I really enjoyed The Pearl Diver, it’s one of the few books I’ve read recently that had both an extremely strong start and finish. (If I had a dollar for ever book that had a poor finale I wouldn’t have to work anymore).

The set up for The Pearl Diver is extremely engaging, so much so that I was frustrated that the author didn’t spend more time with it. As such the loss of this world is less impactual than it would have been had we had more time to become immersed in it and I would have easily devoured four or five more chapters set in the world of the Pearl Diver.

Also fairly condensed is the many years the main character spends on the island of Nagashima. We experience over forty years in just a few hundred pages. Most books are painfully overwritten, but here there seemed opportunity for much more.

But the end is perfect. It’s lyrical, emotional and exceptional and show that although there IS room for more here, the author succeeds with a lighter, softer more minimalistic touch.

I’m interested in now reading Jeff Talarigo’s The Ginseng Hunter to see how he grows as a writer.