Flashlight

Fiction

Sep 21

About the book

Author: Susan Choi
Publisher: FSG

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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My review

As of this writing, Flashlight is currently shortlisted for the Booker Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award. Clearly, it’s an impressive piece of literature. I was really looking forward to reading it after falling into the camp of readers who loved Choi’s NBA-winning Trust Exercise, but alas, I ended up appreciating this book more than I enjoyed it.

The book is about a small family — Serk, a Korean man who grew up in occupied Japan; Anne, his wife who develops early-onset MS; and Luisa, their daughter. At the start of the book, Luisa was out for a nighttime walk with her father along the coast of Japan when suddenly, she wakes up washed ashore alone. The book jumps back and forth in time to paint a picture of a fractured family history.

What made this tough for me was not that all three of these main characters are unlikeable — I can deal with unlikeable — but specifically that they are miserable. Just so deeply unhappy all the time. There is exactly one side character in the book who is happy, but in a saccharine, almost annoying kind of way. And at nearly 500 pages, that was a long time to spend wallowing in misery.

Still, there’s no doubt Choi has written something moving and poignant and technically impressive. And then ending is really, really great. If it piques your interest, definitely give it a go!