This is the story of Riko, a woman in her 30s, married to someone she fell in love with while an early teen. She struggles to understand and live with the pervasive nature of her love, tries to reconcile her love for her husband with his ongoing popularity with other women, and yearns to find a path to self-realisation and finding someone else to love. This journey is interspersed with episodes of Riko dreaming of living the life of a courtesan in the Edo period, and of a lady-in-waiting to a high born lady in the Heian period. The story also draws heavily from Takaoka's Travels, and the character of Takaoka is omnipresent in the book and across the timelines described in it.

I found the book intellectually interesting - its structure, form, and delivery were challenging (in a good way), and I enjoyed this challenge a lot. It helped that, completely by chance, I read Takaoka's Travels just a few months ago, creating a stronger link to the book than I might have otherwise felt.

I struggled, though, with the content. While the role of women in contemporary Japanese society leaves a lot to be desired, the protagonist seems to be stuck in this self-imposed version of a traditional wife, and sees herself as a function of her devotion (not love) to her husband. The historical analogues go a long way towards reinforcing this point, and while Riko's eyes are somewhat opened in the process, she remains the type of woman that one would typically struggle to call "modern". It's never clear whether Riko's characterisation is intended as a backhanded critique of the entire situation, or the author's own confusion about what a woman's role should be. This really annoyed me - I struggled to see the point of it all, and I felt, having completed the book, that I've learned little about the questions the book raised. I finished it with a bad aftertaste, mostly due to the lack of sufficient sophistication in dealing with these same questions.

Fans of the author would like this book, and also readers who enjoy Japanese magical realism, as well as links to its literary past and heroes. That being said - it's mostly a miss for me. I'm not sure I'm left with anything noteworthy having read it. Reading it without having the benefit of reading Takaoka's travels first would have made it impossible to finish, for me.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

The Third Love (June 2024) is Hiromi Kawakami's latest English title, a translation of her Sandome no Koi (2020) by Ted Goossen. While I'm a fan of Kawakami, I have not read the original work.

The story revolves around Riko, who is married to Naruya (fondly, Naa-chan), whom she has loved since meeting him in her childhood. By "childhood" I mean she was two and he was in junior high. Go figure the age gap. Anyway, everything seems peachy in the marriage at first, but she soon discovers his involvement with other women.

As a child, Riko also befriends her elementary school janitor Mr Takaoka. Again, go figure. She laters meet him again in her adulthood, and he offers her a magical trick: living different worlds in her dreams. It becomes a form of escape from her troubled marriage.

In the first dream world, she's a high-ranking courtesan in the Edo period, while in the next she's a handmaid to a Heian era princess. Each time period was vividly described, taking the reader on a time-travelling journey as Riko explores love and relationship in different forms and perspectives. Through the surreal experience, she acquires a change to her way of thinking.

Worth noting there's a motif based on Ise Monogatari (Tales of Ise) in this novel. Naa-chan is clearly modeled after Narihira, with all his forbidden affairs and the one love that leaves him devastated. Kawakami herself said in an interview that she was inspired after translating Tales of Ise into modern Japanese for a collection of Japanese literature in 2016.

On a whole, The Third Love is a love story that spans across time and space. While some things don't quite make sense, the ambiguity is what gives the story its charm. I'd say, read it with an open mind.

I've read several of Kawakami's previous novels and surprisingly this felt the most traditionally Japanese.

In Third Love the author uses classic novels such as Tale of Genji and Tales of Ise to provide an almost fairy tale quality to the story of Riko and her marriage to Naa-Chan.

Riko has been in love with Naa-Chan since she was a child and is delighted when her feelings are reciprocated but Naa-Chan's desire for other women continues and Riko finds herself restarting a friendship with the old caretaker from her school, Mr Takaoka, when Naa-Chan's affairs affect her love for him. Mr Takaoka teaches Riko about his magical ability to transport himself into other times giving Riko the escape she needs.

The book is split into three parts - a tale from long ago where Riko is transported into the body of an oiran (a high-ranking courtesan); a tale from long long ago when she finds herself in the body of a princess's handmaiden and then a tale of today where she is herself.

The stories all have echoes of each other, Riko's real life and the stories in Tales of Ise. I found it absolutely enchanting. It was completely different to any of her books I've read previously. She has a chameleon quality to her work and it continually surprises.

Highly recommended.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Granta Publications for the advance review copy.

Thank you to Hiromi Kawakami, Granta Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

While I was reading this I couldn't help but want to see this as a TV series. I've only recently finished FX's Shōgun and I'm always on the look out for more Japanese historical fiction. I think a series would be better than a single film so you can properly appreciate the sheer amount of life Riko experiences in her dreams.

I love historical fiction, especially anything set so far back that everything is completely different to now. I love reading about pre 19th Century Japan, before the borders were opened for western trade.

The dream sections were set in the 17th Century and the Heian period (8th to 12th Century) and it's clear that lots of research went into this to really make Riko's dreams come to life. I can't imagine how long it would have taken to find out about all the different rituals and what the people were wearing.

This book was very easy to read, the pace was slow and it was a good length. The writing feels delicate in a way that I'm coming to see that is very Japanese. It's a beautiful tale exploring love in all of its forms, desire and intimacy. I'll definitely be looking into Kawakami's other work for my next reads.

I give The Third Love 4 stars.

My review for The Third Love will be out on 26th May 2024.

Thank you to @netgalley and @grantabooks for this #arc #hiromikawakami translated by #tedgoossen #thethirdlove

I have now read 6 of Kawakami's books, each one has be engaging and I have enjoyed it. My reservations at the beginning of this book centred around my fear that the lead characters would flit from one dream world to the next. I am pleased to say that wasn't the case at all.

I wasn't sure how the format was going to work at first as the lead female character jumped from real life to dream world life. It became clear that she was in a massive state of reflection, self exploration and general understanding or maybe learning about life, relationships and sex. This was delivered in a fantastic way which really showed deep thinking and learning for the female lead.

The story didn't flinch or shy away from anything difficult or challenging and certainly didn't offer a hollyepf ending or anything predictable. I think, for me, it really made me think about my place in this world, where I have come from how how I got here and where I plan on being in the future.

If you fancy a really good story that keeps you on your toes, doesn't sit still and makes you reflect. This book is for you, enjoy! Out 6th June 2024 in the UK.

#honnomushi100 #reading #japanesefiction #translatedfiction #translatedjapanesefiction #booksfromjapan #booklover #bookstagram #translatedgems #japaneseauthor #translatedjapaneseliterature #japaneselit #JAPANESEAUTHORS #newjapanesefiction
#books2024 #newbooks2024

A strange and beautiful little book about a woman whose obsession with the man who becomes her husband starts to twist into her dreams, taking her into a dream world that may not actually be a dream, where she experiences love in many different ways. Like all this author's books, this is really weird and hard to explain. It's a mood and an exploration more than anything else. I finished it a few days ago and keep thinking about it.

For me, The Third Love is a sort of meditation on the condition of the modern Japanese woman. This is looked at both from a modern perspective but also as a comparison with the roles women have played along the years, with an accent on Edo and Heian periods. As a novel, this didn't work for me, sadly. Firstly I couldn't really connect with Riko. Her solitude was beyond anything I have experienced and her love life...definitely not something I would have put up with! But then the magical fantasy taking the form of vivid dreams was slightly confusing at first and hardly believable. The repetition of the tragic love myth from The Tales of Ise was fascinating at first, but then started grating to the point of frustration. I've also seen echoes of Strange Weather in Tokyo, Kawakami previous novel, in Riko's relationship with Mr Takaoka, which am not certain if it was a good or a bad thing!

Overall I think the form is what doesn't work here. Personally I would have enjoyed this much for as an essay or even as non-fiction.

“The Third Love” by Hiromi Kawakami is a fascinating exploration of love, self-discovery, and the complex interplay between past and present. The novel follows Riko, who, after marrying her childhood sweetheart, finds herself trapped in a relationship marred by infidelity. Kawakami’s nuanced portrayal of Riko’s emotional turmoil is both compelling and deeply moving.

The story takes an intriguing turn when Riko reconnects with her old friend Mr. Takaoka, who not only offers her companionship and affection but also introduces her to the extraordinary ability to live inside her dreams. This element of magical realism is handled with Kawakami’s signature delicacy, adding a rich, imaginative layer to the narrative. Each night, Riko escapes into different historical lives—first as a high-ranking courtesan in the 17th century and then as a serving lady to a princess in the late Middle Ages. These dream sequences are vividly described and provide profound insights into Riko’s subconscious desires and fears.

Through these dream experiences, Riko begins to reevaluate her life in the 21st century. The contrast between her dream lives and her waking reality serves as a powerful catalyst for her introspection. Kawakami masterfully uses these historical parallels to explore timeless themes of love, fidelity, and personal agency. The historical settings are richly detailed, immersing the reader in different eras and enhancing the overall sense of escapism.

The characters are multifaceted and well-developed. Riko’s journey is particularly poignant as she grapples with her roles as a wife, mother, and lover. Her evolving relationship with Mr. Takaoka adds depth to the story, highlighting her struggle between duty and desire. Kawakami’s prose is lyrical and evocative, perfectly capturing the emotional landscapes Riko traverses.

Overall, “The Third Love” is a beautifully written and thought-provoking novel that blends reality and fantasy to explore the depths of the human heart. Hiromi Kawakami’s storytelling is both elegant and compelling, making this a memorable read that I highly recommend.

A story in which Riko marries her childhood sweetheart then has epic daydreams which take her first to C17 Japan where she’s a prostitute in the Tokyo pleasure district then as a servant to a C9 Japanese princess. In all of these settings, Riko has sex and ponders the relationships between men and women down the ages. There are also some entertaining side-swipes at Japanese men who find competent, intelligent women unattractive (when really it should of course be the opposite).

As has been noted by other reviewers, the novel skips around in time a lot: one paragraph could be contemporary Riko with the next being her C9 daydream, then back again. I’m not sure whether it would be possible therefore to separate the different times into different chapters to help the reader follow what’s going on. I think this is a conceit you either get on with or not.

An interesting read where you need to suspend your disbelief. There are sex scenes in the novel, especially given her daydreams, but these are not graphic, modern romance (soft porn) style scenes. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I thought it was a remarkable piece of work. A masterful, full work that delves into the depths of love, weaving through dreams and lingering in the thrills of both past and present.

1.5. I'm a fan of Meiko, but have never read Hiromi. Maybe she's as good, but this (her newest translated book, coming out next month sometime), was not the book to prove her worth to me. The idea far outweighed the execution, which is more painful to swallow than simply a bad book. The narrator is taught, by her old school janitor, to travel in her dreams. She travels to the Edo period, and the Heian. Though she is dreaming, it is written as if it is happening, so it feels more like a time-travel book. In the present, the narrator is dealing with her husband, her childhood sweetheart, who, despite having numerous affairs and being generally shitty to her, she loves. In her dreamscapes, she takes on several traditional Japanese women roles, one such role being something similar to a Handmaid from the Atwood novel - her only purpose is to entertain men with her body. Eventually, it turns into a bad version of Mishima's tetralogy, in that the janitor who taught her this gift also appears recurrently in these dreams. Feelings for him also begin to arise. The whole plot seemed to be centred around the narrator being used (at one point she is raped, too), and mistreated, in the dreams and in reality. She never seems overly bothered by this. The plot trudged along. The writing was childishly simple. I don't think I cared about any two pages of the whole novel. However, for established fans of Hiromi? Perhaps another enjoyable book.

Thanks to Granta for the advanced copy, anyway.

As a passionate reader of translated Japanese fiction, I was very excited about The Third Love. I usually gravitate toward the tempo and mood of this genre because it so often feels very meditative. This book is a gentle and slow moving tale, very characteristic of Japanese fiction, rooted in old customs especially surrounding women. The main character, Riko, while in a relationship with the first big love of her life starts feeling unsatisfied and lonely. A meeting with her old friend sparks a new ability in her, shared with that friend - being able to live a different life in dreams. In this way we get to experience lives of different women from quite far apart points in Japanese history, modern, Edo and Heian periods. Riko embodies underprivileged women, whose experience can be harrowing and tangled with other women and men as orian courtesan and princess’s maid. Her life starts blending with her dream lives and tales she finds having references to those dream lives and they all start informing each other and historical embodiments start informing and influencing Riko’s modern life.
The book intrigued me in the beginning and provided an interesting lesson on women’s history in Japan but it quickly started getting very muddled as there were so many men, women and their complicated relationships. It’s not a surprise that the treatment of women in the past can be very hard to read and I’m not sure this book serves as a critique of that, more just a tale of love and it’s forms according to Japanese customs and history. I did like the idea of the third love but in all honesty it was hard to get there.

Thank you to Granta and NetGalley for the eARC!

I was very excited to get an early copy of this but I found it a difficult book to love when comparing it to strange weather in Tokyo - but there were bits I liked very much. I felt it lost its way somewhere in the middle amongst the dream worlds, although maybe that is the point, that it became a bit rambling and dreamlike. The main threads of the story were very enjoyable though. I like the way Hiromi Kawakami writes.

Translated Japanese fiction is very hit or miss for me and unfortunately this was one of the misses - it just veers into the surreal too much for me. The dream sequences are odd, confusing at times and absolutely filled with sex scenes that made me feel deeply uncomfortable at times yet also strangely bored me because they're unnecessarily drawn out.

Not for me.

As people who know me know, I generally love translated literary fiction as it gives us a window into lives we never really see.

This was not one of those, it was so slow and tedious I really had to push my way through to finish it (only finished it because I got it from NetGalley and if it was my own I would have DNFed it about 20% in).

Some really problematic sex scenes, can't really put how bored I was with this book into coherent words, really not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley though

I had high expectations for this because of the gorgeous cover and the captivating title. I really find it hard to review translated works because, of course, there’s something inside me that keeps telling me that the book ACTUALLY is great, I’m just not reading it in its full glory (in its original language). But this one was a miss.

Why? 1.) The writing style just wasn’t for me and 2.) I did not enjoy the plot. The ending was surely moving but I cannot recount a single moment in this book where I wasn’t bored and forcing myself to finish it. The Third Love begins really strong but got dull and uninteresting in the middle. The theme is quite actually good—had the execution been done well too I would have enjoyed it.

This book just wasn’t for me. I do think some readers will enjoy it.

"The Third Love" is a beautifully crafted novel that will linger in your thoughts long after you turn the final page. With its rich historical detail, compelling characters, and thoughtful exploration of love and longing, Hiromi Kawakami has created a masterpiece that is sure to captivate readers from beginning to end. So, if you're in the mood for a novel that will transport you to another time and place, look no further than "The Third Love."

This captivating tale weaves together elements of desire, destiny, and the timeless complexities of love in a way that will leave you questioning the very nature of relationships.

Each vividly depicted setting adds depth and texture to the narrative, immersing readers in a world where love inhabits such different forms. Through this surreal journey, Riko experiences desire, heartbreak, and ultimately, a newfound understanding of herself and her place in the world.

What sets "The Third Love" apart is its exploration of love in all its forms – from the passionate intensity of a new romance to the quiet companionship of a long-term partnership, jilted love, sensual eros, maternal and more. Kawakami deftly navigates the complexities of relationships, delving into themes of infidelity, desire, and self-discovery with nuance and sensitivity.

As a western reader, I found myself captivated by Kawakami's portrayal of Japanese culture and society. The intricacies of the dynamic in relationships were unfamiliar to me, but Kawakami's thoughtful exploration offers a glimpse into a world that is both familiar and foreign, inviting readers to reflect on their own experiences of love and longing.

While the pace may be slow at times, this deliberate approach allows for moments of quiet reflection and introspection, inviting readers to savour each page and immerse themselves fully in Riko's journey. And while the identity of the elusive "Third Love" remained a mystery to me, the real magic of the novel lies in the journey of self-discovery and growth that Riko undergoes along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Granta for this ARC.

This was a touching story of a woman whose marriage to the man she's loved all her life is falling apart - she starts dreaming of historical figures in similarly difficult romantic circumstances every night (this has a touch of magical realism for sure) and meditates on her own circumstances. I thought this was interesting, if a little bit flat. The story and the historical facts were more interesting to me than the characters themselves, but this did have some engaging scenes and touching moments.

This is not a long book, and by no means heavy, but thinking about the dream sequences/parts made me read it at a slower pace than I normally do, and I appreciate that - the musings allowed me to enjoy this more.

The MC, Riko, copes with the realities of her marriage through her dreams.

There are a few points such as the depiction of sex, the large age gap and infidelity that the reader might want to know about prior to picking this ip, however it is well executed, showing insights into women’s lives spanning across several periods, and the style is casual. At the core, this is about the multi-facets of being a woman and love.

By the way, isn’t the cover gorgeous?

‘I may be awake, but in my heart I am still my dream self.’
.
It might be early since it’s just May, but I can 100% say The Third Love is one of my favourite reads of this year - Hiromi Kawakami simply does not dissapoint and I’ll be reading everything by her now. I’m in loveeeeee with this book.
.
The Third Love follows the story of Riko and her multiple selves. Riko is a very intense woman who loves fully, but life deals her a bad hand and the man she’s always dreamed about is not the faithful man she deserves, which leads her to search for refuge. Being a woman in a society where men are always free to act on their desires with no consequences, Riko withdraws herself into the world of dreams. One moment she’s in present times in Japan, next she’s in the Edo period and then she’s in the Heian period. In each of these times, she learns more about herself, but also about what it means to be a woman in different times and she gets to understand that feelings have different perspectives.
.
‘Loving flowers is different from loving people. It is quieter, and brighter. I can look into my own heart as I water and weed.’
.
Kawakami’s prose is wonderfully delicate, guiding the reader through the nuances of desire, longing and intimacy, both in romantic and platonic relationships. Rich in details, in immerses you within a dream.
.
Thank you @granta and @netgalley for the finished copy! The book is out in June and is a must read!