Book Review: Honeybees and Distant Thunder

Written by Japanese author Riku Onda and translated by American author Philip Gabriel, Honeybees and Distant Thunder serves as a contemporary fiction which focuses on the world of professional music.  The narrative structure of the book is projected through the perspective of several different characters who all venture to a small coastal town in Japan for the Yoshgae International Piano Competition. It’s here that we are introduced to a range of contestants as they all seek to win the prestigious competition and cement a musical legacy for themselves.  These contestants consist of Jin Kazama, a child nicknamed the “Honeybee Prince” who while holding little to no musical credits is equipped with an unprecedented musical talent.  Another hopeful contestant is Aya Eiden, once a child-prodigy, she’s seeking to reignite her musical fame once more after many years away from the limelight after a tragic event.   Masaru Carlos Levi Anatole, another contestant in the competition shares personal history with Aya which makes his stake in the competition a lot more complex.  The final contestant of note is Akashi Takashima, a middle-class store clerk who feels way out of his element, despite his clear musical talent.  The book follows these central characters for two tense weeks as they each seek to progress through the competition with their own unique musical talents.

When I read the synopsis off the back of the book originally, I was genuinely intrigued by the concept.  I’m a lover of contemporary works, especially ones who put focus on small, intimate concepts.  The idea of these individual people being brought together by their love for music and aspiration to win this competition was a truly compelling setup.  The further I progressed through the book however, the more I began to realize this humble story was being lost in the wake of its bloated writing and length.  I appreciate Riku Onda’s devotion to the musical world and her desire to layer it within the motivations of these characters. It’s an endearing idea to link all of these characters together despite their differences through their love for music. A lot of that love is overplayed however in my opinion; so much so that I feel the actual story is playing second fiddle to Riku’s musical adoration.  It’s really hard to focus on the characters and their own stories when so much of the writing is dedicated to description.  There’s a clear intent to visualize the musical world in some great depth in this story, but I feel it unintentionally drowns the characters and their development potential.  I think there’s enough of a distinction between all four of the main contestants to help you follow them individually, but their stories are made to feel awfully slow and tedious because of how much the book meanders on so many specific points.

That leads me onto my next point and that’s pacing and tone.  I appreciate a lot of this book is geared to show a bright, optimistic view on the world of professional music. When you sit back and view the world Riku’s trying to transcribe, it’s really quite beautiful how much of the musical world and all of its complexities she showcases. The flaw in that optimistic perspective however is its lack of stakes. The only true stake that gives any of these characters any motivation to move forward is the risk of elimination, yet Riku doesn’t really touch on the tension this generates before she moves on from it.  It’s intention to be a well-meaning love letter to the world of music ends up drowning the story so much that it became quite difficult to appreciate the further I got into the book.  It needed a better balance of stakes to drive engagement in the narrative.  Despite being a relatively average sized book in terms of page count, I also found the overly descriptive writing made working through the book a notable slog for the most part.  I hated that I ended up resenting my time with the book in the end of it’s run, because I really wanted to engage with this story but it put up so much resistance on that front that I just ultimately couldn’t do it.

Honeybees and Distant Thunder sadly just didn’t work for me.  I adore the idea of this book and I genuinely appreciate the love Riku Onda wants to showcase to the world of professional music, but those aspects to me end up making this a very difficult book to engage with.  Its story is literally lost in the numerous pages and overblown descriptions and its lack of meaningful stakes or tension makes engaging with it’s structure substantially difficult.  I don’t doubt some people will come away from this book with a far more positive opinion than I did, I’m happy to know that in all honesty.  Some books work for us and some books don’t, this is just one book that didn’t for me.