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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Short. Japan. Women.
Story: Ten women describe their lives and relationship to Mr Nishino.
Language: Contemporary. Japan. Anecdotal.
Characters: Various ages and personalities.
This is not a book about Nishino. This is a book about ten women. Although the plot was not interesting to me, the writing was spectacular and I now want to read more.
Story: Ten women describe their lives and relationship to Mr Nishino.
Language: Contemporary. Japan. Anecdotal.
Characters: Various ages and personalities.
This is not a book about Nishino. This is a book about ten women. Although the plot was not interesting to me, the writing was spectacular and I now want to read more.
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is compilation of 10 short stories where the male MC is same; Nishino. Nishino is a sweetheart swindler. Every women he met have something to say about him and it is always the same thing ; he incapable of love. Why ? It stated at the last short stories. I found that this book is interesting because everyone has their own perception about you and whether you realise or not, you did touch someone’s heart or life at some point of your life.
Charming - a good character study told in an interesting way. Each chapter - which was almost more a short story in feel - was the perfect size to read during a lunch break.
After falling in love with Hiromi Kawakami's utterly spellbinding and quirky novels 'The Nakano Thrift Shop' and 'Strange Weather in Tokyo', I had very high hopes for 'The Ten Loves of Mr. Nishino' after I plucked it off the library shelf, hardly believing my luck considering its criminal shortage of slice-of-life Japanese novelists. I'm sorry to say, my expectations were completely dashed; this text is disappointing, unsatisfactory, and when I finished the book, I actually asked aloud, "Is that it?". Warning: up ahead, spoilers!! You've been warned folks, now on to tear this novel apart...
As the title suggests, the book follows the love life of a certain Yukihiko Nishino, a promiscuous gentleman with serious commitment issues and a weird relationship with his sister. The book is divided into ten accounts, from the perspective of women who dated Mr Nishino at different points of his life. I think this is the book's critical pitfall; too many women, and not enough to distinguish them from one another. At some points, I flicked back and forth wondering whether some of the accounts were by the same woman; with the exception of a few, the tone and language were virtually the same, and the 'reason' why they broke their relationships off with Nishino were verbatim, from chapter to chapter, as if they'd all been swapping notes in a Nishino-ex-girlfriend Club. It seems like an amateurish mistake to make for an author of Kawakami's stature, and I wonder whether it would have benefited the book to have featured fewer women, from more disparate points of Nishino's life. This novel made the women seem like projections of Nishino (who seemed like a pretty average, if not awful and totally creepy, guy), trying to "fix" him. I think the solution would have been to make the novel more concise, having fewer loves - after all, we get the picture that Nishino is a lady's man, so there was no need to hear from ten of them - and maybe flesh out the plot again. Although we do find out why Nishino is so wishy washy, by the time we got it to it, I was so worn out from the stupidity and malleability of some of the women that Nishino's core just seemed...bleh. The book lacked Kawakami's characteristic charm, which is a shame considering the subject matter was ripe for a really interesting and moving book.
I'm not giving this novel one star because a few chapters I actually enjoyed and the imagery was so vividly beautiful in parts that I did feel stirred. Those scarce moments aside, I felt really let down by this book, and hope that it is just a blip in Kawakami's bibliography.
As the title suggests, the book follows the love life of a certain Yukihiko Nishino, a promiscuous gentleman with serious commitment issues and a weird relationship with his sister. The book is divided into ten accounts, from the perspective of women who dated Mr Nishino at different points of his life. I think this is the book's critical pitfall; too many women, and not enough to distinguish them from one another. At some points, I flicked back and forth wondering whether some of the accounts were by the same woman; with the exception of a few, the tone and language were virtually the same, and the 'reason' why they broke their relationships off with Nishino were verbatim, from chapter to chapter, as if they'd all been swapping notes in a Nishino-ex-girlfriend Club. It seems like an amateurish mistake to make for an author of Kawakami's stature, and I wonder whether it would have benefited the book to have featured fewer women, from more disparate points of Nishino's life. This novel made the women seem like projections of Nishino (who seemed like a pretty average, if not awful and totally creepy, guy), trying to "fix" him. I think the solution would have been to make the novel more concise, having fewer loves - after all, we get the picture that Nishino is a lady's man, so there was no need to hear from ten of them - and maybe flesh out the plot again. Although we do find out why Nishino is so wishy washy, by the time we got it to it, I was so worn out from the stupidity and malleability of some of the women that Nishino's core just seemed...bleh. The book lacked Kawakami's characteristic charm, which is a shame considering the subject matter was ripe for a really interesting and moving book.
I'm not giving this novel one star because a few chapters I actually enjoyed and the imagery was so vividly beautiful in parts that I did feel stirred. Those scarce moments aside, I felt really let down by this book, and hope that it is just a blip in Kawakami's bibliography.
La fine dell’estate porta con sé, oltre alla classica dolceamara malinconia, un dolore antico e profondo, che Nishino si porta addosso come fosse il profumo di una donna. Come un gatto di strada, rimane per un po’, porta dubbi, stravolgimenti, cambiamenti nella vita di ogni donna che lo ha amato, ma quando decide di andare via non torna più. E di lui rimangono ricordi che con il tempo svaniscono con facilità, si raffreddano come una tazza di sakè caldo dimenticato sul tavolo troppo a lungo. Quello che Nishino chiede disperatamente è di essere amato, ma nessuna ci riesce. Sarà perché Nishino non ha mai il cuore veramente libero, sarà perché «[…] da tutto il suo essere emanava una specie di corrente fredda. Qualcosa come una fibra gelida, fine e sottile».
Dei dieci, brevi racconti di cui si compone il libro rimangono impressi lo stile di scrittura che si fa gustare con tranquillità, il temperamento e la sensibilità diversi di ogni donna, l’immagine di un uomo a pezzi che cerca di ricomporre la sua anima tentando di amare e di essere amato, fallendo ogni volta. Non è un capolavoro, ma è un romanzo che si fa leggere ed apprezzare.
Dei dieci, brevi racconti di cui si compone il libro rimangono impressi lo stile di scrittura che si fa gustare con tranquillità, il temperamento e la sensibilità diversi di ogni donna, l’immagine di un uomo a pezzi che cerca di ricomporre la sua anima tentando di amare e di essere amato, fallendo ogni volta. Non è un capolavoro, ma è un romanzo che si fa leggere ed apprezzare.
sad
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This started out with a bit of interest but It became more and more depressing and frustrating to "watch" Nishino insert himself into the lives of all of these women, most of whom were very unsuitable matches for him. He loves the idea of being in love but lacks the capacity to truly connect with anyone.
** Books 104 - 2022 **
3,2 of 5 stars!
This books more about Nishino and the girls who loves him. Adventures of Love by Nishino and he changed woman to another woman in each chapter. He tried to love the woman that he dated at that time but he couldn't. Every single woman in this books.
I'm curious what happen with Nishino. At first i thought he is an bisexual one but turn out he didn't. There must be something since he can't really love an woman. Just in the last story it finally revealed why Nishino can't love woman properly. He needs to make closure with his unrequited love but somehow he can't going back for everything that happened before
It is such interesting story since i rarely read an compilation perspectives from women about one man in every single chapter
3,2 of 5 stars!
This books more about Nishino and the girls who loves him. Adventures of Love by Nishino and he changed woman to another woman in each chapter. He tried to love the woman that he dated at that time but he couldn't. Every single woman in this books.
I'm curious what happen with Nishino. At first i thought he is an bisexual one but turn out he didn't. There must be something since he can't really love an woman. Just in the last story it finally revealed why Nishino can't love woman properly. He needs to make closure with his unrequited love but somehow he can't going back for everything that happened before
It is such interesting story since i rarely read an compilation perspectives from women about one man in every single chapter
I’m a sucker for a less-than-200-page-Japanese-fiction and this did not disappoint. It’s a character study of the titular ‘ten loves of Mr Nishino’ and whilst the focus is on a philanderer, it is told from the perspective of ten women throughout Nishino’s life. Kawakami is skilled at capturing subtleties of communication between characters with the bigger picture being how people impact each other.
4 - I think this told a really well filled story of a womaniser with serious familial issues - you went through phases of feeling sorry and also somewhat detesting Nishino, but by the end you were no longer surprised and somehow felt like you could understand his actions.