Riku Onda "Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight"
This book is not at all what it seems at the beginning. It really is a single night that changes the characters' lives forever - but readers would never expect how.
For the first half of the novel, you think you're reading a slightly detective-like, deeply contradictory story about two people who are inseparably connected. Then, halfway through, you begin to notice where it's all might be heading. The truth comes to light... or does it? And then both the characters and the readers are left alone with it - and with the deafening silence that follows.
I both liked this book and disliked it at the same time.
I loved the quiet Japanese melancholy that runs through the entire story. And the ending carries that same feeling. Is it a happy ending? Or a tragic one? Will they be happy together? Will one of them die? Was what they uncovered actually the truth or just another speculation?
I also enjoyed the "one night to get to the bottom of everything" premise. It gives the story clear boundaries: once dawn comes, that's it. We can imagine what happens next, but we'll never actually know.
It was an interesting read, though I also think the novel benefits from being as short as it is.
I don't feel like I wasted my time reading it, but all of its philosophical reflections went straight through me. I never really connected with either of the protagonists, so their thoughts and inner struggles didn't resonate with me the way they probably should have.
I'd recommend it if you enjoy quiet psychological mysteries where the biggest twists happen inside the characters rather than in the plot.