Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.
As you can see from the title of this video, this will be an Asian books review.
Despite the fact that all the books are in English and that I read them in English,
I decided to review them in French. I've done some research and there aren't many
recommendation videos or reviews in French, while there are many in English.
So I decided to make this video in French, also since my channel is mainly in that language.
We'll jump straight into it because I have 10 books to share and I don't want the video to be too long.
The first author I want to show you is Kazuo Ishiguro who wrote Never Let Me Go and
Klara and The Sun. I'll start with this one, which is my favorite.
Never Let Me Go is a dystopian science fiction novel told from the perspective of the
protagonist Kathy. We follow the story of Kathy who is 31 years old and a carer, a nurse.
She comes back to her childhood memories, to her time at Hailsham which is a kind of
conventional boarding school, but as the story evolves, we discover that this boarding school
is not at all what we first thought it was. Never Let Me Go is a beautiful novel that touches on
the themes of coming of age, friendship, love, betrayal and loss. It is an emotional book,
the writing is very nostalgic. Kazuo Ishiguro questions the nature of human existence
and the morality of society towards it. What I really like about these two books is that the
author uses a very calm, thoughtful, and slow writing style to paint an atmospheric universe.
I gave this book a 4.5 star.
Similar themes are discussed in Klara and the Sun. This book presents the story of Klara,
an artificial friend with unparalleled observational skills. We start the story as she is in her shop,
in the window presentation. Soon after, she will be chosen by a teenager who will allow her
to discover the outside world, the dream of any artificial friend. The author imagines
what the future of artificial intelligence and genetics has in store for us. For these two books,
these are stories that are quite slow, the rhythm is slow-paced. Klara and the Sun
is a lovely story, I gave it 4 stars and 4.5 for Never Let Me Go.
Then we have If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha. The book follows the lives and
friendships of 4 young women living in the same building who are trying to find their way
in a society defined by incredibly high beauty standards.
Frances Cha presents the Korean beauty industry through the themes of cosmetic surgery,
sexism, classism, wealth and prostitution. It highlights the almost unattainable cultural
expectations and norms to which women must conform, where our face is our wealth
and becomes the most sought-after feature. I have given this book a 3.75 star
since I wish the book could delve deeper into the topics covered.
We only scratch the surface of these themes. What I really liked is that this book still gives
a realistic and informative look at Korean culture and the representation of women in our society.
A very good book that I also recommend.
We have two very popular books by Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You and
Little Fires Everywhere. I'll start with this one. Everything I Never Told You follows
the life of the Lees, a Chinese-American family living in Ohio in the late 1970s.
This novel explores how ethnicity, race and identity shape family dynamics and how they affect
children’s upbringing as well as their education. It is a book more focused on character
development than on action. It is a bit of a study of complex parent-children relationships,
more specifically within immigrant families. What I like a lot about Celeste Ng is that
she has a very calm and lyrical writing style. I gave it a 3.5 star because the themes
can be quite heavy and depressive. I struggled to get attached to the characters,
unlike Little Fires Everywhere, and I found them more passive and less daring than I hoped
they could be. But despite this, the general messages are the ones that I respect
and identify with. 3.5 for this book!
This one I gave it a 4.5 star, I thought it had a bit more intrigue and action.
The story takes place at Sheker Heigts in Cleveland. A neighbourhood where all the rules
are respected and where everyone follows them to the letter. We meet 2 families,
the Richardsons and the other family, I can't remember if the name is mentioned, but there is
a mother called Mia with her daughter Pearl. They have just moved into one of the buildings
that the Richardsons are renting out. With the arrival of this new family, the Richardsons,
who are the perfect family living in Shaker Heights, see their so calm and orderly life turn
upside down. Once again, we are witnessing complex family dynamics.
The book explores the themes of motherhood, sacrifice, love, prejudice and racism.
The character development and the dialogue are much stronger.
The characters are real and authentic, all caught up in little fires, their everyday ailments.
I really liked this representation. This is why I liked this book the most and if the
title seems familiar to you, it was adapted as a mini-series on HBO I believe!
We have The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara.
This book is a bit like an anthropological study, for its first 2/3. The book follows the life of
Norton Perina who is a doctor in the 1950s. He embarks on an adventure on the isolated island,
in search of a rumoured lost tribe. While finding these people, he notices that some members
of the tribe are living unusually long lives. It is when he comes back to America
to prove his thesis and win the Novel Prize that he will realize that all this research,
these awards and this social and scientific recognition, are going to cost him dearly.
The People in the Trees examines the dark side and the moral and societal consequences
in the name of scientific progress. The author takes us out of our comfort zone
and tackles the discrepancy between moral ethics, societal values ​​and scientific advances.
I discovered one of my favorite authors at the moment. Her descriptions are extremely vivid,
the dialogues are interesting, the characters are very well developed; they are complete
and flawed. I really like her writing style which is very lyrical, making this book
an emotionally fascinating novel. Unfortunately, I still gave it a 3.5 or 3.75 star because
I did not enjoy the last third of the book. I loved the first 2/3 thirds as we follow the original
story and captivating adventure. I was less intrigued by the last third when he returned
to America. I read it a bit quickly, hence the low rating.
You absolutely must read this author, whether for this book, A Little Life or her other works!
Then we have Pachinko by Min Jin Lee's, I gave it 5 stars. Set in Korea and Japan
in the 20th century, Pachinko is a touching story of love, family, sacrifice and ambition.
The novel follows 4 generations of the same Korean family in search of a new and better life
in Japan after going through the Japanese colonization and the turmoil of war.
Through nearly a century of family history, Min Jin Lee portrays discrimination against Koreans
in all aspects of their lives: generational lines, religion, clothing, what they eat… their culture actually.
But despite the injustice, racism, sexism, and all the harsh everyday conditions Koreans
have to endure in Japan, Pachinko is also about the good-hearted, honest and loyal people
who support each other to get ahead in life. The descriptions of the countries, landscapes and
characters are beautifully rich. The cast of characters is very diverse.
They are complex, genuine and vulnerable. And all these little details made it so that I was
able to be completely immersed into this story and could feel for this family, these generations.
It was a great history lesson, what happened in Japan and Korea was unknown to me,
I didn't hear about it in school. It was a story that opened my eyes to this period in time.
We have Severance by Ling Ma which is a post-apocalyptic story that follows
the main character Candace Chen in a very atmospheric universe.
She is one of the only Shen fever survivors. In the book, she will try to find her way in a new
world which is completely different due to this pandemic of course. The story is structured
back and forth between the past and present life of Candace Chen. What I liked is that
the characters are very representative of what we are going through, of our current personalities
after having lived and gone through a pandemic. The plot is quite captivating,
it is about a kind of flu, a plague that turns humans into mindless clones.
Ma questions our very material and technological influenced society, and how our life
seems to lose its sense by no longer having these elements around us.
This book has been interesting to read in the context of a pandemic.
I gave it a slightly lower rating as I wish the ending was less rushed and
ended with a more concrete, proper conclusion. It was a very interesting story!
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
I'm not going to go into details because I have already reviewed it.
I will put my previous review on screen. I gave it 4 stars, and it is a book that made me cry.
The first chapter might seem difficult to get through, I didn't identify with the character at all,
she even annoyed me a little bit. If you are unsure about the book after reading the
first chapter, you should keep on reading as the following chapters are a lot better.
4 stars for this book that made me cry twice.
The 10th book is The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa. Gorgeous story, I gave it a 4.5 star.
This novel is a dystopian book set in a world under constant surveillance and which
will culminate in self-destruction. It is a calm and serene book, which is quite astonishing
considering the plot, and is very lyrical. The story takes place on an unnamed island
where objects disappear from the real world, from the physical world, but also from our memory.
It starts with harmless objects: ribbons, roses, perfumes, but then it gets more serious,
with birds, books, and it goes on. A few are immune to the phenomenon.
They constitute a threat to the regime and must at all costs hide from the memory police.
This mesmerizing, surreal and provocative story highlights the power of the mind, of memories,
and the trauma of losing loved ones and our memories. It is a wonderful book that makes us
think about how our minds and memories make us who we are, and how life without them
loses all meaning. It is a novel that isn’t about action but about reflecting on all these themes.
A very, incredibly beautiful book and the last one on this little list.
That was it for this video, I say ‘that was it’ but I spoke for over 30 minutes for these 10 books.
I hope you enjoyed it, let me know if you read these books in French, in English or in
another language. For my next book reviews, I will continue to do them in chronological order.
I hope this video has given you some inspiration to read other books.
I am going to put them away now, I wish you all a very nice day and I will see you next time!