Edward’s Reviews > The Buddha Tree > Status Update

Interestingly, Roykun's childhood adventures are a sidestep from the hypocrisy and inner turmoil of the adult lives portrayed by Niwa. Niwa gives explicit descriptions of festivals, tenants of Buddist faith, musical instruments, and food preparation as interludes in his story. They could be eliminated but they add to the social realism of the culture. At times he is allegorical and his narration has a deeper meaning.

Niwa's prose is concise and sufficiently descriptive of the character's physical surroundings but his key strength as an author is his ability to make the reader feels the intensity of his character's emotions of shame, guilt, and failure of courage. The characters reflect the shotcomings of society and its inability to live up to the ideals of its faith. Soshu recognizes this hypocracy. Roykun runs counter to this.