The Third Love by Hiromi Kawakami

Summary:

Having married her childhood sweetheart, Riko now finds herself trapped in a relationship that has been soured by infidelity. One day, by chance, she runs into her old friend Mr Takaoka, who offers friendship, love, and an unusual escape: he teaches her the trick of living inside her dreams. And so, each night, she sinks into another life: first as a high-ranking courtesan in the 17th century, and then as a serving lady to a princess in the late Middle Ages. As she experiences desire and heartbreak in the past, so Riko comes to reconsider her life as a 21st century woman, as a wife, as a mother, and as a lover, and to ask herself whether, after loving her husband and loving Mr Takaoka, she is now ready for her third great love.

About the Author:

Hiromi Kawakami, born in 1958, is a Japanese author of fiction and poetry, and is one of Japan’s most contemporary novelists. She has written lots of short stories and novels, many of which have been translated into English. Her works explore everyday social interactions, with elements of magical realism mixed in. She has won many awards, including the Woman Writer’s Prize and Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. The Third Love was published in 2020.

Rating:

4 stars - ★★★★☆

Review:

I started The Third Love knowing that I’d love it. I really enjoy Kawakami's style of writing. She just writes so beautifully, so descriptively, it almost feels like reading a poem sometimes. 

I did really enjoy The Third Love for the most part. I want to give it 3.5 stars, but as I’m constrained to full star ratings, I had to wonder whether to go for 3 or 4. 3 felt way too harsh compared to how much I loved the majority of the story and how much I love Kawakami’s writing style. So I decided to go with 4 stars in the end.

Kawakami is the queen of magical realism to me. I didn’t really know much about magical realism before reading her books but her writing and ideas are just so seamless that they almost seem believable. I really enjoy the part where nothing is explained. Riko hears about the ability to ‘live in’ her dreams and the next night just does it. Why complicate things with explanations when explanations will just get in the way of a good story?

As always with Kawakami’s books the scene setting was perfect. An intoxicating blend of seasons and food and sights and smells that fully immerses the reader in the story. This is what I love so much about Kawakami’s writing; how vivid all the scenes are. I often feel that I’ve been there myself and not just imagined it.

Riko is a wonderfully layered character and we get to know her quite intimately through the book, from when she was a child to a new wife, a mother and then beyond that. We see a lot of her thought processes and feelings and reactions to situations. These kinds of insights I find really helpful to see things from a different perspective. It’s easy to judge people’s decisions without taking a second to consider that they have a life that has shaped their decisions, and they’re not necessarily wrong.

The Third Love is maybe slow to start, not from a pacing point of view (I didn’t find it a slow read), but from a plot point of view. There’s a bit of a delay between the beginning of the book and the dream sections. But this really serves to fully set the scene and give the entire back-story. This is not a criticism, but an observation, as I really like a leisurely book that takes the time to immerse you in the characters' lives.

I really enjoyed the ‘present-day’ part, the section where Riko was a courtesan and I really enjoyed the myth that was repeated in three different time periods. I enjoyed seeing the Japanese traditions across the different time periods

My least favourite part was when Riko was a serving-lady in the middle ages. It was a little too stiff compared to the rest of the book, almost like a history lesson. This section is what knocked down the score unfortunately. I also wonder if this should have been the first dream section, not the second. In my mind it would have fit the story and character development better to start with the serving-lady section and then progress to the courtesan part.

I do wonder why Kawakami often writes about relationships with a big age difference. Is it a Kawakami thing? Or a cultural thing? I know it really puts some people off, and I must say I was more put off Riko and her husband’s relationship (which started when Riko was really quite young and her future husband was an adult), than Riko and Mr Takaoka’s relationship which only really developed when they were both adults (similar to the relationship in Strange Weather in Tokyo). It was quite weird that Riko’s husband had known her since she was a literal child. Riko thought this was romantic, and her parents liked that they’d always known each other. Again, is this a cultural thing?

The Third Love really focuses on self-discovery and the role of a woman in a changing world. Often split between her desire to have her own identity, and the traditional role of a daughter, wife and mother. I was intrigued with the idea of the opportunity to live multiple lives and explore different parts of yourself, and using what you learn to make better decisions for this lifetime. 

Overall I really enjoyed The Third Love and I’d be tempted to give it another go, maybe I’ll understand the Middle Ages dream a bit more. I am still desperate to read more by Kawakami. I would love to make my way through everything that she’s written. 

I would recommend The Third Love to any woman who’s feeling a little stuck in life, or maybe who feels like she is so full of life that she’d need multiple lifetimes to explore all the facets of her character.