting and I was invested in them. I was ready to go on a journey of discovery with them and felt ready to find answers to all the questions that they were raising whether they be happy or sad. Instead what I got was a right-turn that DID answer all my questions but in a way that just felt lazy and cheap.

Another thing that I didn’t like was the way the characters were compartmentalized into their sections. For parts one and two, this worked well because Ryusei and Chie both have interesting back-stories and their journeys to becoming friends with Miwako came together in an interesting way in part two that leads you to think part three is going to be special. Instead, Ryusei is barely even mentioned in part three and Chie’s character is abandoned completely. So two characters that you have come to like just disappear and get replaced with Fumi’s back-story and the lazy plot contrivance to finish the book. I felt cheated that I didn’t get to share this journey to the end with Ryusei and Chie. I was prepared to shed tears in coming to terms with Miwako’s reasons for committing suicide and instead, I felt nothing. The main reasons were just matter-of-fact-ly thrown out there, book is done, put a bow on it. Personally I find that books that leave some unanswered questions are the ones I’m thinking about long after I put them down. I won’t be thinking about this book at all. The only thing I’m thinking is that I hope Clarissa Goenawan’s next book doesn’t use such lazy techniques. She is clearly a gifted writer and I’d like to see her put those gifts to use writing a great literary work.

Overall, the book IS well-written and there is a lot to like about it. If you aren’t put off by the abrupt right-turn in part 3, you will probably really like this book. Perhaps if I had read Goenawan’s first book I would have liked this one better. One of the reviewers on the back of this book mentions that this is “a continuation of the world she created in “Rainbirds” and maybe that would make the plot contrivance in part three more palatable. Don’t know since I don’t know what kind of book “Rainbirds” was. As it stands, this book was just so-so. 2.5 stars.

PS with VERY minor spoilers – After thinking about this book again, I think you could completely skip part 3 and read parts one and two as a stand-alone novella and the book would be better. I’d give that version 4-stars. At this point in the book, you essentially have all the answers to Miwako’s suicide with only one character-twist to be revealed in part 3. That twist doesn’t really add much to her story (or it certainly wouldn’t matter if you were to stop here). It also wouldn’t lessen the impact of Miwako’s story if you didn’t know this information. And you’d still have things to think about after setting the book down. Unfortunately, part 3 and its lazy plot contrivance is included giving you all the answers but leaves you with nothing to think about. If you do happen to buy this book, see what you think and think about the book in this way.

This is a brilliant book .It immerses you in an atmosphere of Japanese culture. Love how it explores the effect of ones actions upon another. A book you want to finish but never end

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