Drawn To 3 Women In Watersong (Novel)

When you can’t avoid your destiny

I need some time to write a short review after reading Watersong by Clarissa Goenawan. After reading her previous projects, I decided to be a fan of her works. She loves to write a novel with people and settings in Japan, so it’s related to me who works as a Japanese Interpreter.

Watersong is not a simple romance novel. It combines fortune-telling, destiny, and complex relationships among the characters. If you love to read Japanese literature and reading Haruki Murakami’s novels, I think you’ll know what I mean.

Although Clarissa is Indonesian-born and now become a Singaporean author, she is really smart to craft a novel with Japanese taste.

A Man With Strange Destiny

Shoji Arai, the male protagonist was predicted by a fortune teller to be intertwined with three women. Those women will be related to ‘water’ in their name. One of them can be the death of him.

That strange prediction can’t make Shoji to be fearful. He lives his ordinary life, has a close friend, and learns in a university, until he meets Yoko. He falls in love deeply to Yoko and their relationship continues after his graduation.

When Shoji can’t find any decent jobs in Arakawa, he decides to try working in Yoko’s office. He doesn’t want to lean on his girlfriend. The job is quite odd too. The workers should listen to every story from the clients. They are prohibited from giving opinions or being triggered.

Well, Shoji meets with a new client named Mizuki. From this encounter, he gets involved with a big problem. His intention to help Mizuki leads him to make a grave mistake. His peaceful life with Yoko is ruined and he should go to Tokyo to hide.

Relearn About His Past

Shoji is still longing for Yoko. His life continues in Tokyo by bringing a hole.

‘We take many things for granted,’ Mizuki murmured to Shoji. She took another sip of her tea. ‘Until they’re taken from us, leaving a gaping hole.’ (page 82)

Along Shoji’s journey to find a piece of information about Yoko, and meeting with other women, I know that Shoji is like us. Sometimes, we want to fight hard, but destiny comes to us otherwise. It’s like swimming against the current.

Shoji’s past and also his journey to living his life while trying to look for information about Yoko opens more layers in his life. It’s thrilling and addictive. Human is multidimensional and this novel shares how the red thread among the characters can be wrapped up in a hooked climax.