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pernillelsk's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment and Grief
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
bookish_sabrina's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I've often heard Hiromi Kawakami's novels described as quirky. I also find that "quirky" seems to be a convenient, if not lazy and/or ignorant umbrella term for things that are Japanese and not conventional to a Western audience. For that reason, I've always taken the quirky classifier with a grain of salt.
I would not describe Manazuru as quirky, although given what I have heard from other readers, it does deviate from Kawamai's norms. This is a quiet meditation on grief. The protagonist's husband disappeared almost ten years ago, and while she has managed to carry on and bury her feelings, they refuse to be ignored in the lead up to the anniversary of his disappearance.
Is he dead? Did he leave her for another woman? These unanswerable questions plague the protagonist, Kei, who is unable to fully move on before she feels she has a definitive answer. You can see this inability to move on by the way she desperately asks about her husband's whereabouts to the ghost that keeps following her around, or by the fact that she's involved in a long-term affair with a married man who will never leave his wife for Kei. This feels distinctly unlike any other meditation on grief I had read before, but was still very resonant in the feelings it was clearly grappling with.
It was ultimately the execution that left me feeling a little cold. I understood it as a woman working through grief, but I did not feel like all of the pieces really came together, or that I was fully comprehending what was happening. And maybe that is intended to mirror how grief feels: how it displaces you, how it is nonlinear and confusing. But that left me with a disconnected and generally unsatisfied reading experience. However, I am interested to see how this compares to Kawakami's other works.
I would not describe Manazuru as quirky, although given what I have heard from other readers, it does deviate from Kawamai's norms. This is a quiet meditation on grief. The protagonist's husband disappeared almost ten years ago, and while she has managed to carry on and bury her feelings, they refuse to be ignored in the lead up to the anniversary of his disappearance.
Is he dead? Did he leave her for another woman? These unanswerable questions plague the protagonist, Kei, who is unable to fully move on before she feels she has a definitive answer. You can see this inability to move on by the way she desperately asks about her husband's whereabouts to the ghost that keeps following her around, or by the fact that she's involved in a long-term affair with a married man who will never leave his wife for Kei. This feels distinctly unlike any other meditation on grief I had read before, but was still very resonant in the feelings it was clearly grappling with.
It was ultimately the execution that left me feeling a little cold. I understood it as a woman working through grief, but I did not feel like all of the pieces really came together, or that I was fully comprehending what was happening. And maybe that is intended to mirror how grief feels: how it displaces you, how it is nonlinear and confusing. But that left me with a disconnected and generally unsatisfied reading experience. However, I am interested to see how this compares to Kawakami's other works.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief and Infidelity
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