Friday's Fiction

Disclaimer: This is not a review, only my personal take on books I am currently reading.



Barry Eisler Home Page

I picked this book up last weekend at the Expo after meeting the author. It's the first in a series about assasin John Rain.

John is Japanese-American, and doesn't feel fully at ease in either culture. He likes jazz and a good single malt. Does he like killing? I think if you were to ask him, he'd shrug and answer, "It's a living. One I'm good at."

He doesn't really have a place to hang his hat, and although the reader can tell he doesn't have a lot of respect for the nine-to-fivers who simply work for the paycheck and retire, I think he envies the sort of life which offers family, stability.

He believes he's a man without hope...without redemption.

But he has a few rules which belie those beliefs. He won't kill women, children, or a second tier to the principle. Two of those I understand, children (obviously) and the second tier. I don't remember how he phrases it in the book, but it just seems like a stupid risk for little to no return to me. He doesn't explain why he won't kill women, so the reader is left to his or her assumptions.

(Here's where I have to admit I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the Japanese phrases in the story. However, I'm sure it's only my Southern showing through.)

I haven't completed reading Rain Fall, but I can already tell you it's a fantastic story. The fight scenes are written as clean and quick as the kills, and the description gives the reader a glimpse into a Japan which the average reader never sees in other media. John Rain is a mesmerizing character, and I find myself wanting to know this man intimately -- not in a sexual sense, but more like an old friend. The one you haven't seen in a decade, but when you meet it feels like the years haven't passed.

Status: Keeper Shelf

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Jessie