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If You Follow Me (2010)

by Malena Watrous(Favorite Author)

3.52 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0061732850 (ISBN13: 9780061732850)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction

publisher

Harper Perennial

review 1: I think I'd have liked this more had I not lived in Japan for six years. There were things that weren't quite right; of course, everybody's experience is different, so okay, your school peeps talked to you differently than my school peeps, so maybe also in your school, everybody wore the horrendous plastic slippers instead of changing to their own personal 'indoor' shoes as they did at mine. It just was a little grating. I'm not patient enough for that. Ms. Watrous is a talented writer and this novel skittered along the surface of good, but never took the plunge. The gomi theme was so....long and involved. The driving fiascos were over the top. The main character was so clueless. And it wrapped up with our lesbian couple un-coupling and hooking up with guys. I guess... more they were bi all along, or experimenting, but it seemed so 'okay, we're fixed now, we like men'. But all that said I kept reading until the end. So it had that going for it.
review 2: I thought that this is a great book to read if you are thinking of going to Japan and especially if you are thinking about living there. It is about two women who go to Japan to teach English to Japanese students. Mariana is going to escape the pain and grief of her father's death and Carolynis going because it was her idea in the first place. Mariana does not speak or read Japanese, so it is a real culture shock when she and Carolyn are placed in rural Japan in small town. Mariana is placed in a high school and Carolyn in an elementary school. They rent a large house together try to get along with everyone. They have real problems with all the rules and Mariana's supervisor Hiroshi Miyoshi keeps trying to explain the rules to her in notes that he writes. She does her best, but the rules are confusing and she makes lots of mistakes. Mostly the rules she breaks are to do with recycling and garbage. This book takes place over the year she teaches and shows how she makes friends, makes mistakes, learns about the Japanese culture and about herself. Nothing is ever how it seems from the outside. less

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