Morse bookends the story of a family (now of three) in Hawaii on vacation in the wake of the death of a child with a kind of children's book version of the life of Akira Kurosawa, highlighting the suicide of Kurosawa's older brother.

Beyond using Kurosawa's life and film career to lend thematic resonance to the central story, Barefoot Serpent is peculiar in that it is chiastically structured, which is not really something you see much of in contemporary Western narrative.

If you're looking for an interesting treatment of family loss or tragedy, this may be the right fit. Also, if you like Akira Kurosawa.

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