Published by Gallery Books on June 4, 2013
Is Tomomi Ishikawa dead? Is she the angel of death? In a suicide letter she left at Ben Constable's apartment, Tomomi (a/k/a Butterfly) claims she has already died. The letter leads Ben to Tomomi's laptop, which contains another letter that leads him on a search for yet another letter. As Tomomi intended, the letters take Ben on a sort of treasure hunt as he roams through Paris finding clues in umbrellas, gardens, the underground metro, a bar, a park. He continues his quest in New York, where by chance he meets a woman who is connected to Tomomi in many ways. Equally odd are the emails Ben receives from Tomomi in New York, forwarded by someone who always seems to know where Ben is and what he's been doing.
The various letters and notebooks that Ben discovers describe real or imagined moments in Tomomi's life, feelings of despair, fantasies and visions. They are, to say the least, disturbing. Death is a pervasive theme. At one point Tomomi writes that "our existence, so tenuous, is protected by nothing more than a thin layer of choice, like tissue paper. Death is present in us all." There are all sorts of symbols of life and death in Tomomi's letters: stopped clocks, plants that survive in unlikely places, statues of long-buried writers. As Ben continues his search (for what, he doesn't know), he recalls conversations he had with Tomomi and he commits them to paper.
At times, Three Lives of Tomomi Ishikawa has the characteristics of a mystery or suspense novel, but Ben's nonchalant attitude, even when confronted by danger, assures that Three Lives won't be mistaken for a thriller. Ben's success at uncovering Tomomi's clues is difficult to believe, but I'm not sure the reader is supposed to believe it, any more than we are to believe in the imaginary cat that turns up from time to time. The plot depends upon a mountain of improbable coincidences, but as one of the characters opines, "coincidences are completely normal. What would be abnormal is if there were no coincidences." Whether or not that's true, this is the kind of parable-like story that encourages suspension of disbelief; that's part of its whimsical charm.
Not all mysteries have solutions. As Ben notes, "In real life we don't get the answers we need." In fact, we might not need answers at all. We just need to learn how to move on without them. That's a recurring theme in Three Lives, and one a reader needs to take to heart to enjoy the novel. The ending is at best ambiguous; the true (or best) ending is up to the reader to construct. Not all readers will be able or willing to do that. If you need certainty in your reading experiences, this trip through Benjamin Constable's wonderland probably isn't for you. In the end, what "really" happened to Ben and Tomomi just doesn't matter. Constable reminds us that this "homage to a curious friendship" is only a story. It's a clever and entertaining story, and that's enough for me.
RECOMMENDED