Lost in Translation

If You Follow Me – Malena Watrous

            Marina is a recent college graduate who decides to follow her girlfriend, Carolyn, to Japan for a year to teach English as native speakers.  Instead of the urban area Marina and Carolyn request, they’re sent to schools near the town of Shika, which is described to the characters as comparable to rural Georgia.  On top of worrying about the normal pressures to getting along with her colleagues at the school, Marina is concerned that her relationship with Carolyn will be discovered and what that would mean and struggles with culture shock to the point of being in able to correctly toss out their gomi (garbage).  However, there is a bigger challenge that lurks over Marina’s head which she doesn’t know how to come to terms with: in a country like Japan with a high suicide rate, how does she mention that her own father took his life the previous year?

            I had wanted to read this since reading Constance Reader’s glowing review of the book back in March.  When I received my copy of the book, I noticed that not only had two authors I have previously read and liked (Curtis Sittenfeld and Thisbe Nissen) wrote positive blurbs for the cover, but Watrous also recommends one of my favorite authors in the inside notes (Haruki Murakami), so before I read even a single word my initial hopes for this book were already high and in danger of being disappointed.

            However, I swallowed Watrous’s first novel whole in two sittings.  The story’s humor comes mostly from the misunderstandings between Marina and the inhabitants of Shika, who understand various levels of English, plus Marina’s difficulty in understanding the gomi laws as to where to deposit/recycle her trash.  The story follows Marina through her year living and teaching English in Shika, and both gives insights into the culture (such as the gomi law, holidays) and feels like Watrous is writing based upon her own experiences teaching English in this same small, Japanese town. 

            One of the minor problems I had with the book is actually the believability of Marina and Carolyn’s relationship.  For two people supposedly in love and living together in the same house (who, no less traveled to a foreign country together so as not to be separated for a year), Marina doesn’t seem to mention Carolyn that much, and when she does, it’s almost always in the context of a fight the two seem to be having.  At times I almost forgot that Marina was living with anyone since Carolyn seemed to take such a backseat to the story.  This was part of the story I really felt needed to be fleshed out more and would have overall helped the book; however, since it comprises so little of the story, it’s only a minor critique.     

            Overall, I really liked this story, but I can't say I loved it.  It managed to keep my interest to the point where I put the book down only when I realized I was either going to put the book down and go to sleep, or fall asleep while reading and possibly lose my place.   Plus, the cover art of this book is strikingly really pretty.

Rating: 4 out of 5.