Mika in Real Life: A Novel

Product Information

EJ: Again, I think this is another universal thing that most women can relate to because there have been millions of dollars and hours spent gaslighting women that they should look a certain way; they need to be a certain way. You know, especially [with this idea that] women can have it all, which isn’t true. And so, Mika very much is a product of that. But she’s also a product of her own mother’s discontent. Told in both narrative and epistolary format; Mika in Real Life started with a letter Mika wrote to Penny, a daughter that she had to place for an adoption when she was 19. At the age 35, Mika gets in touch with Penny again after Penny’s adoptive mother passed away. Mika’s life was at the lowest at that time (getting fired, failed in relationship with no savings); conflicts came and an unexpected incident making it worst when Mika fakes her success just to look good for Penny. In between making peace with her past and to start believing in herself, now Mika needs to make a decision before she loses Penny again.

We meet Mika at 35 when she’s just been fired from her latest job. She’s doing a little retail therapy when she gets a call out of the blue. A call from the daughter she gave up for adoption 16 years ago. They start to build a relationship over the phone and then Penny decides she wants to visit Mika in Portland. Even the relationship that Mika and her biological daughter, Penny, were trying to build was written in a way that creates empathy in readers without needing to have gone through that same experience themselves. Emotions: Emotions are beautiful. Especially when they are written with honest commitment. That is definitely the case of the emotions in this book. I will gladly admit to having ugly cried while reading this. Jobless, single and living in a chaotic flat share, she can't bear her daughter knowing her life is a mess. So, when Penny gets in touch, Mika tells a few white lies, pretending to have it all - a career, partner and money.

At thirty-five, Mika Suzuki's life is a mess. Her last relationship ended in flames. Her roommate-slash-best friend might be a hoarder. She's a perpetual disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents. And, most recently, she's been fired from her latest dead-end job.

Oh sweet Mika...what a mess she was! At 35 her life is a disaster, she can't keep a job, she loses everything, she can't remember to be anywhere on time, her relationship with her mother is terse at best and oh yeah...the daughter she gave up for adoption 16 years ago has resurfaced.

The characters was just okay. I supposed Mika really spoke through me with her whole journey but Mika didn't really amazed me and I think it was intentional. I did side with her throughout the story though, I suppose I do like her in certain ways, I just couldn't explain it. I rooted for her, I stood beside her, she spoke through me, and I love her, but she just didn't dazzling in my eyes though. The side characters were amazing though Hana, Charlie, Penny, Thomas, Hayato, Leif. It was like they did their part rightfully and properly in complimenting the whole story, the book, and Mika. I loved the Japanese culture in this book. And the POV of Mika was an interesting one that we don’t see a lot of in books. I was hoping for some emotional damage from this book, and that did not happen, but it was a great work of fiction about life, love, loss and motherhood. A wonderful, life-affirming story about second chances, parenthood and love. By turns tender, funny, and deeply romantic, I was rooting for Mika, Penny and Thomas Lauren Ho, author of Lucie Yi Is Not A Romantic and Last Tang Standing From the start I knew where this story was going. It was like reading a Hallmark movie. But even though I was not really surprised at any point, I was still engaged and entertained throughout. Because of the beautiful way that Jean wrote about the emotions of the main characters. No Hallmark movie will ever get close to that raw honesty. Having themes on finding identity, of dreams, family dynamics, motherhood and forgiveness—the blurb was so engrossing and I kind of falling in love with the characters later on.