A sort of millennial "My Kinsman Major Molineux": provincial islander Eiji Miyake, who loves 2 people--his twin sister Anju and John Lennon--comes to the big city, the biggest city, and soon and inevitably in over his head, way, way over his head, to a potentially fatal degree.

Still, Tokyo life's not all bad. There's romance, a sweet romance much like that in the 2nd chapter of Ghostwritten. And like Mitchell's first novel, this one is a little off-putting at the start and unsatisfactory at the end. Unlike that one, though, this one seems to take a few missteps in between, especially with a plot element that arises seemingly from nowhere more than three-quarters of the way through, for no reason I can fathom other than to let Eiji figure out how to do something brilliantly noble.

Don't get me wrong: I considered 4 stars and never considered 2. I'm just sayin'.