Mini-Review by Amy Chavez
Simon Rowe has recently released a second collection of short stories to follow his volume Good Night Papa published in 2017. The author, who is from New Zealand, has lived in Himeji, Japan for most of his adult life, and brings us eight stories from Japan and eight from other countries including Hong Kong, Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, France, Austria, Australia and New Zealand.
From hit-men to convenience store clerks and shipping agents, Rowe covers the gamut of jobs and employees in his stories, but focuses mostly on lonely individuals pursuing more meaning to life, a goal often fulfilled in the most unexpected ways: A wraith visits a man seeking an answer to wild boars stealing his vegetables, a young salary man is confronted by another perusing his same dream of travel over the Inland Sea as depicted on a travel poster, and, in one of the author’s many delightful incongruities, a young woman in Paris escapes death by coming down with brain cancer.
Most of these tales are about normal people meeting with extraordinary, but believable, circumstances. While Rowe’s story-telling is polished and his prose descriptive, what keeps the reader turning the page is the authenticity of his story lines and his ability to challenge the reader with the question: How is the protagonist going to get out of this one? The answer is: With surprising twists and endings that make you chuckle.
You won’t find down-and-out, desperate characters in this collection; instead you’ll find people looking out for each other, some trying to extend good-will and others determining to make their dreams come true. You know, people like you and me.