nomadreader

I've been eager to read If You Follow Me , the first novel by Malena Watrous since I read an interview with Curtis Sittenfeld , author of my favorite book, American Wife , in Paper Cuts, the New York Times book blog. Needless to say, I had high expectations. If you read this blog, you know my favorite books are about so much more than their plot. Great literature transcends its characters and plot and brings greater understanding and critical thought, and If You Follow Me is that kind of great literature. It's mostly the story of Marina, who is spending her first year out of college teaching college in rural Japan. She's still dealing with her father's suicide, and her girlfriend, Carolyn, is also teaching in Japan. They're the only foreigners in a small, rural town with a nuclear power plant. They live in the only apartment available for two people. Watrous did an amazing job of translating the experience of teaching in rural Japan to the reader. She set...