170. "Real World" by Natsuo Kirino

Real World, Natsuo Kirino's third novel to be translated into English, opens with a high school boy murdering his mother. The girl next door, also a teenager, overhears the crime take place, and then she has an odd encounter with the boy, whom she has nicknamed Worm. For reasons she can't explain, she lies to the police and her parents about her interaction with Worm. In the meantime Worm, who has stolen her cell phone, begins calling the girl and her three closest friends. Each of them has her own distinct reaction to the crime and the criminal, and he brings out conflicting urges and motivations that will have profound ramifications for them all.

I didn't think Real World was as good as Kirino's previous works Out and Grotesque (which is an excellent and troubling read; I found myself wondering how, as a writer, Kirino lived with such nasty characters without becoming totally unhinged), but it's still a strong novel and very cognizant of the challenges surrounding the surreal lives of Japanese teenagers. Kirino points out the constant sense of threat adolescent girls face and the dangers they encounter daily; this pervading aura of dread and fear shapes the characters and their actions.

169. "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden

I figured I should at least attempt to read Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, for the sake of being culturally conversant (same reason I read Twilight), but I didn't expect to enjoy it. To my surprise, I found it engrossing and, mostly, very good. The last 50 pages weakened the effect, because I didn't like the resolution of a major plot point, but they didn't ruin the novel. Very interesting insights into the geisha culture, obviously, but also Japanese society before, during, and after World War II, and the limited options available to girls and women in that society.

168. "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See

In Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See chronicles the life of Lily, a Chinese girl whose station is elevated by her beautiful face, her tiny bound feet, and her special friendship with Snow Flower, a girl from a better family. After Lily's arranged marriage to an aristocratic young man, she learns a secret about Snow Flower that devastates her and threatens their friendship. 

The account of foot-binding is difficult to read, and it's even more difficult to imagine generations of women enduring this practice. Although I knew it was extremely painful and crippling, I didn't realize the process could be fatal. The narration vividly depicts this, as well as the agony of learning to walk on bound feet and the continuing challenges to women's safety posed by the inability to move without pain. For example, when rebels invade, Lily joins a group of refugees fleeing to the mountains. As she toddles up a precipitous, rocky trail on her "beautifully" mutilated feet, she watches other women, unable to balance with their bound feet, lose their footing and plunge to their deaths.

In some ways this is a bleak novel; in others, it's what my college friend Becca used to call "redemptive."

167. "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen

I read a couple of Carl Hiaasen's adult novels, thought them reasonably entertaining, but didn't find them as compelling as fellow Floridian Tim Dorsey's Serge Storms series. However, I decided to try his Newbery-Award-winning young adult novel, Hoot, and enjoyed it very much. As in his adult novels, Hiaasen combines an offbeat sense of humor with a plot about preserving the unique flora and fauna in Florida.

Roy Eberhardt is the new kid in his Coconut Cove, Florida, middle school. Between battles with the school bully, Roy finds out that a large pancake chain is getting ready to build on a site that's also home to several breeding pairs of endangered burrowing owls. He joins forces with a mysterious barefoot boy and his school's female soccer star to stop the development and save the owls.

166. "The Godfather of Kathmandu" by John Burdett

I thoroughly enjoyed John Burdett's first three novels featuring Thai detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, so I was eager for the fourth, The Godfather of Kathmandu. However, it was difficult to follow, convoluted, and ultimately disappointing. Sonchai, reeling from the death of his son (which, he explains, is due to his own bad karma and/or his expressed willingness to suffer to achieve Buddhist enlightenment), is drawn into the investigation into the murder of an American film director. The investigation and Sonchai's other role, as consigliere to his corrupt boss (see above reference to bad karma), take the detective to Kathmandu, where he meets a mysterious spiritual guru and a beautiful woman schooled in the ways of tantric sex. Back home in Bangkok, he pursues a connection between the dead film director and an aristocratic, semi-insane, also beautiful doctor of pharmaceuticals. A late connection to gem trading necessitates a trip to Hong Kong and ties together various loose strands, but also adds another dimension to a plot already heady with dimensions.

Conclusion: Definitely not a good introduction to the series, and even die-hard fans might struggle with this one.

165. "The Piano Tuner" by David Mason

David Mason's The Piano Tuner is set primarily in Burma during 1886-1887. Edgar Drake, a London piano tuner, receives a request from the British War Office to travel to colonial Burma to service the piano of Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll. It's an unusual request, but Carroll is an unusual man: By reciting poetry and playing music, he has managed to forge strong relationships with local tribes and rulers, enabling him to oversee a peaceful settlement in a conflict-ridden region.

Drake leaves his beloved wife in London and travels to Burma, where he confronts realities he could never have imagined: ruthless bandits, desperate poverty, fatally careless British soldiers, an elegant and mysterious native woman, the slow wheels of British bureaucracy, and finally Carroll himself.

His dedication to his mission--not because of any military or civic duty but because of his deep care for pianos--and his fascination with Carroll lead Drake to a series of decisions that will have fatal repercussions.

Some sections of the novel are written in a breathless, comma-laced prose that is difficult to follow, particularly when depicting dialogue. But overall, this is an evocative, powerful novel about a journey into an Asian heart of darkness.

164. "Fieldwork" by Mischa Berlinski

Continuing with the Southeast Asia theme, Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski takes place in Thailand and in the border regions of the Golden Triangle--Burma, Thailand, and China. The novel's narrator, also named Mischa Berlinski, becomes obsessed with the story of a Dutch-American archaeologist who committed suicide in a Thai jail more than a decade after she shot a missionary twice in the back.

Through interviews with people who knew Martiya van der Leun, the archaeologist; her own letters; forays into archaeology and the spiritual beliefs of local tribes; and discussions with the vast Walker clan--the family of missionaries that spawned the man van der Leun killed--Berlinski strives to understand the crime. In the process, he explores what has motivated four generations of the Walker family, and what compelled van der Leun to give up her American life to dwell in a hut with a pre-literate hill tribe. Her ultimate embrace of the tribal beliefs, at the same time the Walker scion is converting more and more tribe members away from those beliefs, leads to a conflict that the novel attempts to portray as inevitable.

The story is fascinating, and Berlinski is a strong writer, providing ample details about Thai life, history, and cultures to engage readers. My only critique is that the novel's ending felt anticlimactic and a little abrupt.