The Dream of Water

Kyoko Mori's The Dream of Water is her memoir of returning to her country of birth after a 13 year absence. It is the story of reconnecting with her mother's family and trying to find answers to her father's cruelty.

While reading the book I have to remind myself that this is real, that the memories Kyoko has of her father are not fiction. Her description of her father, his temperament, selfishness and dismissive nature, is hard to believe and it isn't until she gets time with her father's sister, Akiko that she finds someone who will speak frankly about her father horrid behavior.

That being said I feel that the writing was not anything I necessarily needed to read. It seemed as if she wrote more for herself, for her own therapy than because she wanted to share her story with the world. She could not forgive the transgressions her father and stepmother committed and the book was mostly filled with anger and a sense of frustration at her inability to confront either.

There is very little happiness in the book as she focuses on what she lost, what was taken from her after her mother's suicide. She turns into an indifferent human, incapable of coming across as warm or caring. Even when speaking of her husband it's as if she could take him or leave him. She is so far removed from the story she has written of herself you are left to wonder if she ever was able to have any contentment with her life. But the book is honest and biting. While she does seem removed she is honest about her anger and refusal to forgive, her unwillingness to love her hometown. And that you can't help but admire.