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One Morning Like a Bird
Signed by author in pen, with small illustration in pencil (of a cat). Book is in as new condition.
373 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Andrew Miller
15 books623 followersAndrew Miller was born in Bristol in 1960. He has lived in Spain, Japan, Ireland and France, and currently lives in Somerset. His first novel, INGENIOUS PAIN, was published by Sceptre in 1997 and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Grinzane Cavour prize in Italy. His second novel, CASANOVA, was published in 1998, followed by OXYGEN, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Booker Prize in 2001, and THE OPTIMISTS, published in 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
June 3, 2021
This is a novel set in Tokyo in 1940 and all revolves around the experiences of Yuji Takano, a romantic young man utterly unsuited for the militaristic times in which he lives. As usual with Andrew Miller the writing is gorgeous as is the evocation of a past era. He did a fabulous job of making me see and smell Japan. It's a novel full of cul de sacs and red herrings. The plot threatening to branch off in numerous directions.
Every time I read Andrew Miller I try to puzzle out why he isn't more widely read as a novelist. I think the answer may lay in his central characters who always tend to be intensely lonely individuals and not very communicative. Just as they find it difficult to engage with the world and the world finds it difficult to engage with them so perhaps the reader shares the same problem. He always seems to fall back on the same character in different guises and locations. And it's a character which never quite becomes compellingly or distinctly alive on the page.
Nevertheless, I would have been happy if this novel had lasted another hundred pages.
Every time I read Andrew Miller I try to puzzle out why he isn't more widely read as a novelist. I think the answer may lay in his central characters who always tend to be intensely lonely individuals and not very communicative. Just as they find it difficult to engage with the world and the world finds it difficult to engage with them so perhaps the reader shares the same problem. He always seems to fall back on the same character in different guises and locations. And it's a character which never quite becomes compellingly or distinctly alive on the page.
Nevertheless, I would have been happy if this novel had lasted another hundred pages.
February 20, 2015
Description: 1940. Tokyo. Japan is at war with China, and Yuji Takano is clinging to the life he has made for himself as a young poet - the company of his friends, the monthly meetings of the French Club at Monsieur Feneon's house, the days of writing and contemplation made possible by an allowance from his father, a professor at Tokyo's elite Imperial university...
But the world is closing in on Yuji. His father is disgraced, the allowance is scrapped, and the threat of conscription is coming ever closer. And then there is Monsieur Feneon's nineteen-year-old daughter Alissa, a girl with her own very definite ideas of what she wants, and whose fate becomes inextricably bound up with Yuji's.
In hauntingly evocative prose, Andrew Miller tells a timeless story about growing up and growing free of self-delusions, about following the heart and making the right choices in life. Vividly conveying its setting, he also draws a fascinating portrait of a bygone Tokyo and of Japan at a critical juncture in its history.
Japanese historical fiction is just like the buses: don't read one in a month of blue moons, and then KARATE! two come along at the same time. The other one on my currently reading pile is Judith Gautier's 'The Usurper'.
This was a vacuum read - the story pans out, forthemost, irrespective of its time period. Scant observations of the tumultuous atrocities happening in this period seems to (unwittingly? purposefuly?) endorse the current Japanese revisionism of those times.
A dodgy narration or a dodgy author?
4* Pure
2* One Morning Like a Bird
But the world is closing in on Yuji. His father is disgraced, the allowance is scrapped, and the threat of conscription is coming ever closer. And then there is Monsieur Feneon's nineteen-year-old daughter Alissa, a girl with her own very definite ideas of what she wants, and whose fate becomes inextricably bound up with Yuji's.
In hauntingly evocative prose, Andrew Miller tells a timeless story about growing up and growing free of self-delusions, about following the heart and making the right choices in life. Vividly conveying its setting, he also draws a fascinating portrait of a bygone Tokyo and of Japan at a critical juncture in its history.
Japanese historical fiction is just like the buses: don't read one in a month of blue moons, and then KARATE! two come along at the same time. The other one on my currently reading pile is Judith Gautier's 'The Usurper'.This was a vacuum read - the story pans out, forthemost, irrespective of its time period. Scant observations of the tumultuous atrocities happening in this period seems to (unwittingly? purposefuly?) endorse the current Japanese revisionism of those times.
A dodgy narration or a dodgy author?
4* Pure
2* One Morning Like a Bird
November 9, 2013
Set in Japan in 1940, Andrew Miller's novel focuses on Yuji, a young man with literary ambitions and an admirer of French culture at an unfortunate time in his country's history.
As the society around him grows increasingly nationalistic and militaristic Yuji becomes involved with Alissa, a young French woman with whom he has a child. It's a dangerous liaison and he is under surveillance by the secret police. But at the same time his talents are being courted by a propaganda unit set up to make patriotic films in which the shedding of the nation's blood is seen in almost mystical terms.
It's a fascinating setting and there are some beautiful moments, like this description of an encounter between Yuji and his friend, Taro, whose brother, an unsuccessful rival for Alissa's affections, has just joined the army:
He turns and sees his friend crossing the concourse, his broad back his big shoulders already starting to be rounded by desk work, but before he can follow or call out to him, the crowd opens one of its many doors and Taro, without a pause, without a moment's hesitation, steps inside and is lost to sight.
or Yuji's emotional paralysis when Alissa leaves Japan:
He does not spend the day. He moves its hours one by one, an idiot at an abacus.
An intriguing read, it was, nevertheless, not an entirely satisfying one. There were too many times when I felt distant from the characters, unsure exactly who was who. It was as if the whole thing was painted in such delicate tones – water-colour on silk perhaps – that at times I struggled to see the complete picture.
As the society around him grows increasingly nationalistic and militaristic Yuji becomes involved with Alissa, a young French woman with whom he has a child. It's a dangerous liaison and he is under surveillance by the secret police. But at the same time his talents are being courted by a propaganda unit set up to make patriotic films in which the shedding of the nation's blood is seen in almost mystical terms.
It's a fascinating setting and there are some beautiful moments, like this description of an encounter between Yuji and his friend, Taro, whose brother, an unsuccessful rival for Alissa's affections, has just joined the army:
He turns and sees his friend crossing the concourse, his broad back his big shoulders already starting to be rounded by desk work, but before he can follow or call out to him, the crowd opens one of its many doors and Taro, without a pause, without a moment's hesitation, steps inside and is lost to sight.
or Yuji's emotional paralysis when Alissa leaves Japan:
He does not spend the day. He moves its hours one by one, an idiot at an abacus.
An intriguing read, it was, nevertheless, not an entirely satisfying one. There were too many times when I felt distant from the characters, unsure exactly who was who. It was as if the whole thing was painted in such delicate tones – water-colour on silk perhaps – that at times I struggled to see the complete picture.
April 28, 2019
Writing beautiful (it's Andrew Miller, most writing is clumsy and verbose beside it) but plot dull, not terrible. If a fan of his, read it. If new, start with Ingenious Pain as best plot. He's one of those great living writers who've missed fanclubs and booktube so you don't get caught up in the buzz for his latest, then you've let pass several before realizing. I'm on a mission to fix this. NB the important thing about this novel is the quality of the writing, especially the descriptions, and its succinctness in an age where even the most beautiful writing repeats itself and one or two rephrasings are normal, eg in Elmet. AM happily sticks to the old rule of not stating what can be deduced, let alone restating. For instance, you know it's been snowing recently and someone's footsteps crunch outside - ergo, fresh snow. You think he told you it snowed, when you reread you find only the verb 'crunch' tells you.
December 17, 2021
This one was a surprise – I liked it much more than I’d thought I would. The narrative is quite unhurried and sensual, there are a lot of interesting and well-chosen details of Japanese life before & during the war, and the main character, a quiet and studious young man who had (luckily) been deemed unfit for military duty, grew on me.
The most interesting part was, for me, the one in which he finds out that the secret police has their eyes on him. The sudden switch in tension, in a book so slow and cosy, felt like a gust of freezing air. The weakest part of the book: The whole idyllic establishment in Yokohama. I found it unrealistic, and the summary characterization of the “girls” lazy and kitschy. It was not how those places operated.
All in all, the book was a pleasant find. I think it’s one of the best novels set in Japan and written by a non-Japanese author.
November 8, 2018
3.5 stars
December 31, 2015
I have been a dedicated Fan of Andrew Miller since I heard him read from 'One Morning Like a Bird' at Totleigh Barton, the Arvon writing school in 2008. In the intervening time I have read most of what he has written but it's taken me until now to return to this book published in 2009.
Mr Miller possesses the rare ability to entice me into subjects in which I think I have little or no interest - in the case of 'Pure' it was the exhumation of mass graves in 18th Century Paris to make way for city reconstruction. In this book it is the juxtaposition of tradition against external world influences in a Japan at war with China in 1937.
Having exposed to me my own unknown interest in pre WW2 Japanese culture, Andrew proceeds to deliver a compelling story of one man, a young poet named Yuji who, cursed with writers block ('is there anything so sad as a book of poems no one wants to read? asks Mr. Miller) finds himself caught on the fulcrum between indigenous culture and the impact of westernisation.
It is hard to respect Yuji, who manages to live off an allowance from his father, avoid being called up by exercising influence and over-emphasising mild disability and impregnate the daughter of a French friend whilst drunk. Yet we are empowered to see through his less endearing features to the dilemmas he wrestles with, obligation against self interest, his defence of the heartlessness of his country's behaviour in an unjustifiable colonial war, the demands of natural justice smashing their way through formalities of expected behaviour.
I found the book challenging (not least in the difficulty of getting my head around the pronunciation of Japanese names!) but rewarding. Whilst I recommend it, I can't give it the highest ratings in view of other books which better display Andrew Miller's soaring talent. In my opinion he is an author who still has some distance to go in showing us what he is capable of. I will continue to sit at his feet.
Mr Miller possesses the rare ability to entice me into subjects in which I think I have little or no interest - in the case of 'Pure' it was the exhumation of mass graves in 18th Century Paris to make way for city reconstruction. In this book it is the juxtaposition of tradition against external world influences in a Japan at war with China in 1937.
Having exposed to me my own unknown interest in pre WW2 Japanese culture, Andrew proceeds to deliver a compelling story of one man, a young poet named Yuji who, cursed with writers block ('is there anything so sad as a book of poems no one wants to read? asks Mr. Miller) finds himself caught on the fulcrum between indigenous culture and the impact of westernisation.
It is hard to respect Yuji, who manages to live off an allowance from his father, avoid being called up by exercising influence and over-emphasising mild disability and impregnate the daughter of a French friend whilst drunk. Yet we are empowered to see through his less endearing features to the dilemmas he wrestles with, obligation against self interest, his defence of the heartlessness of his country's behaviour in an unjustifiable colonial war, the demands of natural justice smashing their way through formalities of expected behaviour.
I found the book challenging (not least in the difficulty of getting my head around the pronunciation of Japanese names!) but rewarding. Whilst I recommend it, I can't give it the highest ratings in view of other books which better display Andrew Miller's soaring talent. In my opinion he is an author who still has some distance to go in showing us what he is capable of. I will continue to sit at his feet.
February 17, 2021
Andrew Miller is one of the writers who create worlds in words - worlds that encapsulate every aspect of troubled humanity...in whatever setting or era. This 2008 novel with its evocative & poetic title, brings to the light a young poet, Yuri & his family & social relationships in wartime Tokyo & its environs. I have read nothing of the Japanese experience of those difficult years, when the powers that ran their empire (such as it was!) had a firm grip on any dissenters from the notion of Japanese cultural superiority as expressed by their growing military & naval forces (not to mention their aerial threats in the Pacific & China seas).
Yuri, a francophile, is drawn into difficult waters by his affair with a mixed-heritage but disabled ex-pat, Alissa & the result of this dangerous liaison, affects his whole understanding of a world in which Japanese customs & beliefs are proving to be helpless anachronisms.
His tortured family relationships & his awkward & provocative friendships & emnities with his neighbours & their families, provide Miller with the material for a deep & engrossing story of a young man's dilemmas before the catastrophic finale of Tokyo's fire-storm in March 1945...hundreds of B29's...
This novel deserves a wider readership; it sings like a bird in the morning but its song heralds pain & suffering...& some measure of survival too...as it unfolds its wings over Japanese intransigence to change & an inability to see beyond their narrow streets & closed minds.
Yuri, a francophile, is drawn into difficult waters by his affair with a mixed-heritage but disabled ex-pat, Alissa & the result of this dangerous liaison, affects his whole understanding of a world in which Japanese customs & beliefs are proving to be helpless anachronisms.
His tortured family relationships & his awkward & provocative friendships & emnities with his neighbours & their families, provide Miller with the material for a deep & engrossing story of a young man's dilemmas before the catastrophic finale of Tokyo's fire-storm in March 1945...hundreds of B29's...
This novel deserves a wider readership; it sings like a bird in the morning but its song heralds pain & suffering...& some measure of survival too...as it unfolds its wings over Japanese intransigence to change & an inability to see beyond their narrow streets & closed minds.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2020
"…la presencia del recién nacido parece salvar cualquier desavenencia, distrae a todo el mundo y crea, en cualquier estancia donde se halle, un sentimiento de reverencia, de exagerada esperanza…
- ¿Podremos celebrarlo así el año que viene? –pregunta Fénéon, revolviendo el último trago de brandy en la copa al tiempo que posa la mirada en Alissa y su nieto.
- Estamos haciéndolo éste, y eso es lo que importa –responde la señorita Ogilvy-. Un abuelo de verdad tendría que ser lo bastante sabio para saberlo." AM
- ¿Podremos celebrarlo así el año que viene? –pregunta Fénéon, revolviendo el último trago de brandy en la copa al tiempo que posa la mirada en Alissa y su nieto.
- Estamos haciéndolo éste, y eso es lo que importa –responde la señorita Ogilvy-. Un abuelo de verdad tendría que ser lo bastante sabio para saberlo." AM
December 15, 2025
I love Miller,and I think his Land in Winter should have won the Booker this year, but this one is not worthy of his talent. Terribly slow,and goes nowhere.
February 8, 2014
Andrew Miller is remarkably successful in writing like Japanese in translation.
A reader looking for reflection on Japan's war in China will be disappointed. The narrator, Yuji, is a self-centered young man whose main concern is that he should continue to write and be published, improve his French and see western films.
Neither his family nor their friends suffer much from the deprivation that was so widespread during wartime Japan. He has to deal with a little public humiliation from his neighbours and having his belongings searched by the Tokko, but he otherwise lives a rather charmed life for the times.
The only nod at the reality of the war is a short episode when he helps get a classmate, freshly returned from China with a damaged leg, home one night after he has been drinking. This so-called war hero recalls decapitation competitions between captains (decent family men) and experiments on Chinese prisoners by Japanese doctors ("let's start with the appendix"). Yuji does not seem overly concerned by these revelations, nor does he discuss them with anyone. In fact, he never seems to turn his thoughts to the war.
This story could, as a result, be set in different times altogether. The fact that it is set in 1940, however, provides a gentle reminder of the reality of human nature: a romantic young man who has been spared from going to war will continue to be preoccupied with love and art and be oblivious to, and unconcerned by, the horrors being committed by his fellow countrymen abroad. Can we really blame him?
A Japanese author today setting a story in 1940 might feel obliged to take more of historiographical stance; maybe it takes a foreign author to be brave enough to give voice to a Yuji.
Yuji who could, in 1940 Tokyo, have written Basho's famous haiku (in my own, clumsy translation):
An old pond - a frog leaps - splash!
A reader looking for reflection on Japan's war in China will be disappointed. The narrator, Yuji, is a self-centered young man whose main concern is that he should continue to write and be published, improve his French and see western films.
Neither his family nor their friends suffer much from the deprivation that was so widespread during wartime Japan. He has to deal with a little public humiliation from his neighbours and having his belongings searched by the Tokko, but he otherwise lives a rather charmed life for the times.
The only nod at the reality of the war is a short episode when he helps get a classmate, freshly returned from China with a damaged leg, home one night after he has been drinking. This so-called war hero recalls decapitation competitions between captains (decent family men) and experiments on Chinese prisoners by Japanese doctors ("let's start with the appendix"). Yuji does not seem overly concerned by these revelations, nor does he discuss them with anyone. In fact, he never seems to turn his thoughts to the war.
This story could, as a result, be set in different times altogether. The fact that it is set in 1940, however, provides a gentle reminder of the reality of human nature: a romantic young man who has been spared from going to war will continue to be preoccupied with love and art and be oblivious to, and unconcerned by, the horrors being committed by his fellow countrymen abroad. Can we really blame him?
A Japanese author today setting a story in 1940 might feel obliged to take more of historiographical stance; maybe it takes a foreign author to be brave enough to give voice to a Yuji.
Yuji who could, in 1940 Tokyo, have written Basho's famous haiku (in my own, clumsy translation):
An old pond - a frog leaps - splash!
July 16, 2020
Disappointing. Very atmospheric, with a wonderful recreation of Japan in 1940, and with some superbly lyrical writing, but also v e r y slow to the point of dullness. I'm afraid about three quarters of the way through I can't do any more. Unfortunately it is not just the characters in the book who find the protagonist somewhat annoying - it is this reader too! And the pace is so slow there is little to make one want to stick with it.
August 10, 2009
Not finished yet, but I'm not convinced that Yuji is Japanese.
Factual mistake: Twice, people have ridden in taxis and found themselves at their destination without the driver getting lost. This doesn't happen in Japan.
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I started off not liking it. But as the story developed, it became much more touching and enjoyable.
Factual mistake: Twice, people have ridden in taxis and found themselves at their destination without the driver getting lost. This doesn't happen in Japan.
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I started off not liking it. But as the story developed, it became much more touching and enjoyable.
July 8, 2011
I liked the atmosphere created in the book, however, it bored me somewhat and in the end I was left with the feeling that nothing actually happened in it. 2.5/5
October 5, 2013
Beautiful to read, haunting ending, the past convincingly inhabited.
August 30, 2019
With the third person storytelling it took me a while to get into the book, but I really enjoyed the transformation Yuji makes. A passive and ignorant boy that with it's ignorance leaves the reader with a lot of questions. But I really liked it at the end. Good read
April 10, 2022
As usual, Andrew Miller’s writing and prose is amazing with a really good flow overall. The main issue is just that the plot and characters aren’t as deep or realised as his other books, such as Pure or We Shall Be Entirely Free, making it hard to give more than 3 stars.
February 3, 2024
A very enjoyable atmospheric novel set in Tokyo in the 1940s, where the build up to the war and the waning of the old Japanese culture creates waves through the community. Yuji grows from a carefree youth to a young man facing the heavy responsibilities of adulthood. Excellent coming of age story.
July 1, 2017
Very slow start. Got good half way through.
June 4, 2018
I could not get into this book and gave it away after just twenty pages.
July 23, 2022
Got fed up 60% through. Not enough going on. Hard to follow. Characters wooden.
December 29, 2022
A young man out of place, the place being 1940 Tokyo. The story is slight but the writing quite evocative.
October 28, 2025
Mediocre author, I honestly don't understand why he gets published!
December 15, 2012
The story content of the book was the same as the first few chapters in another book . I very much wanted to know what happened next . What did Yugi do during the war and did he and Alissa and their son meet after the war . Never the less I was totally drawn into 1940 Japan and the descriptions of Yugi 's life in minute detail . The pictures vividly described ; A house , a kimono , a drinking club , a whore house , grandfathers model he was making . All brilliantly depicted in the writing of the book so that you almost felt like you were there watching the characters in the scene. A memorable book which stays true to the randomness of life , to unplanned acts and fateful outcomes. perhaps like life , this is why I felt there was something missing in the story and yet nothing missing if was true to life.
February 12, 2011
Set in Tokyo, 1940. Japan's war with China is beginning to press in to the calm, cultured world of Yuji, a young Japanese intellectual. Having avoided active duty due to ill health, and surviving on an allowance from his father, he has time and money to live as he pleases, which involves writing and participation in a french club.
These connections lead to interesting twists in the plot, and Yuji has to face himself and make choices that in a gentler time he would have been able to avoid.
The backdrop of Japan at war was very interesting, and I loved all the references to Japanese culture, a really well written good read.
These connections lead to interesting twists in the plot, and Yuji has to face himself and make choices that in a gentler time he would have been able to avoid.
The backdrop of Japan at war was very interesting, and I loved all the references to Japanese culture, a really well written good read.
March 21, 2015
Had I not just read and loved Oxygen, I might not have persevered with this book. Particularly in the first half of the book I found it did not draw me in; I found it hard to relate to and distinguish between a number of the characters and I found it all a bit vague and difficult to follow. However, I felt much more engaged by the end of the book, and there was some lovely writing along the way.
February 21, 2013
Beautiful seldom a Japanese story about young men just before WW II half way through I was hooked
June 18, 2014
this book was ew
July 1, 2016
While it's an interesting story, It just didn't capture me as much as I would like it to. It had some really nice parts, though.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews