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Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness
Books may be Mayumi Saito’s greatest love and her one source of true pleasure. Forty-one years old, disenchanted wife and dutiful mother, Mayumi’s work as a librarian on a small island off the coast of New England feeds her passion for reading and provides her with many occasions for wry observations on human nature, but it does little to remedy the mundanity of her days. That is, until the day she issues a library card to a shy seventeen-year-old boy and swiftly succumbs to a sexual obsession that subverts the way she sees the library, her family, the island she lives on, and ultimately herself.
Wary of the consequences of following through on her fantasies, Mayumi hesitates at first. But she cannot keep the young man from her thoughts. After a summer of overlong glances and nervous chitchat in the library, she finally accepts that their connection is undeniable. In a sprawling house emptied of its summer vacationers, their affair is consummated and soon consolidated thanks to an explosive charge of erotic energy. Mayumi’s life is radically enriched by the few hours each week that she shares with the young man, and as their bond grows stronger thanks not only to their physical closeness but also to their long talks about the books they both love, those hours spent apart seem to Mayumi increasingly bleak and intolerable. As her obsession worsens, in a frantic attempt to become closer to the young man, Mayumi nervously befriends another librarian patron, the young man’s mother. The two women forge a tenuous friendship that will prove vital to both in the most unexpected ways when catastrophe strikes.
Exquisitely written, Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness is part wry confession, part serious meditation. At its most anxious, it’s a book about time, at its most ecstatic, it’s a deeply human story about pleasure.
Wary of the consequences of following through on her fantasies, Mayumi hesitates at first. But she cannot keep the young man from her thoughts. After a summer of overlong glances and nervous chitchat in the library, she finally accepts that their connection is undeniable. In a sprawling house emptied of its summer vacationers, their affair is consummated and soon consolidated thanks to an explosive charge of erotic energy. Mayumi’s life is radically enriched by the few hours each week that she shares with the young man, and as their bond grows stronger thanks not only to their physical closeness but also to their long talks about the books they both love, those hours spent apart seem to Mayumi increasingly bleak and intolerable. As her obsession worsens, in a frantic attempt to become closer to the young man, Mayumi nervously befriends another librarian patron, the young man’s mother. The two women forge a tenuous friendship that will prove vital to both in the most unexpected ways when catastrophe strikes.
Exquisitely written, Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness is part wry confession, part serious meditation. At its most anxious, it’s a book about time, at its most ecstatic, it’s a deeply human story about pleasure.
272 pages, Paperback
First published May 26, 2015
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December 5, 2025
TU PIANGERAI QUEST’ORA IN CUI TU PIANGI
Mayumi, madre inglese e padre giapponese, vive su un’isola del Massachusetts (Martha’s Vineyard? Nel romanzo il nome del posto non è mai citato), ed è una bibliotecaria: vive di libri, li maneggia, apre, li consegna e legge con piacere intenso, quasi con voracità.
Si parla molto di libri in questo libro: insieme ad alcuni classici, quali Proust, Melville, Nabokov, e Dostoevskij, Keats, Wharton, Apollinaire, Salinger, a sorpresa anche Elena Ferrante, nel mondo anglosassone ormai entrata nell’olimpo.
Mayumi li legge tutti, li consiglia, li conosce, li ricorda, può citarli, discuterli, confrontarli.
Mayumi ha 41 anni ed è sposata con Var, un brasiliano con i baffi.
Il matrimonio è stato fortunato, ha generato Maria una bimba di 4 anni (5 alla fine della narrazione che abbraccia l’arco di un anno, scandita in quattro capitoli intitolati alle quattro stagioni), bimba capricciosa e dispotica, ma, per la madre, autentica delizia, e unica ragione per restare agganciata al vincolo matrimoniale: infatti ogni notte dorme con la figlia in un’intimità che col marito ha ormai perduto da tempo.
Lui è un uomo buono, paziente, gentile, ma è lontano dai personaggi dei libri di cui Mayumi si nutre, ha una marcia in meno rispetto alla protagonista.
Gli unici rapporti sopravvissuti tra loro sono quelli connessi allo sprimacciare la biancheria prima di uno stentato incontro sessuale. Non solo il desiderio negli anni è divenuto modesto, i corpi si sono distratti e hanno preso altre strade, come spesso succede. Lei e suo marito sono ormai come due pezzi di un puzzle che non si incastrano più, come un vecchio mappamondo che non è più accurato e coerente con la realtà geografica, quindi non è più utile.
A 41 anni, Mayumi non è una donna in rivolta, ma neppure una donna finita: le sue acque interiori sono silenziose, e sa che non deve chiedersi se l’amore di cui legge nei libri sia vero o inventato.
Ma, da dietro il bancone della biblioteca, un giorno Mayumi capisce che esiste un mappamondo adatto alla sua nuova realtà geografico-esistenziale: e, incontra Lui.
Lui è un diciassettenne che non viene mai nominato per nome, quasi sempre indicato come il ‘giovane’ perché dire il nome di una persona significa ucciderla.
La differenza d’età crea imbarazzo a Mayumi, che man mano diventa anche amica della madre del giovane, Violet.
L’imbarazzo può, però, rallentarla, allungare i tempi iniziali, ma non trattenerla: Mayumi riconosce l’attrazione, la passione, l’amore, e per quanto rischi un’incriminazione per adescamento di minorenne (salvo poi scoprire che in Massachesetts l’età è fissata a sedici anni), si concede anima cuore e corpo all’amore, alla passione, all’attrazione.
Tseng scrive bene, e sa essere ironica, sa infondere in Mayumi la capacità di ridere di se stessa, che come si sa è un talento raro (vedi quanto ne sia totalmente priva la sopra citata signora Ferrante).
Tanto più in chi è innamorato, generalmente scarnificato, sofferente a tutto quello che non è carezze e baci.
La verità, vi prego, sull’amore, cercava W.H. Auden nella sua magnifica poesia omonima.
E qual è la verità sull’amore?
Che è un sentimento universale – che esalta, infonde coraggio e forza, ma ci strugge e rende anche alquanto stupidi – che sembra sempre diverso, e sempre unico, mentre invece è sempre piuttosto uguale, e ci accomuna da nord a sud, da est a ovest – che ci fa ritenere speciali e baciati dalla fortuna come quei proprietari di cani o gatti che esaltano il carattere dei propri animali, tutti sempre assolutamente prevedibili e identici – che inizia anche se uno resiste, prova a opporsi, ma poi finisce – che è uno dei motivi per cui vale la pena vivere…? Qual è la verità dell’amore?
In queste pagine una storia d’amore che pur non sembrando per nulla autobiografica sembra altamente personale.
Una storia d’amore che trascende le generazioni.
Un’educazione sentimentale al contrario: l’adulta apprende perfino più del giovane.
Una storia d’amore che come tutte le storie d’amore:
- è meravigliosa
- non può finire bene
- è straziante
- è uguale alle nostre
- è diversa da qualsiasi nostra storia d’amore
- mette una gran voglia di percorrere lo stesso sentiero, pur sapendo come va a finire
- viva l’amore
Un libro di intenso erotismo, senza nessuna indulgenza per il particolare ‘piccante, un romanzo ambientato in un’isola, che parla molto anche di isole, e sembra rivolto a coloro che si sentono un’isola (a dispetto delle bellissime parole di John Donne), consapevoli che senza il mare non esistono isole.
Una menzione speciale per i ringraziamenti finali: i più divertenti e sinceri che io abbia mai letto.
Shikata ga nai - Nothing can be done about it
Christo e Jeanne Claude: “Surrounded Islands” (1980-1983), le isole della baia di Biscayne a Miami sono circondate da una cintura di polipropilene fucsia.
Mayumi, madre inglese e padre giapponese, vive su un’isola del Massachusetts (Martha’s Vineyard? Nel romanzo il nome del posto non è mai citato), ed è una bibliotecaria: vive di libri, li maneggia, apre, li consegna e legge con piacere intenso, quasi con voracità.
Si parla molto di libri in questo libro: insieme ad alcuni classici, quali Proust, Melville, Nabokov, e Dostoevskij, Keats, Wharton, Apollinaire, Salinger, a sorpresa anche Elena Ferrante, nel mondo anglosassone ormai entrata nell’olimpo.
Mayumi li legge tutti, li consiglia, li conosce, li ricorda, può citarli, discuterli, confrontarli.
Mayumi ha 41 anni ed è sposata con Var, un brasiliano con i baffi.
Il matrimonio è stato fortunato, ha generato Maria una bimba di 4 anni (5 alla fine della narrazione che abbraccia l’arco di un anno, scandita in quattro capitoli intitolati alle quattro stagioni), bimba capricciosa e dispotica, ma, per la madre, autentica delizia, e unica ragione per restare agganciata al vincolo matrimoniale: infatti ogni notte dorme con la figlia in un’intimità che col marito ha ormai perduto da tempo.
Lui è un uomo buono, paziente, gentile, ma è lontano dai personaggi dei libri di cui Mayumi si nutre, ha una marcia in meno rispetto alla protagonista.
Gli unici rapporti sopravvissuti tra loro sono quelli connessi allo sprimacciare la biancheria prima di uno stentato incontro sessuale. Non solo il desiderio negli anni è divenuto modesto, i corpi si sono distratti e hanno preso altre strade, come spesso succede. Lei e suo marito sono ormai come due pezzi di un puzzle che non si incastrano più, come un vecchio mappamondo che non è più accurato e coerente con la realtà geografica, quindi non è più utile.
A 41 anni, Mayumi non è una donna in rivolta, ma neppure una donna finita: le sue acque interiori sono silenziose, e sa che non deve chiedersi se l’amore di cui legge nei libri sia vero o inventato.
Ma, da dietro il bancone della biblioteca, un giorno Mayumi capisce che esiste un mappamondo adatto alla sua nuova realtà geografico-esistenziale: e, incontra Lui.
Lui è un diciassettenne che non viene mai nominato per nome, quasi sempre indicato come il ‘giovane’ perché dire il nome di una persona significa ucciderla.
La differenza d’età crea imbarazzo a Mayumi, che man mano diventa anche amica della madre del giovane, Violet.
L’imbarazzo può, però, rallentarla, allungare i tempi iniziali, ma non trattenerla: Mayumi riconosce l’attrazione, la passione, l’amore, e per quanto rischi un’incriminazione per adescamento di minorenne (salvo poi scoprire che in Massachesetts l’età è fissata a sedici anni), si concede anima cuore e corpo all’amore, alla passione, all’attrazione.
Tseng scrive bene, e sa essere ironica, sa infondere in Mayumi la capacità di ridere di se stessa, che come si sa è un talento raro (vedi quanto ne sia totalmente priva la sopra citata signora Ferrante).
Tanto più in chi è innamorato, generalmente scarnificato, sofferente a tutto quello che non è carezze e baci.
La verità, vi prego, sull’amore, cercava W.H. Auden nella sua magnifica poesia omonima.
E qual è la verità sull’amore?
Che è un sentimento universale – che esalta, infonde coraggio e forza, ma ci strugge e rende anche alquanto stupidi – che sembra sempre diverso, e sempre unico, mentre invece è sempre piuttosto uguale, e ci accomuna da nord a sud, da est a ovest – che ci fa ritenere speciali e baciati dalla fortuna come quei proprietari di cani o gatti che esaltano il carattere dei propri animali, tutti sempre assolutamente prevedibili e identici – che inizia anche se uno resiste, prova a opporsi, ma poi finisce – che è uno dei motivi per cui vale la pena vivere…? Qual è la verità dell’amore?
In queste pagine una storia d’amore che pur non sembrando per nulla autobiografica sembra altamente personale.
Una storia d’amore che trascende le generazioni.
Un’educazione sentimentale al contrario: l’adulta apprende perfino più del giovane.
Una storia d’amore che come tutte le storie d’amore:
- è meravigliosa
- non può finire bene
- è straziante
- è uguale alle nostre
- è diversa da qualsiasi nostra storia d’amore
- mette una gran voglia di percorrere lo stesso sentiero, pur sapendo come va a finire
- viva l’amore
Un libro di intenso erotismo, senza nessuna indulgenza per il particolare ‘piccante, un romanzo ambientato in un’isola, che parla molto anche di isole, e sembra rivolto a coloro che si sentono un’isola (a dispetto delle bellissime parole di John Donne), consapevoli che senza il mare non esistono isole.
Una menzione speciale per i ringraziamenti finali: i più divertenti e sinceri che io abbia mai letto.
Shikata ga nai - Nothing can be done about it
Christo e Jeanne Claude: “Surrounded Islands” (1980-1983), le isole della baia di Biscayne a Miami sono circondate da una cintura di polipropilene fucsia.
July 2, 2017
If you are a brilliant writer but for some extravagant reason don’t want the readers to enjoy your book as much as they could, follow Jennifer Tseng's example:
* Choose a topic which will repel some people right from the start.
At first sight, the main subject of 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness' is a sensual love story, starring a middle-aged married librarian and a seventeen-year-old boy. Some status updates and reviews proove that there are readers, who automatically turn their backs at this lyrical and eloquent book. They feel disgusted and tend to concentrate solely on moral judgment. It made me think of ‘Lolita’ by Nabokov, which was mentioned a few times in the book. Apparently, some readers found 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness' embarrassing or even disturbing - according to one of the reviewers the novel made her feel sick.
Of course I respect every reader's right to perceive or interpret a book as he or she only fancies and I am grateful to the reviewers for their honest write-ups. I just think it is unjust to limit the discussion on this book to sex and moral rating of protagonists. 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness' offers much more. Trying to understand requires more time and effort than an instant verdict but it often turns out to be rewarding.
* Make your female protagonist annoying.
If you are allergic to narcissistic and self-absorbed characters, you won't make friends with Mayumi I'm afraid. The constant analysis of her relationship with the young man might drive you mad at times. She says ‘I thought only of myself’ and these five words summarize everything about her perfectly. Mayumi just reached for the boy as if she was a hungry child and he was a fresh doughnut on a bakery shelf.
* Make your male characters vague
All the women portrayed in Jennifer Tseng's novel are remarkable, even if they are described with just a few sentences, like Mayumi’s mother. In my opinion the most intriguing character is definitely Viola, the boy’s mother. The problem is all the men in the novel seem to be a different species. They appear to be just outlines of personalities, drawn with thick contours, empty inside. Var, Mayumi’s husband is the extreme, he just sits in his room and obsessively craves gnomes. The young man is a foggy mistery too. Though he plays an important role in the story, we will get to know just a few very basic facts about him. Even his name will not be revealed.
* Punch your readers at the end.
I couldn't believe my eyes when suddenly Tseng's book turned into a tragic, depressing elegy, just out of the blue. I could almost hear a painful crack in the structure of the novel. And its composition was so precise and clear. It reminded me not only of Vivaldi's masterpiece but also of one of my favourite films. Well, prepare yourself for a burst of conflicting emotions. First you will float lazily in the warm Sea of Happiness, then you will be punched and pushed by the author into something like the Mariana Trench. In my opinion the ending of the novel squeaked artificially, as if Jennifer Tseng had pressed the brake too rapidly and violently.
You have probably already noticed that I have a love-hate relationship with this book. The more I adored some elements, the sadder I felt about the things which, to my mind, have gone wrong. The thing I definitely enjoyed was Jennifer Tseng's sense of humour, her melancholy and irony. Besides, I admire her writing style. There were so many stunning passages in 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness'.
I have read three novels written by poets lately. Just a coincidence. All the three authors seemed to struggle a bit with formal issues but the language was exquisite, this time also. I found the metaphors used in the book lovely, especially Mayumi comparing herself to an island, many times, in various aspects, moods and situations, for example:
'Typical of me to make of myself an island wherever I am.'
'I lay prone, motionless, dreaming, an island of sorrow surrounded by a sea of happiness'
'My mind had become an islet.'
By the way, I really love the way the books that we read converse, complete each other, add new perspectives. In 'Amsterdam Stories” by Nescio, which I am reading at the moment, to my amazement I've found a passage so similar to 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness':
'I’m not pathetic. I am an island.'
'An island,' I said, as expressionlessly as I could. 'Isn’t everyone an island?'
'Maybe, I don’t think much about everyone, but I am an island.'
Another thing I loved about Tseng’s novel were bookish associations and observations. Not only Mayumi is a librarian, the author of the book also. They both seem to be head over heels in love with literature. I can definitely relate to that. 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness' is full of book titles and authors’ names but that’s not all. Litearture is a sort of lenses Mayumi sees the world through. From the first promising sentence: 'It began at the library.', till the very end you will indulge in the world of books. Warning: you might not want to come back. How I wish the disgusted readers could feel the loveliness of excerpts like:
'Books are not so different than people. Often the person across the room with whom you first lock eyes should be bypassed in favor of the quieter, less charismatic person standing next to them.'
'It was a path I generally avoided but I turned to it now like an old, forgotten book, with the hope that I might open it and find something new.'
'His eyes studied me as though I were a page in a book. I had the sense of being one among many, of being read intensely but fleetingly by a reader who would soon turn the page.'
Last but not least, acknowledgements. I have a strange habit of reading them thoroughly, while most people skip them. How amused I was this time! What a smart idea: Jennifer Tseng decided to give ‘real’ objects to various people she feels grateful to. For example the present for Elena Ferrante was a pair of large sunglasses. Speaking of acknowledgements, special thanks to Orsodimondo, whose dazzling review got me interested in Jennifer Tseng's novel with a whoosh.
There is something elusive in 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness', a sublime blend of lightness and softness that slips away, femininity and freshness difficult to define. I don't know what to call it. I won't even try. According to Mayumi, 'to name is to kill'.
* Choose a topic which will repel some people right from the start.
At first sight, the main subject of 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness' is a sensual love story, starring a middle-aged married librarian and a seventeen-year-old boy. Some status updates and reviews proove that there are readers, who automatically turn their backs at this lyrical and eloquent book. They feel disgusted and tend to concentrate solely on moral judgment. It made me think of ‘Lolita’ by Nabokov, which was mentioned a few times in the book. Apparently, some readers found 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness' embarrassing or even disturbing - according to one of the reviewers the novel made her feel sick.
Of course I respect every reader's right to perceive or interpret a book as he or she only fancies and I am grateful to the reviewers for their honest write-ups. I just think it is unjust to limit the discussion on this book to sex and moral rating of protagonists. 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness' offers much more. Trying to understand requires more time and effort than an instant verdict but it often turns out to be rewarding.
* Make your female protagonist annoying.
If you are allergic to narcissistic and self-absorbed characters, you won't make friends with Mayumi I'm afraid. The constant analysis of her relationship with the young man might drive you mad at times. She says ‘I thought only of myself’ and these five words summarize everything about her perfectly. Mayumi just reached for the boy as if she was a hungry child and he was a fresh doughnut on a bakery shelf.
* Make your male characters vague
All the women portrayed in Jennifer Tseng's novel are remarkable, even if they are described with just a few sentences, like Mayumi’s mother. In my opinion the most intriguing character is definitely Viola, the boy’s mother. The problem is all the men in the novel seem to be a different species. They appear to be just outlines of personalities, drawn with thick contours, empty inside. Var, Mayumi’s husband is the extreme, he just sits in his room and obsessively craves gnomes. The young man is a foggy mistery too. Though he plays an important role in the story, we will get to know just a few very basic facts about him. Even his name will not be revealed.
* Punch your readers at the end.
I couldn't believe my eyes when suddenly Tseng's book turned into a tragic, depressing elegy, just out of the blue. I could almost hear a painful crack in the structure of the novel. And its composition was so precise and clear. It reminded me not only of Vivaldi's masterpiece but also of one of my favourite films. Well, prepare yourself for a burst of conflicting emotions. First you will float lazily in the warm Sea of Happiness, then you will be punched and pushed by the author into something like the Mariana Trench. In my opinion the ending of the novel squeaked artificially, as if Jennifer Tseng had pressed the brake too rapidly and violently.
You have probably already noticed that I have a love-hate relationship with this book. The more I adored some elements, the sadder I felt about the things which, to my mind, have gone wrong. The thing I definitely enjoyed was Jennifer Tseng's sense of humour, her melancholy and irony. Besides, I admire her writing style. There were so many stunning passages in 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness'.
I have read three novels written by poets lately. Just a coincidence. All the three authors seemed to struggle a bit with formal issues but the language was exquisite, this time also. I found the metaphors used in the book lovely, especially Mayumi comparing herself to an island, many times, in various aspects, moods and situations, for example:
'Typical of me to make of myself an island wherever I am.'
'I lay prone, motionless, dreaming, an island of sorrow surrounded by a sea of happiness'
'My mind had become an islet.'
By the way, I really love the way the books that we read converse, complete each other, add new perspectives. In 'Amsterdam Stories” by Nescio, which I am reading at the moment, to my amazement I've found a passage so similar to 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness':
'I’m not pathetic. I am an island.'
'An island,' I said, as expressionlessly as I could. 'Isn’t everyone an island?'
'Maybe, I don’t think much about everyone, but I am an island.'
Another thing I loved about Tseng’s novel were bookish associations and observations. Not only Mayumi is a librarian, the author of the book also. They both seem to be head over heels in love with literature. I can definitely relate to that. 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness' is full of book titles and authors’ names but that’s not all. Litearture is a sort of lenses Mayumi sees the world through. From the first promising sentence: 'It began at the library.', till the very end you will indulge in the world of books. Warning: you might not want to come back. How I wish the disgusted readers could feel the loveliness of excerpts like:
'Books are not so different than people. Often the person across the room with whom you first lock eyes should be bypassed in favor of the quieter, less charismatic person standing next to them.'
'It was a path I generally avoided but I turned to it now like an old, forgotten book, with the hope that I might open it and find something new.'
'His eyes studied me as though I were a page in a book. I had the sense of being one among many, of being read intensely but fleetingly by a reader who would soon turn the page.'
Last but not least, acknowledgements. I have a strange habit of reading them thoroughly, while most people skip them. How amused I was this time! What a smart idea: Jennifer Tseng decided to give ‘real’ objects to various people she feels grateful to. For example the present for Elena Ferrante was a pair of large sunglasses. Speaking of acknowledgements, special thanks to Orsodimondo, whose dazzling review got me interested in Jennifer Tseng's novel with a whoosh.
There is something elusive in 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness', a sublime blend of lightness and softness that slips away, femininity and freshness difficult to define. I don't know what to call it. I won't even try. According to Mayumi, 'to name is to kill'.
October 17, 2015
I bought this book on impulse on my first trip to a new bookstore downtown (M. Judson) because it checked off quite a few boxes for me - librarian as main character, set on a cold weather island, and put out by an indie press. It sounded like something that would be right up my alley!
The book is told over the course of the year, broken up into seasons, which of course do set the pace for an island. Summer reading, summer patrons, empty winter, etc. This is not a small island as there are tourist cabins but also normal people, and the woods, where Mayumi spends quite a bit of time.
The relationship starts without buildup except for in her head. It seemed completely unrealistic. I notice that the author works in a library on a cold weather island... yeah, you can't help but wonder the connection, ha. It almost reads as an impulse the author had, didn't follow through on, and decided to play out as a novel, and that would actually explain why some parts of it don't feel very situated in reality.
And this little quote makes me wonder if I'm right, and this is in the beginning!
The book isn't all bad even if the central story makes me uncomfortable - the description of the island and the seasons transported me as a reader. The character of Mayumi and her lack of roots in any one place comes across very convincingly. I love how she tries to work out her feelings and emotions through the books she is reading, and I definitely wrote down a few titles to read.
This is the first novel by Tseng. I'm still happy I picked a book I knew nothing about, something I want to do more often.
The book is told over the course of the year, broken up into seasons, which of course do set the pace for an island. Summer reading, summer patrons, empty winter, etc. This is not a small island as there are tourist cabins but also normal people, and the woods, where Mayumi spends quite a bit of time.
"It began at the library."Mayumi is in a sexless connectionless marriage and when she feels an attraction for a high schooler that comes into the library, she acts on it and ends up in a relationship with him for a while. As I've said in a previous review this year, I'm not titillated by this type of relationship (and that review was about a college student!). In this book it just reads as strange, not sexy. There doesn't seem to be a mutual attraction, just that he is doing what she says. Since Mayumi is reading Lolita throughout the book I do wonder at the connection, but having never read Lolita I can't really comment.
The relationship starts without buildup except for in her head. It seemed completely unrealistic. I notice that the author works in a library on a cold weather island... yeah, you can't help but wonder the connection, ha. It almost reads as an impulse the author had, didn't follow through on, and decided to play out as a novel, and that would actually explain why some parts of it don't feel very situated in reality.
And this little quote makes me wonder if I'm right, and this is in the beginning!
"Then it was like reading of love in a book. One feels the many pleasures without inflicting any pain. In the end, no one is hurt or saved but the solitary reader. When one closes the book, life resumes. The husband continues to irritate, the child continues to breathe heavily in her sleep...."What does ring true are the depictions of isolation and grief that occur in smaller parts of the novel. Those parts are more memorable and powerful, in my opinion.
The book isn't all bad even if the central story makes me uncomfortable - the description of the island and the seasons transported me as a reader. The character of Mayumi and her lack of roots in any one place comes across very convincingly. I love how she tries to work out her feelings and emotions through the books she is reading, and I definitely wrote down a few titles to read.
This is the first novel by Tseng. I'm still happy I picked a book I knew nothing about, something I want to do more often.
June 21, 2015
With a demanding 4-year-old daughter who has claimed a place in the marital bed, an emotionally and physically distant husband and finding solace between the pages of the books she reads, Mayumi's life seems to lack something she isn't aware of, until someone arrives at the library counter to ignite it.
She develops a fixation on a 17-year-old boy, seducing him and slotting him timetable-like in her already routine, controlled life, as if forbidden love is just another aspect of a carefully planned existence, something that be contained.
In addition, she can't help but allow a friendship to develop with the boy's mother, her equal desire for friendship and understanding crossing neurotic wires that seem destined to create an emotional explosion.
It was a strange read for me and while many authors succeed in bringing the reader inside a perspective that might be counter-intuitive to their own instinct, it felt as though I remained on the outside of this narrative, never able to crossover into the world Muyumi inhabits, through her narcissistic obsession.
The only reading experience I can compare this too is Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence, which is a very long treatise on the experience of obsession, it is so long that you can't help but experience the tedium of an unrelenting obsession.
Tseng's exploration is unique by virtue of it being a female obsession, confusing the roles of mother, lover, friend and wife.
It is a reminder that in the quietest of environments, the imagination is actively at work and you never know when inspiration or obsession might alight.
My complete review here at Word by Word.
She develops a fixation on a 17-year-old boy, seducing him and slotting him timetable-like in her already routine, controlled life, as if forbidden love is just another aspect of a carefully planned existence, something that be contained.
In addition, she can't help but allow a friendship to develop with the boy's mother, her equal desire for friendship and understanding crossing neurotic wires that seem destined to create an emotional explosion.
It was a strange read for me and while many authors succeed in bringing the reader inside a perspective that might be counter-intuitive to their own instinct, it felt as though I remained on the outside of this narrative, never able to crossover into the world Muyumi inhabits, through her narcissistic obsession.
The only reading experience I can compare this too is Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence, which is a very long treatise on the experience of obsession, it is so long that you can't help but experience the tedium of an unrelenting obsession.
Tseng's exploration is unique by virtue of it being a female obsession, confusing the roles of mother, lover, friend and wife.
It is a reminder that in the quietest of environments, the imagination is actively at work and you never know when inspiration or obsession might alight.
My complete review here at Word by Word.
February 20, 2017
Jennifer Tseng is wonderful writer with an incredible ability to manipulate the english language. Tragically, this is a terrible novel with an idiodic plot, weak dialogue and a narrator that I would smash in the face with a shovel were she a real person.
Mayumi is a middle-aged woman with virtually no friends, a young daughter who she spoils pointlessly (she's still breastfeeding at the age of four), and an endless well of rationalization for cheating on her husband with a 17-year old boy. This would be tolerable if there was any character development but there isn't; she's the same self-involved, delusional waste of space throughout. And the supporting characters have no depth, not even the teenager she beds or his mother. The only slightly redeeming factor was the island setting, which was fully fleshed and beautifully described. Not nearly enough to justify the existence of 281 pages of purple prose.
I recieved this book through a firstreads giveaway, so thank you to Penguin Books.
Mayumi is a middle-aged woman with virtually no friends, a young daughter who she spoils pointlessly (she's still breastfeeding at the age of four), and an endless well of rationalization for cheating on her husband with a 17-year old boy. This would be tolerable if there was any character development but there isn't; she's the same self-involved, delusional waste of space throughout. And the supporting characters have no depth, not even the teenager she beds or his mother. The only slightly redeeming factor was the island setting, which was fully fleshed and beautifully described. Not nearly enough to justify the existence of 281 pages of purple prose.
I recieved this book through a firstreads giveaway, so thank you to Penguin Books.
January 29, 2018
Mayumi e il mare della felicità ha una storia che, per certi versi, sa già di letto e visto. I capitoli si caratterizzano con i titoli delle stagioni dell'anno che rappresentano molto bene i moti dell'animo della protagonista. Mayumi è una donna di 40 anni, una bibliotecaria che sta attraversando l'inverno della sua vita o meglio un periodo in cui il suo matrimonio è quasi sull'orlo del fallimento e le uniche note felici sono i libri che ama, maneggia, cura come se fossero una cosa preziosa. Proprio come i romanzi che ama leggere, anche lei sogna di vivere una storia d'amore proprio come i protagonisti dei libri finché un giorno arriva nella sua vita la primavera. La primavera ha per Mayumi il volto di un giovane di 17 anni con il quale vive una passione sfrenata, ma anche una ossessione. La passione che ha sempre sognato solo nei libri prenderà forma e vita con questo ragazzo, ma sarà ostacolata da molti.
Jennifer Tseng racconta l'ossessione, l'amore e la passione tra Mayumi e il giovane con eleganza toccando temi importanti, ma non il cuore del lettore.
Jennifer Tseng racconta l'ossessione, l'amore e la passione tra Mayumi e il giovane con eleganza toccando temi importanti, ma non il cuore del lettore.
September 20, 2020
A beautifully written novel. Deeply moving and poignant. My emotions feel like they've been put through the wringer.
July 10, 2016
Recently I was talking with another librarian about librarians who work with fiction writers to verify facts and ensure that they are getting the details right. While reading this book I kept thinking about that conversation, thinking this author needs a librarian! Imagine my surprise when I finished the book and discovered that Jennifer Tseng works at a library...
Mayumi is a 41 year old unhappily married mother and librarian (more on this later) who lives on an island off the coast of Massachusetts (let's just say it's Martha's Vineyard). She feels dead inside until she becomes infatuated with, and eventually sexually involved with, a 17 year old boy.
I think Tseng is trying to validate female desire. It is a story that has been told before, and often with more complexity and nuance (Ancient Light for one). What she missed out on, over and over again, was telling a story set in a real place. Martha's Vineyard is as gorgeous a place as there is, and yet none of its beauty shines through in this novel. There was a tremendous opportunity to tell a story about locals on the island, and yet none of the characters felt real.
And now I come to my biggest complaint about this book. Tseng has missed the boat (or the ferry) entirely when describing the work and world of librarians, and she spends a lot of time talking about the life and work of librarians. This island town library employs 8 (8!) librarians. Mayumi describes her work: shelving books, applying labels, checking materials in and out. I'm sorry folks, but this is not the work of a librarian- or certainly not the entirety of it. This is the work of clerks and volunteers. This is where I most thought the author could use some editorial help, and why I was so surprised to find she worked at a library. Beyond my own professional interest in representing the work we librarians really do, employing stereotypes and shallow understandings about something at the center of the book makes the book itself shallow and stereotypical. I can't really go deep in a book if the author doesn't go deep.
Mayumi is a 41 year old unhappily married mother and librarian (more on this later) who lives on an island off the coast of Massachusetts (let's just say it's Martha's Vineyard). She feels dead inside until she becomes infatuated with, and eventually sexually involved with, a 17 year old boy.
I think Tseng is trying to validate female desire. It is a story that has been told before, and often with more complexity and nuance (Ancient Light for one). What she missed out on, over and over again, was telling a story set in a real place. Martha's Vineyard is as gorgeous a place as there is, and yet none of its beauty shines through in this novel. There was a tremendous opportunity to tell a story about locals on the island, and yet none of the characters felt real.
And now I come to my biggest complaint about this book. Tseng has missed the boat (or the ferry) entirely when describing the work and world of librarians, and she spends a lot of time talking about the life and work of librarians. This island town library employs 8 (8!) librarians. Mayumi describes her work: shelving books, applying labels, checking materials in and out. I'm sorry folks, but this is not the work of a librarian- or certainly not the entirety of it. This is the work of clerks and volunteers. This is where I most thought the author could use some editorial help, and why I was so surprised to find she worked at a library. Beyond my own professional interest in representing the work we librarians really do, employing stereotypes and shallow understandings about something at the center of the book makes the book itself shallow and stereotypical. I can't really go deep in a book if the author doesn't go deep.
October 27, 2016
I am never overly compelled to write reviews, but I think this book deserves attention. Such beautiful prose and precision of language, understated humor and attention to narrative--this combination seems rarer these days. To me, Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness reads as a celebration of life and love in its various forms, and (by pure demonstration) a celebration of what language can do. There is a wonderful balance between subtle humor and alternating seriousness and a sense of the tragic, an impressive balancing act that infuses Mayumi's narration, and so the way things unfold, almost inevitably, all honor the subject matter/subjects in a delightful way. There are so many excellent passages but here are just some quotes:
"They were both lovely together. Both dark-haired and dark-eyed. I felt the inappropriate urge to photograph them." (Mayumi narrating an encounter with her interest and his mother)
"And yet there was something sketch-like about him; perhaps it was merely youth, the impression he gave of one not quite frail but also not yet finished."
"But while it lasted, when one boiled it down, winter was everything. I say boiled, for in no other season will you find such extreme heat: gas, electricity, wood fires, the steam of hot soup and tea, the electric neon green of the moss underfoot after a heavy rain."
"Heavily peppered with scenes of socially unacceptable sex, descriptions of guilt, fear, and forced secrecy, fascination with beauty and frustration with an uncomprehending world, such novels were like compact mirrors that I carried in my cloth bag. One could always pop one open, look in, and see oneself reflected there."
"One of the risks of confessing is that one runs the risk of inviting one's confidante to confess."
"They were both lovely together. Both dark-haired and dark-eyed. I felt the inappropriate urge to photograph them." (Mayumi narrating an encounter with her interest and his mother)
"And yet there was something sketch-like about him; perhaps it was merely youth, the impression he gave of one not quite frail but also not yet finished."
"But while it lasted, when one boiled it down, winter was everything. I say boiled, for in no other season will you find such extreme heat: gas, electricity, wood fires, the steam of hot soup and tea, the electric neon green of the moss underfoot after a heavy rain."
"Heavily peppered with scenes of socially unacceptable sex, descriptions of guilt, fear, and forced secrecy, fascination with beauty and frustration with an uncomprehending world, such novels were like compact mirrors that I carried in my cloth bag. One could always pop one open, look in, and see oneself reflected there."
"One of the risks of confessing is that one runs the risk of inviting one's confidante to confess."
June 7, 2015
I discovered this book from Book Riot's All the Books podcast. Mayumi is a 41 year old librarian trapped in a loveless marriage who begins an affair with a 17 year old library patron. Tseng's writing is absolutely gorgeous. I'm super irritated that I didn't write down all the passages that made me put the book down and pause in wonder, but if I had done so every time Tseng knocked me off my feet I would never have finished the book. Though the ending was somewhat predictable, the sheer beauty of Tseng's prose deserves five stars.
June 26, 2015
Mothers of sons may not enjoy. Writing is stunning...even her acknowledgments at the end are delicious!
October 1, 2015
Mayumi is a librarian who lives on an island with a four year old daughter and an unhappy marriage. 'Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness' takes us on her journey through an affair that she has with an underage boy. We get to see the beginning, the middle and the end of their relationship and the affects it has on Mayumi's life.
This book just didn't do it for me, I didn't like anything about it. The writing wasn't terrible but the characters, the plot and the way the author took the story way too seriously was off putting. I couldn't connect with any of the characters because they were so boring. They felt really flat and with a novel that focuses so much on the characters that makes for a really dull read. I had a hard time relating to anything in Mayumi's life from her spoilt child, her marriage to a man who she dislikes, to her affair with a 17 year old boy. I hated the way Mayumi thought about her daughter and when her daughter was front and centre in the novel I just wanted her to be gone. The way Mayumi clung to her because she felt like she had nothing else was disturbing.
The relationship between Mayumi and the 17 year old boy was..weird. I mean obviously there is a little bit of weirdness when a middle age woman wants to bone a 17 year old but sometimes the thoughts of Mayumi took it to an even weirder level and I felt uncomfortable reading it. The way she thought of herself like the boys mother and that she was "teaching" him things was gross. And I don't understand why the boy would ever want to have sex with a woman so much older than himself when he seems like a perfectly normal teenager who could get a girl his own age. That was never explored at all as we didn't get to see into the boy's thought process.
I don't know if I would read anything by this author again. The whole book felt like it took itself way too seriously and the writing style tried to make this story more important and profound than it actually was. It just isn't my cup of tea.
*I received a copy of this book from Goodreads First Wins in exchange for an honest review
This book just didn't do it for me, I didn't like anything about it. The writing wasn't terrible but the characters, the plot and the way the author took the story way too seriously was off putting. I couldn't connect with any of the characters because they were so boring. They felt really flat and with a novel that focuses so much on the characters that makes for a really dull read. I had a hard time relating to anything in Mayumi's life from her spoilt child, her marriage to a man who she dislikes, to her affair with a 17 year old boy. I hated the way Mayumi thought about her daughter and when her daughter was front and centre in the novel I just wanted her to be gone. The way Mayumi clung to her because she felt like she had nothing else was disturbing.
The relationship between Mayumi and the 17 year old boy was..weird. I mean obviously there is a little bit of weirdness when a middle age woman wants to bone a 17 year old but sometimes the thoughts of Mayumi took it to an even weirder level and I felt uncomfortable reading it. The way she thought of herself like the boys mother and that she was "teaching" him things was gross. And I don't understand why the boy would ever want to have sex with a woman so much older than himself when he seems like a perfectly normal teenager who could get a girl his own age. That was never explored at all as we didn't get to see into the boy's thought process.
I don't know if I would read anything by this author again. The whole book felt like it took itself way too seriously and the writing style tried to make this story more important and profound than it actually was. It just isn't my cup of tea.
*I received a copy of this book from Goodreads First Wins in exchange for an honest review
November 26, 2015
Original review can be found at http://kristineandterri.blogspot.ca/2...
** I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.**
I really, really struggled with this book. I had many issues with it but the biggest was the relationship between Mayumi and a teenaged boy. It did nothing for me. In fact, it kind of made my stomach turn. There seemed to be no moral dilemma for her even though she was married, had a daughter, and he was more than 20 years her junior. Not to mention that she flaunted her attraction to him by giving him "special" status amongst her librarian friends and coworkers. It was really quite disturbing.
The characters were quite flat. Boring doesn't even adequately describe how painfully dull they were. I felt no connection to them and just didn't care about them. This was most evident with Mayumi. There was nothing exciting or likeable about her at any time. I found her to be pretentious and creepy yet monotonous and sleep inducing at the same time. There were so many things that were wrong with that woman and her thoughts that I could fill a ton of pages on that alone but I won't. You get the idea.
I felt that the story was slightly over written but disliked the plot and characters so much that I feel it may have impacted my thoughts on it. Other than feeling nauseated over the whole relationship, the plot was as painfully dull as the characters.
It is obvious that this book was not my cup of tea so I will keep my thoughts short. Reviews are all over the map on this one so I encourage you to form your own opinion
** I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.**
I really, really struggled with this book. I had many issues with it but the biggest was the relationship between Mayumi and a teenaged boy. It did nothing for me. In fact, it kind of made my stomach turn. There seemed to be no moral dilemma for her even though she was married, had a daughter, and he was more than 20 years her junior. Not to mention that she flaunted her attraction to him by giving him "special" status amongst her librarian friends and coworkers. It was really quite disturbing.
The characters were quite flat. Boring doesn't even adequately describe how painfully dull they were. I felt no connection to them and just didn't care about them. This was most evident with Mayumi. There was nothing exciting or likeable about her at any time. I found her to be pretentious and creepy yet monotonous and sleep inducing at the same time. There were so many things that were wrong with that woman and her thoughts that I could fill a ton of pages on that alone but I won't. You get the idea.
I felt that the story was slightly over written but disliked the plot and characters so much that I feel it may have impacted my thoughts on it. Other than feeling nauseated over the whole relationship, the plot was as painfully dull as the characters.
It is obvious that this book was not my cup of tea so I will keep my thoughts short. Reviews are all over the map on this one so I encourage you to form your own opinion
June 20, 2015
It's really hard to decide on this novel's rating. Tseng's writing is engaging, lyrical, and moody. However, I did not like any of the characters, or the story at all. The first season/section of the novel was particularly difficult to get through. In Mayumi's narration, I felt like I was privy to the thoughts of a teenager, not a full grown woman. Her immature thoughts and actions were (and continued to be, throughout the entire book) absolutely maddening. Discontent and ennui are both common occurances within a marriage, but Mayumi never seemed to try to change any of it, and indeed shifted most of the blame to her husband. She also kept hinting of a life full of suffering, but that suffering was never revealed, leaving her an empty martyr.
In the end, I decided to accept that Mayumi was written to be a weak and deeply flawed character who used her imagined grievances as an excuse to dally with a man young enough to be her son.
Two and a half stars from me, rounded up to three.
In the end, I decided to accept that Mayumi was written to be a weak and deeply flawed character who used her imagined grievances as an excuse to dally with a man young enough to be her son.
Two and a half stars from me, rounded up to three.
July 1, 2016
This book is allusive and lovely. Tseng both carefully populates her imagined world with beautiful and scrumptious, well-wrought things, and she also alludes to aesthetic traditions that marry erotic voluptuousness with a similar attention to the sensory detail (see her many mentions of Vladimir Nabokov and her allusions to Japanese "floating world" art and fiction). She gets away with some of this preciousness because her frustrated protagonist, Mayumi, is a librarian who tries to understand her adulterous impulses and circumstances through Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary and particularly through Margeurite Duras' The Lover. Tseng is fascinated by the idea of aestheticism and sexuality as an island away from the world, so the setting--an island overpopulated by tourists in the high season and desolate in the off-season--is particularly apt. (The authorial blurb informs me that Tseng lives on Martha's Vineyard and works at the library there.) Because the narrator's obsessive perspective is focused on her "young man," the teenager with whom she begins a torrid affair, the absences and hollow places in her marriage with Var, who is always pushed to the side of her mind and even to the periphery of her daily routine, became more and more interesting to this reader. (I always look at the things I'm encouraged not to pay attention too.)
I was drawn to much of the characterization and to Tseng's aphoristic style. Sometimes her lyrical extended metaphors seemed strained or overdone (not least in the erotic scenes). This is a heavily stylized novel in a certain way, even though the protagonist seems conversational and frank. Sometimes that made the language and particularly the scene-setting intoxicating, and other times for this reader, it made me suspicious, whether of the narrator or the author behind the scenes, I'm not quite sure. This novel didn't capture me as much as I was hoping it might, but it does make me curious about what Tseng might write next.
I was drawn to much of the characterization and to Tseng's aphoristic style. Sometimes her lyrical extended metaphors seemed strained or overdone (not least in the erotic scenes). This is a heavily stylized novel in a certain way, even though the protagonist seems conversational and frank. Sometimes that made the language and particularly the scene-setting intoxicating, and other times for this reader, it made me suspicious, whether of the narrator or the author behind the scenes, I'm not quite sure. This novel didn't capture me as much as I was hoping it might, but it does make me curious about what Tseng might write next.
October 27, 2015
I'm not sure how to feel about this book. In a way it takes the premise of Lolita - wherein an adult is obsessed with the image of a child, rather than the child (or in this case, 17 year old) as a person with subjectivity - and puts a positive spin on it. But even though Mayumi explains over and over again the rapture of this illicit relationship, I felt little at all about the relationship. Rather, I was drawn to the depiction of Mayumi's relationship with her daughter and the boy's mother, the push and pull between her loneliness and desire to connect with others. But since both of these relationships are viewed through the lens of her sexual relationship with the boy, they are burdened with the more absurd elements of the relationship (though I thought the parallels between the boy and Maria were interesting to think about). The friendship between Mayumi and Violet especially made no sense to me at the end.
If anything, this did convince me that I should visit Martha's Vineyard some winter. The physical descriptions of the island are quite nice.
If anything, this did convince me that I should visit Martha's Vineyard some winter. The physical descriptions of the island are quite nice.
November 16, 2022
Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness is a thought-provoking debut novel by Jennifer Tseng. I really like all the island musings, imagery and metaphors that Tseng's (who's also a poet) writing contains. Here's an example: When one marries one arrives with another on an island whose size, shape, flora, fauna, climate etc., one's marriage defines. One may abandon the island, though in many cases, this is quite difficult. Often there is no boat, nor materials with which to fashion one. The island motif functions on many levels: as an idea of a self separate isolated from others (is how Mayumi Saito views herself), as a physical locale where the islanders every summer are besieged by tourist hordes yet it's considered a shameful sinister thing for locals to have returned or never left, as an adventurous escape ('Ever since he was a little boy he'd wanted to visit every island in the world'), as a metaphorical way to describe relationships with others ('He had the matchless resourcefulness of a castaway. In this way, we were oddly compatible. If I had once felt like an island explorer, I now felt shipwrecked.') This toward the end left me unmoored: In the end, without the sea, there is no island. Being an island, one tends to forget this.
Reading this novel made me feel like I was floating in the sea myself, same as the jacket cover. We are in the protagonist Mayumi's mind a lot and she is quite an introspective person. Her identity is tied to being a 'middle-aged librarian' and she's a devoted mother to a four-year-old girl. Her falling in love, in lust with an unnamed seventeen-year-old library patron consumes her world and we follow the progression of this relationship through the seasons within a year. I've given this controversial pairing some thought, here are my two cents. Mayumi is acutely aware and insightful of the pertinent issues involved - she mentions power differential, sublimate, transgression and looks up the age of consent in her US state. From my reading of the text, the young guy did consent. Seventeen, depending on the country, is old enough to vote, old enough to drive. Physiologically, the body is closer to adult than pediatrics; mental maturity development depends on the person though in general boys tend to mature slower than girls. Being a bibliophile librarian, Mayumi turns to literature for comparisons and answers. [As an aside, I am slightly disappointed with the books mentioned. Mayumi keeps telling us readers that she loves reading books in translation yet all the examples named are rather mainstream.] On the other side of the coin, Mayumi seems to have bought into the staid librarian stereotype and internalized the idea that being a forty-one-year-old woman means she is ancient and robbing the cradle. Were it to be set in the present, I would remind her that a man twice her age is president and persists in running for office again. Women nowadays are hitting their stride in their fifties and sixties, radiant and unstoppable. Men irl in their seventies think nothing of dating a girl who could be the age of their granddaughter or great-granddaughter. So why can't Mayumi grab at her pleasure and happiness? Society always has these double standards.
Moving on, the relationship between her and Violet, the teen's mother is actually more interesting. Intellectually they are well-suited plus Violet has all the decadent goods that her son has been smuggling to Mayumi! On that point, I am not convinced by Mayumi's waxing lyrical about the thoughtfulness or maturity of this teen. I think it's projection and his true self is more in keeping with when she glimpsed him with his friends horsing around at their tryst house. She, struggling with the tedium of caring for a toddler and encased in the 'Conscientious Librarian' role, relishes the novel feeling of taking pleasure solely for herself.
Rather surprised by the ending.
3.5⭐️
Reading this novel made me feel like I was floating in the sea myself, same as the jacket cover. We are in the protagonist Mayumi's mind a lot and she is quite an introspective person. Her identity is tied to being a 'middle-aged librarian' and she's a devoted mother to a four-year-old girl. Her falling in love, in lust with an unnamed seventeen-year-old library patron consumes her world and we follow the progression of this relationship through the seasons within a year. I've given this controversial pairing some thought, here are my two cents. Mayumi is acutely aware and insightful of the pertinent issues involved - she mentions power differential, sublimate, transgression and looks up the age of consent in her US state. From my reading of the text, the young guy did consent. Seventeen, depending on the country, is old enough to vote, old enough to drive. Physiologically, the body is closer to adult than pediatrics; mental maturity development depends on the person though in general boys tend to mature slower than girls. Being a bibliophile librarian, Mayumi turns to literature for comparisons and answers. [As an aside, I am slightly disappointed with the books mentioned. Mayumi keeps telling us readers that she loves reading books in translation yet all the examples named are rather mainstream.] On the other side of the coin, Mayumi seems to have bought into the staid librarian stereotype and internalized the idea that being a forty-one-year-old woman means she is ancient and robbing the cradle. Were it to be set in the present, I would remind her that a man twice her age is president and persists in running for office again. Women nowadays are hitting their stride in their fifties and sixties, radiant and unstoppable. Men irl in their seventies think nothing of dating a girl who could be the age of their granddaughter or great-granddaughter. So why can't Mayumi grab at her pleasure and happiness? Society always has these double standards.
Moving on, the relationship between her and Violet, the teen's mother is actually more interesting. Intellectually they are well-suited plus Violet has all the decadent goods that her son has been smuggling to Mayumi! On that point, I am not convinced by Mayumi's waxing lyrical about the thoughtfulness or maturity of this teen. I think it's projection and his true self is more in keeping with when she glimpsed him with his friends horsing around at their tryst house. She, struggling with the tedium of caring for a toddler and encased in the 'Conscientious Librarian' role, relishes the novel feeling of taking pleasure solely for herself.
Rather surprised by the ending.
3.5⭐️
Read
October 22, 2023DNF. I gave it 70 pages and was just bored. It was all about what was going on in Mayumi's head. It perfectly captured what it's like to have a crush--these were thoughts, preoccupations, emotional highs and lows that I remember well from my high school years--and it was tiresome to relive through the narration of a middle-aged woman. It seems like there's a big reveal at the end, which I was curious about...but not curious enough to keep going. Sail on, Mayumi.
p.s. In a weird reading coincidence this is the second book in as many months I've read that's set on an island off the coast of New England and is bogged down by its author's over-abundance of description and detail (the first was This Other Eden).
p.s. In a weird reading coincidence this is the second book in as many months I've read that's set on an island off the coast of New England and is bogged down by its author's over-abundance of description and detail (the first was This Other Eden).
August 2, 2023
Well written but didn’t love the character or her choices . I didn’t really feel where she was coming from
April 2, 2022
5+++ What an exceptionally beautifully written book. Reading it is like being transported to a dreamworld of intense feelings.
May 25, 2017
I was on a pendulum reading this, going from "wow, that's a nice bit of writing" to "oh my gosh, can this book BE any more overwritten?" I liked it then didn't like it then liked it again. And so on. So, a 3-star rating from me.
The story of a 41-year-old having an affair with a 17-year-old didn't bug me. I shan't clutch my pearls. I'll read about anything if it has an interesting take, if the writing is good. May's obsession with "the young man" swung from comical to touching, but I suppose that's one of the novel's strength's--the relationship couldn't just be pigeon-holed as Lolita.
There were entire paragraphs I mentally took a red pen to--kill it! this is not adding to the story!--so I had some impatient reading moments. But at the end . . . I think I liked the book? Right?
The story of a 41-year-old having an affair with a 17-year-old didn't bug me. I shan't clutch my pearls. I'll read about anything if it has an interesting take, if the writing is good. May's obsession with "the young man" swung from comical to touching, but I suppose that's one of the novel's strength's--the relationship couldn't just be pigeon-holed as Lolita.
There were entire paragraphs I mentally took a red pen to--kill it! this is not adding to the story!--so I had some impatient reading moments. But at the end . . . I think I liked the book? Right?
June 13, 2015
Some likes:
The extended metaphors, the bold subject matter, the way Tseng immediately normalized a scandalous situation and turned it into "just another love story", the straight-up Martha's Vineyardness of it all.
Some dislikes:
The ending and her use of "When one...". That's it. Those are my two dislikes.
On a personal note, after her author talk, I want to be friends with Jennifer. She pretty much IS the protagonist and I very much liked what she had to say about life on this rock.
The extended metaphors, the bold subject matter, the way Tseng immediately normalized a scandalous situation and turned it into "just another love story", the straight-up Martha's Vineyardness of it all.
Some dislikes:
The ending and her use of "When one...". That's it. Those are my two dislikes.
On a personal note, after her author talk, I want to be friends with Jennifer. She pretty much IS the protagonist and I very much liked what she had to say about life on this rock.
December 28, 2015
This book is both frustrating and good... The narrator (41 years old Mayumi) at moments seems so self-important, and the author sometimes chooses complicated words which have more simple and more apt synonyms. Also, there are bunch of redundant descriptive paragraphs and pages. It should have been less than 300 pages long, it should have been 200 pages maximum. The story itself is interesting since it's focusing on obsession from a female point of view, which is rare in literature, and there are sparkles of interesting observations about love and being human.
July 22, 2015
This book had wonderful prose; yet I often found it ostentatious and verbose. The descriptive narration was frequently excessive and repetitive.
I found Mayumi to be a dismal and deranged character. It was impossible to sympathize with her whether over her apparent loveless marriage or her morally wrong affair. Mayumi's references to the mother-son relationship was what really deterred me from liking this book. It was hard to take her romantic relationship seriously when she compared her lover to her daughter.
A well written book, but a tough storyline to swallow.
I found Mayumi to be a dismal and deranged character. It was impossible to sympathize with her whether over her apparent loveless marriage or her morally wrong affair. Mayumi's references to the mother-son relationship was what really deterred me from liking this book. It was hard to take her romantic relationship seriously when she compared her lover to her daughter.
A well written book, but a tough storyline to swallow.
October 19, 2015
I struggle with this rating because parts of the book were so enjoyable - mainly the language. But the plot was slow and pointless and the characters were maddeningly unrealistic (how many co workers does Mayumi have to share her relationship with before one of them reports it?, violet!?!). There was so much I could complain about, especially as the book came to a close and the tedium became unbearable, but instead I'm going to focus on the pretty language and the excellent descriptions of the isolation that can come with island living and parenting.
January 13, 2019
I'm not supporting the premise, but I think it's the most beautifully written book I've ever read. It's so poetic and flows so freely with incredible syntax. The emotions drip off the page, and the descriptions of the smallest details are exact and vivid without being tedious. Jennifer Tseng is an incredible author.
January 8, 2016
Waste of time
January 3, 2017
Poetic prose and beautiful handling of a challenging premise.
July 13, 2025
It's clear that the author's a competent writer, so I felt I had to give this one at least two stars. But everything else about it I did not like. Some people love to endlessly discuss their feelings and analyze them incessantly. This may be the target audience for this novel. I found reading it very frustrating. It's about a love affair between a 41-year-old librarian and a 17-year-old high school student. They eventually consummate their love in an empty house on the island where they live off the coast of Massachusetts. Did I mention that they live on an island? The author does, repeatedly, and uses it as a metaphor for everything.
That's all the novel's about, literally. We hear only from the heroine's point of view, and I think this is the biggest drawback. She is a self-centered, whiny person who uses ten metaphors and seven smilies to describe something that could have been said in a few words. She works in a library, but we never get to know any of her fellow workers very well. We never get to know her husband at all, and her daughter only to the extent that she interacts with her mom. We don't really get to know much about her lover and how he feels about her.
I think the novel also suffered from gaps in logic. For example, we learn that while Mayumi's carrying on the affair, she's also breast-feeding her four-year-old daughter. However, she has to tell her lover that she's doing this. Are we to believe that during their lovemaking, he never discovered it for himself? No mention's made of breast pumps or freezing milk, or wearing pads in case her milk leaks out at work. We never see Mayumi nursing the girl. Another logical problem: It seems that houses on this island just lie empty and unlocked when not in use, because Mayumi and her love have no problem getting into one and using it as a trysting place.
I wish the author had shown more than told. I liked the dialogue, and I wish there were more of it. Also, some humor. Mayumi didn't have much of a sense of humor. I don't remember her laughing often. I remember laughing once while reading.
I really wanted to like this one more, I did. I appreciated all the literary references, for one thing. I love books about libraries. I wish this one had worked for me.
That's all the novel's about, literally. We hear only from the heroine's point of view, and I think this is the biggest drawback. She is a self-centered, whiny person who uses ten metaphors and seven smilies to describe something that could have been said in a few words. She works in a library, but we never get to know any of her fellow workers very well. We never get to know her husband at all, and her daughter only to the extent that she interacts with her mom. We don't really get to know much about her lover and how he feels about her.
I think the novel also suffered from gaps in logic. For example, we learn that while Mayumi's carrying on the affair, she's also breast-feeding her four-year-old daughter. However, she has to tell her lover that she's doing this. Are we to believe that during their lovemaking, he never discovered it for himself? No mention's made of breast pumps or freezing milk, or wearing pads in case her milk leaks out at work. We never see Mayumi nursing the girl. Another logical problem: It seems that houses on this island just lie empty and unlocked when not in use, because Mayumi and her love have no problem getting into one and using it as a trysting place.
I wish the author had shown more than told. I liked the dialogue, and I wish there were more of it. Also, some humor. Mayumi didn't have much of a sense of humor. I don't remember her laughing often. I remember laughing once while reading.
I really wanted to like this one more, I did. I appreciated all the literary references, for one thing. I love books about libraries. I wish this one had worked for me.
May 12, 2018
When I had started reading “Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness” by Jennifer Tseng, it somewhat reminded me of “The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am”.
The premise of the book had been interesting: a 41-year old librarian being attracted to a 17-year old boy; it immediately captured my attention. The story had been divided into four parts, which comprised of the four seasons; basically, these four divisions were long, and I personally prefer books with short chapters, although I appreciated the breaks within each section. The writing style was poetic in a way that I was uncertain of whether I enjoyed it or not; the writing style had tended to be too slow-paced and was therefore draggy to read at some instances. However, there were also several passages in this book that I just loved and would had not be as beautiful if it were not for the way that it was written.
Overall, the book contained an interesting premise, but nothing much really happened, since it focused more on the narrator’s thoughts, feelings, and attachments. This was a slow-paced book with themes like forbidden desires, impermanence, and loss.
My actual rating for this book was 3.25/5 stars.
The premise of the book had been interesting: a 41-year old librarian being attracted to a 17-year old boy; it immediately captured my attention. The story had been divided into four parts, which comprised of the four seasons; basically, these four divisions were long, and I personally prefer books with short chapters, although I appreciated the breaks within each section. The writing style was poetic in a way that I was uncertain of whether I enjoyed it or not; the writing style had tended to be too slow-paced and was therefore draggy to read at some instances. However, there were also several passages in this book that I just loved and would had not be as beautiful if it were not for the way that it was written.
Overall, the book contained an interesting premise, but nothing much really happened, since it focused more on the narrator’s thoughts, feelings, and attachments. This was a slow-paced book with themes like forbidden desires, impermanence, and loss.
My actual rating for this book was 3.25/5 stars.
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