Watersong

This is a beautifully wirtten book that is full of vivid descriptions and rich imagery. It is well written with an interesting and compelling storyline and characters that are well developed. This book made me feel so much while I was reading it and I still think about it now. I really liked it.

Beautiful writing from Clarissa Goenawan. With the essence of Murakami's writing style and the typical 'mystery' story that Goenawan writes so well, Watersong takes you on a journey of seeking out someone from the past. With subtle hints dropped throughout the book, in such an elegant manner. Easy reading and loveable characters I couldn't get enough of Waterson and am so sad it's over!

Never have your fortune told!

I really enjoyed Clarissa Goenawan's new novel Watersong, it took me out of a reading slump and I liked spending time with her characters, loved the tea ceremony set up, the mystery, but also the normal moments of just characters eating food and spending time together. Really loved that she brought a bit of Singapore into this book, hopefully we'll get even more of that and maybe a female lead in her next novel which I'm already looking forward to reading.

I'm finally sitting down to write this review after a few weeks and I still think back to it and remember how much I liked it. I absolutely adored Clarissa Goenawan's second book, The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida (and while we're at it, you should go read it if you haven't), and I was thrilled to get an ARC for Watersong as it was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022. That being said, I was a bit scared of picking it up and a bit worried that it would not meet my expectations - I am happy to announce my concerns were entirely misplaced.

Watersong is the story of Shouji Arai, a man whose life will be altered by three women who have something to do with water. We follow Shouji as he begins working in a very interesting tea house along with his girlfriend working as what she deems as being 'ear prostitutes' - an appropriate name for something that ends up being more dangerous than you expect. As things are, a job that seems very simple ends up turning Shouji's life around in every wrong way and his only goal is to keep himself safe and find his girlfriend Youko.

I have seen many readers compare Goenawan's writing with Haruki Murakami and I do agree there's a similar feeling, yet this time around I felt Watersong had a Yōko Ogawa vibe to it. It was intriguing and there was a mystery, but the story followed characters, and I - even though I was intrigued by it all - cared for the characters. This was an absolute treat to read as I like character-driven plots. And I do want to mention - if you're one of these readers who hate books without likable characters -, Watersong has recurring characters that show up more or less often and they are so likable. It's been weeks and I still think of some of them and smile (and as a side note, I still think of Fumi from The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida as one of my favorite book characters ever).

In short, I highly recommend this book. I was intrigued by what was going on and Shouji's job, I was intrigued by the backstories of every character, I was just enchanted by it all - and most of all, I feel the story was somewhat dark, yet Goenawan excels at making it feel almost magical rather than... concerning? Like, I knew Shouji was into a mess and the mess could escalate, yet I just wanted to find Youko as bad as he did and I forgot about the danger - sort of like him.

I recommend this one very much. And now I am going back to my waiting chair to see when Goenawan's next book comes up. Because there is a next one, right? Right?