Kakigori Summer
By Emily Itami
One of the big trends that is ever growing is books from Japan with their interesting stories that connect with any reader as themes are often universal. Kakigori Summer is both UK and Japanese based. From the shortlisted Costa Book Awards for Faultlines. This is another one to watch out for!
Today, I am part of the Compulsive Readers blog tour with a review after the blurb…
Blurb
Sisters Rei, Kiki and Ai have always had to look out for one another – but life has taken them on very different paths.
Eldest daughter Rei is spiky and sensible, distracting herself with an all-consuming job at a financial corporation in London.
Big-hearted Kiki is a single mother in Tokyo, juggling the demands of her young son and the cantankerous elderly residents of the retirement home she works in.
The free-spirited youngest, Ai , is a Japanese pop idol who has found fame and fortune but lost herself along the way. When Ai is embroiled in a scandal and thrust into the spotlight, Rei must pick up the pieces of her family once more.
Over the course of a summer in their childhood home on the Japanese coast, the sisters reunite with their sharp-tongued grandmother, entertain Kiki’s irrepressible son and silently worry about Ai, carefully avoiding the subject of their mother’s death fifteen years before. But silence between sisters can only last for so long . . .
Transporting, funny and moving, Kakigori Summer is an uplifting exploration of love and loss, sisterhood and family, the stories we tell ourselves about the past and how they determine our future.
Review
If you look at Google, Kakigori is a Japanese dessert often served in shops and at festivals in summer. It’s a Japanese shaved ice dessert, often flavoured with syrup and sweetened condensed milk. This book is not syrupy sweet. It does, however have sweet moments and summery vibes on the coast that swings you in the mood for summer and family.
Rei, Kiki and Ai provide an interesting exploration into family life and how paths go in different directions and grief and challenges enter their lives. Big responsibilities and emotions ensue.
There are also wonderful uplifting parts in the family ties as you delve into the dynamics and learn more about the sisters.
Kakigori Summer is an absolutely beautifully written book that takes you by the hand into summer and light and shade of family life.
Sharon Gosling talked about tending to go to dark, imperfect places, with characters working out who they are ie reflecting life, and reaching a state of hope. On her latest book, The Secret Orchard, which is said to be a feel-good book about family, belonging and finding peace, she talked mentioned the history of apple and her fascination by how orchards survive for so long. In-relation of her book, she talked about how the past and future come together in the sisters and relates it cleverly back to the apple trees in the orchard. I haven’t read this book yet, but it sounds good.
Rebecca Ryan, author of Philosophy of Love, is interested in women’s lives. She chose to write about people’s experiences of perhaps not having a traditional ‘happily ever after,’ but one of reflection and figuring life out.
Home For Christmas is her latest festive book (soon I will be reviewing this, so watch out for that). Having heard Heidi Swain talk, read previous Christmas books and reading her latest, she well and truly oozes with Christmas cheer and comfort, even though she has recently had a hard time at this time of year. Her answer was to be indulgent and create a character, a woman who she would love to spend time with and for us all to discover, who loves Christmas.
Bookmarks and Stages by Lou 