Three Lives of Tomomi Ishikawa

by Benjamin Constable

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There's a lot of quirkiness in this book. The main character, Ben, is named after the author. At one point, Ben has this odd fixation with having "the dead on his shoes" after visiting Ground Zero. There's a non-talking, but quite communicative, imaginary cat who appears throughout. Then there's an unusual friendship with Tomomi Ishikawa, who has a deeply tragic past, and puts Ben on a twisted sort of scavenger hunt all over Paris and New York.

Right around the time I started to wonder "why is Ben continuing on with this game?" or "okay, I think things are about to slow" a character would answer my question, or the author would change direction. The author certainly has the mind of a reader, and at times it felt like he was in my head.

Constable writes with a lot of attention to detail, especially the use of language. I enjoyed the more realistic portrayal of communicating in a non-native language, and the awkwardness that can result. The dialogue always felt very real, very natural, like overhearing a conversation. And Constable writes some amazing sentences! My favorite: "Now the room was empty and the hushed sound of a hundred people reading dissolved into a quieter silence."

This book was an adventure, to be sure. But I was left feeling sort of... toyed with. Ben would say these random, mundane things and I'd think, "What?! Is this going to be important? Will this have a deeper meaning?" I was on pins and needles so much of the time, but I'm not sure where it led. A few times I got downright angry, and toward the end I felt there were almost too many twists. When I finished, I was left with a kind of surreal, what-just-happened? feeling. And I'm not sure if I'm ticked off by it, or completely and utterly delighted!

Discussion questions for Three Lives of Tomomi Ishikawa are included at the end of the book, as well as a few "Enhance Your Book Club" ideas.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.