Book Review - All She was Worth

by Miyuki Miyabe
This book is a suspense novel about a young woman who vanishes while living in Tokyo. It won best mystery and best novel of the year in Japan. I read it because it was selected for a book club I attended this evening. The book was written during the time of the economic bubble of the 90’s in Japan. The author appears to have been trying to capitalize on the emotion surrounding this to make a social statement about credit misuse and the perils of a borrowed existence. While the book was ok as a light read, it’s really hard to imagine how it won “best” of anything. I imagine it has to do with the translation to English. Obviously something was lost and unfortunately at times the writing reads a little corny. New characters sloppily pop up to contribute one small action within the plot. The ending feels rushed but yet little closure. I’d probably put this one on the back burner and only read in the event little else is available.