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Spinning Tropics
Meet Hiro. She's tall, lanky and awkward—a twenty-something Japanese woman who has decamped to Vietnam from Tokyo to work as a language teacher.
Meet Yun. She's shy, beautiful, and tough—a young Vietnamese woman studying Japanese, determined to create a better life for herself and her family.
When Yun becomes one of Hiro's students, they are instantly drawn to each other. For both of them, it is their first time in love with another woman. But when Konno, an older Japanese businessman, befriends Hiro, Yun begins to grow unbearably jealous. What unfolds is a love triangle with very complicated, ultimately devastating, results. Set against the backdrop of a Vietnam on the economic rise, debut novelist Aska Mochizuki vividly brings to life the buzz of motorcycles and the tastes of Vietnamese coffee and spicy papaya salads; the confines of the Vietnamese family; the lingering effects of long wars; the rich who ride the economic wave and the poor who are left behind. Spinning Tropics is a lush and evocative story of an intoxicating love affair.
Meet Yun. She's shy, beautiful, and tough—a young Vietnamese woman studying Japanese, determined to create a better life for herself and her family.
When Yun becomes one of Hiro's students, they are instantly drawn to each other. For both of them, it is their first time in love with another woman. But when Konno, an older Japanese businessman, befriends Hiro, Yun begins to grow unbearably jealous. What unfolds is a love triangle with very complicated, ultimately devastating, results. Set against the backdrop of a Vietnam on the economic rise, debut novelist Aska Mochizuki vividly brings to life the buzz of motorcycles and the tastes of Vietnamese coffee and spicy papaya salads; the confines of the Vietnamese family; the lingering effects of long wars; the rich who ride the economic wave and the poor who are left behind. Spinning Tropics is a lush and evocative story of an intoxicating love affair.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 4, 2021
Oh my heart! <\3 This is a truly stunning, microscopic view of a visceral story set in the vibrant, chaotic, hot Ho Chi Minh City. Following Hiro, I felt so completely connected to her - as a foreigner, she feels so out of place, but so invigorated by Vietnam and all of the new feelings it arises in her.
Her relationship with Yun is sweet like the coconut water and papaya salads they share together, but as complicated as the country’s intense economic waves. This literary fiction engrossed me from start to finish and made me feel so much.
I wish I had more words to share right now, but this book was everything to me - including the vague ending that didn’t wrap up perfectly. It felt so real because of it.
Her relationship with Yun is sweet like the coconut water and papaya salads they share together, but as complicated as the country’s intense economic waves. This literary fiction engrossed me from start to finish and made me feel so much.
I wish I had more words to share right now, but this book was everything to me - including the vague ending that didn’t wrap up perfectly. It felt so real because of it.
February 24, 2011
Spinning Tropics was a random pick for the TBR Dare Challenge. I haven't been reading Japanese literature for a while and I figured this book would be a good choice considering it is a thin book and that it was the 2007 winner of the Knopf Kodansha Prize, plus the blurb behind said this is a lush and evocative story of an intoxicating love affair and this further heightens the eagerness to read it.
Hiromi Azuma is a 28-year-old female who decamped to Vietnam from Tokyo to work as a Japanese language teacher. She has problems with her mother and feels she is irresponsible and selfish who thinks of no one but herself. Living in a foreign country could be lonely and terrifying, but Hiro soon get used to the lifestyle and culture after knowing Yun who happens to be one of her students in class.
Falling in love with your own student is complicated, and it makes the issue more problematic if the party is of the same gender. Despite this, Hiro and Yun couldn't deny the attraction they have for each other and because of the circumstances, they will behave discreetly to the people around them. Still, Hiro has never felt so happy in her life. Yun makes her alive, and at one point she realises she wouldn't know what to do without Yun.
Their relationship goes on for a while until Konno, a Japanese businessman walks into Hiro's life. Her relationship with Yun began to falter, and jealousy sparks and insecurity arises between the two women.
At first glance, Spinning Tropics seems to me to be an intense story of a jealous woman who is fighting hard to win back her lover, though at some point it seems to be the case but the plot takes on a slower pace and Hiro's emotions are often portrayed throughout the story more than other things. Though I felt the pace is a bit slow, I have to give credit to the author for the detailed descriptions of the characters as well as a good look into the Vietnamese setting and its culture. I felt I was reading a travelogue at times through these descriptions and this made my reading experience all the more entertaining besides the intensity between the two characters. Just when I thought I knew what the outcome would be, the story took a turn and surprised me but I was disappointed to say the punch wasn't powerful enough to shake me to the core. On the contrary, I felt there was no answer to the ending and it left me a hollow feeling. That said, I was impressed with Aska Mochizuki's sharp and concise writing style and though this book may not make it on my best thriller read it definitely leaves a mark on my list through the literary sense.
Hiromi Azuma is a 28-year-old female who decamped to Vietnam from Tokyo to work as a Japanese language teacher. She has problems with her mother and feels she is irresponsible and selfish who thinks of no one but herself. Living in a foreign country could be lonely and terrifying, but Hiro soon get used to the lifestyle and culture after knowing Yun who happens to be one of her students in class.
Falling in love with your own student is complicated, and it makes the issue more problematic if the party is of the same gender. Despite this, Hiro and Yun couldn't deny the attraction they have for each other and because of the circumstances, they will behave discreetly to the people around them. Still, Hiro has never felt so happy in her life. Yun makes her alive, and at one point she realises she wouldn't know what to do without Yun.
Their relationship goes on for a while until Konno, a Japanese businessman walks into Hiro's life. Her relationship with Yun began to falter, and jealousy sparks and insecurity arises between the two women.
At first glance, Spinning Tropics seems to me to be an intense story of a jealous woman who is fighting hard to win back her lover, though at some point it seems to be the case but the plot takes on a slower pace and Hiro's emotions are often portrayed throughout the story more than other things. Though I felt the pace is a bit slow, I have to give credit to the author for the detailed descriptions of the characters as well as a good look into the Vietnamese setting and its culture. I felt I was reading a travelogue at times through these descriptions and this made my reading experience all the more entertaining besides the intensity between the two characters. Just when I thought I knew what the outcome would be, the story took a turn and surprised me but I was disappointed to say the punch wasn't powerful enough to shake me to the core. On the contrary, I felt there was no answer to the ending and it left me a hollow feeling. That said, I was impressed with Aska Mochizuki's sharp and concise writing style and though this book may not make it on my best thriller read it definitely leaves a mark on my list through the literary sense.
March 6, 2017
wtf is wrong with Yun?!
December 1, 2016
I really enjoyed this novel, but the ending was unrealistic and strange.
May 12, 2010
I have mixed feelings about this four-star rating. "Spinning Tropics" is not great literature: it plows no new nor unusual literary ground. But part of what motivates my reading of international novels is a search for works that enhance cultural understanding. From this latter perspective, Mochizuki's novel is a stunning success. Hiro, the main character, is a Japanese woman teaching her native language in Vietnam. She falls deeply in love, much to her own surprise, with Yun, a Vietnamese woman. The relationship gets complicated in ways that engage the reader's attention. Within the context of this story of romance, in this case same-sex romance between two women who also feel some attraction to men, is a perceptive portrayal of cultural difference and a wonderful evocation of the tastes, smells, and sights of Ho Chi Minh City. The final pages were deeply moving for me personally, not because of the way the plot works out, although that has its surprises, but because of the final "spinning" mixture of Hiro's perceptions and memories of the city around her. The foreign land has somehow become hers and defines and confines her identity as much as the native land she left behind. I have had the same feeling with Taipei over twenty years ago. On my way to the airport after two years in that great city, I passed place after place of which I had personal memories. "Where do I really belong?" It is a question all of us who have lived for a long time abroad and have begun to feel our own identity re-forming around that "other" place. "Spinning Tropics" captures this powerful and disorienting experience as well as any I have read.
July 3, 2011
Hiro, a Japanese woman teaching her native language in modern Vietnam, falls in love with Yun a vivacious modern young Vietnamese woman. They are both surprised with this relationship, but both are also seemingly dependent on it. When their bond is threatened by Hiro's interest in a Japanese businessman named Konno living in Ho Chi Minh City, their relationship unravels. The most interesting parts of this book are the descriptions of the expat community, and the quickly changing culture of modern Vietnam. The worst part? The relationships between the characters. I wasn't convinced for a second of Hiro and Yun's relationship. Uncreative translation? Bad storytelling? I don't know... but really clunky, un-sexy, and wince-inducing love scenes on all sides of this awkward triangle.
September 2, 2020
Hiro, a perceptive but anxious Japanese woman teaching Japanese in Vietnam embarks on an affair with Yun, her student, a petite energetic extrovert who is trying to create a better life for herself and her family. For both, their loving intimacy is foreign territory, thrilling and exhilarating but also a risky place of exile. As the two women whip through chaotic traffic on a motorcycle stopping to eat at outdoor cafes, Mochizuki vividly captures the bustle of Ho Chi Minh City with its emerging economy and the ever-present hustle between natives and foreigners. This is a wonderfully atmospheric novel with an unfortunate unhappy-for-lesbians ending.
May 6, 2012
I found this to be an interesting read. Hiro is a girl from Tokyo who has moved to Vietnam to teach language classes. That's where she meets Dung, a student at the school. They form an unlikely friendship that turns into a something much deeper. Trouble disrupts their budding relationship and things go bad quickly. The story unfolds at a nice pace and isn't too far fetched an idea. The characters are fairly believable as well.
October 10, 2009
Loses something in translation. Interesting piece about that economic period of growth and the sales of young men to major corporations without their knowledge. Hooray Japan circa 1994 or 1995, slaves to the dollar making slaves for a dollar.
April 21, 2012
This is just an indulgment of someone that experienced living in foreign country half-heartedly. One foot says to the homeland I'm out of here, another foot says the new country that it is weird. Same as with family. You just love to hate them.
January 5, 2010
While I enjoyed this book, it definitely felt as though something was lost in translation. The premise was promising, but didn't deliver in the way I hoped it would.
August 7, 2011
3.5 stars.
November 22, 2011
Not particularly elegantly written, maybe because of the translation, but an engrossing story about experiencing both familiar and foreign, and the havoc wreaked when the two collide.
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July 1, 2012I couldn't finish this. It's not that it's terrible, but I just got bored. The characters are not particularly interesting and I just ended up not caring what happened next.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews