Customer Reviews

Twinkle Twinkle

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3 star:		(1)
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This book is deceptively simple. The narrative voice alternates between Shoko, the wife, and Mutsuki, the husband. Shoko and Mutsuki have a marriage of convenience so they can quiet the demands of their parents and present a "normal" front to the outside world. Actually, Shoko is a depressed alcholic and Mutsuki is homosexual. Shoko is on good terms with his lover, Kon, and their friends, so the marriage seems to be working, but not without complications.

This book had me crying, not because their problems are so dire, but because the author does so well at conveying their pain. The story was so involving that I want to help Shoko find a pschiatrist that will take her serious. Mutsuki is such a nice guy that as "marriages of convenience" go, he is a real catch.

I just saw Ms. Kaori Ekuni interviewed and reading at an Author's Festival in Toronto Canada, and was mesmerized by her book and message. She is a pretty woman who is not as shy as her voice makes her out.
Not only is Ms. Ekuni a charming woman who knows how to say what she thinks succinctly, she is saying very important things. Like, "there is not such thing as a normal romance," and "falling in love is foolhardy". I hope people aren't turned off by the inclusion of gay characters who choose to live normalized married lives, because the fact of the matter is that it happens, and it bothers fewer people that way.
Don't expect thrilling action or melodrama in this book. Twinkle Twinkle is about manners, and about how everyone has their psychological mis-balance, like Shoko, the girl; or feels the need to hide something natural to them, like Mutsuki, the boy.
Twinkle Twinkle tells it like it is, and then breaks down what has always been a mystery to readers - love.

This is a story of a marriage of convenience. Mutsuki is a handsome young doctor, successful in his career and deeply in love with his boyfriend, Kon. Shoko is appropriately pretty, but incredibly neurotic, insecure and moody but manages to cope, in a way, through regular doses of alcohol. Neither has the slightest interest in marriage and one has no skill at relationships of any sort, but both have parents that constantly pressured them to find a mate (of the opposite sex). From the parents' perspective, this is an ideal match. They know nothing of their child-in-laws' little secrets so they look at the match as if they're getting the best of the bargain. For the couple, it's not quite that simple. Shoko is so consumed by her inner turmoil that she can barely notice her husband's saintly patience. Mutsuki is learning that the only thing that is predictable about his wife is her utter unpredictability and even his nearly unlimited patience is becoming profoundly taxed.

Through the incredibly skillful pen of author Kaori Ekuni, what results is a sweet and beautiful story of love, friendship, borderline personality disorder and the difficulties of living life gay with an intolerant family and job. Ekuni refuses to sit in judgement of her characters and simply stands back and lets them tell their story; the chapters are alternating first person narratives by Shoko and Mutsuki. The result is a short, wonderful book that you hope will never end.

I have read this book and when I finished I smile and feel very glad with my life. So i choosed this story to present in drama as my thesis. My audience love this story too. For me I think Shogo is a good wife she's real woman that has attitude in really Japanese style. Mutsuki's a man who's love man. I think he isn't gay ..He doesn't love guy but the one he's loved is a guy.It's differrent. Kaori, the writer told this story with beautiful idea of all charactors. Don't have jealous, bad idea. So everyone who read this story will have to feel better with their life.

Kaori Ekuni's first novel got awarded and loved by many readers in Japan.
I am so very fortunate to read this novel after I read more than few of Banana Yoshimoto's. Their styles in writing may be different but the way they describe emotions of each character through events and episodes are very similar. The story line itself is interesting and you will fell in love with all three major characters, Musutki, Shoko and Kon. I was savoring every words when I was reading and wishing this book never ends.
Beautifully written, brilliantly unique, quick pace but at the same time courageous view about love and life.

In the Afterword, the author claims that she intends the book to be a "simple love story." Simple it definitely is not, and her claim makes me wonder if she has thought through what she wrote.

For me, the story was profoundly disturbing. The two main characters are an obsessive-compulsive closeted gay man and an emotionally unstable alcoholic straight woman. Because of parental pressure, they decide to make a show of happy domesticity by marrying each other. During their show, he keeps his immature, slacker lover and she throws hysterical, drunken fits, full of crying jags and flying pottery.

The author may have thought the story is about "love" when two people stay together under this kind of set-up. But these two people don't even know how to communicate with each other much less support each other emotionally. They need intense help, and they need to live their lives with honesty.

"Love" would be if they actually helped each other realize their individual potential and overcome their fears.

For the author to deny the lousy, volatile emotions in these characters is to abdicate responsibility for a truthful, intelligent telling of this story. In other words, the story is a fake.

Reflecting this sham is the structure of the narrative. Each chapter is written by the husband or the wife in alternating sequence, but it's obvious that neither one of the characters is the type who would ever sit down to write their own stories. The husband is too private and scared, and the wife is too much of a wreck. She can barely feed herself, yet the author expects us to think she would write poetically about her horrible life.