The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu, written by Augusto Higa Oshiro and translated by Jennifer Shyue, is a short but deep look at loneliness, alienation, and the individual struggle to understand our place in the world we live in.

The writing is at once beautiful and complex, Shyue's translation seems to capture the subtlety of the original very well. The long sentences, the work a reader is asked to do to understand it, is part of what makes this a compelling work. Told in short sentences or a bunch of short paragraphs would certainly appeal to a lazy reader, but the story would lose a lot of its power. We need to be there in the protagonist's mental and emotional labyrinth with him, and the style accomplishes this for us.

While specific to a Japanese-Peruvian, much of what Katzuo ponders and confronts will be relatable for many readers. Whether because of ethnicity, age, or any other factor, most of us have had the experience of profound alienation from those around us at least once. When much of what alienates is part of society, the pervasiveness of it can seem overwhelming and lead to what appears, at first glance, to be unreasonable assessments and decisions. Watching those play out in this novel is where much of the power comes from.

I would recommend this to readers who enjoy experiencing a character's mental and emotional conflict told in a reflective manner. It is a short novel, so even if a book full of complex sentences isn't always your cup of tea, and some such works can become tiresome, this doesn't require several hundred pages of effort. And the reward is well worth it.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )