The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Indonesian-born Singaporean writer Clarissa Goenawan isn’t my normal type of reading. And, I’m still not sure what I think of this unusual book set in Japan. I can say I think it’s designed for an audience in their twenties, college students still struggling with life and relationships. The characters are that age, and for some reason it makes me think of John Green’s novel, Looking for Alaska.

Ryusei Yanagi first met Miwako Sumida at a goukon, a group date. Eight months after he falls in love with her, the twenty-year-old college sophomore hangs herself. A year after he first met her, he’s attending her wake. Ryusei is the first narrator, telling of their meeting, the day she adopted a lost cat, how he introduced her to his older sister, Fumi Yanagi, who gave her a part-time job at her art studio. But, when Miwako disappears, moving to a small rural community, and then commits suicide, Ryusei is lost. He doesn’t understand why she often pushed him away, and only wanted to be friends.

Miwako’s best friend, Chie Ohno, met Ryusei the same day he met Miwako. She thinks the two were meant for each other, but she understands why Ryusei never felt that Miwako loved him. Chie narrates the second part of the book, revealing a little more about Miwako, but Chie doesn’t understand the whole story. However, she’s willing to make a pilgrimage, with Ryusei, to the village where Miwako worked until she ended her life.

It’s Ryusei’s older sister, Fumi, who discovers the truth. Fumi has several secrets of her own. She’s the oldest child of a priest, a man who died with his wife when Ryusei was only five. Fumi has been there for her brother ever since, in the orphanage, and then when she outgrew the orphanage. But, Ryusei doesn’t know she can see ghosts. She’s inherited the family curse, an ability to communicate with the dead so as to help them move on to the other side. Miwako talks to her, while understanding Fumi’s own troubled spirit.

While at times this novel seems very foreign with the names, the locations, and some of the history, at other times it seems as if this is a universal story of young people struggling with their identities, their grief, and their lives. There are enormous losses and tragedies in this book, but there isn’t one that we’re not familiar with in this country. It’s a story of young people learning to cope with life and death and grief. In some cases, they can’t cope. But, I will say The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida is no more perfect than any other person’s.

The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan. Soho Press, 2020. ISBN 9781641291194 (hardcover), 288p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – I received the book to review for a journal.