You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
“thought what a thing of sin poverty was, that there could be nothing more sinful than forcing a small child to lie. The wages of that sin were poverty, a wage which one could not endure, leading one to sin again, and as long as one could not pull oneself out of poverty the cycle would repeat until death.”
“To be homeless is to be ignored when people walk past while still being in full view of everyone.”
“Raindrops suddenly began to fall, wetting the roofs of the huts. They fall regularly, like the weight of life or of time. On nights when it rained, I couldn't stop myself from listening to the sound, which kept me from sleeping. Insomnia, then eternal sleep--held apart from one by death and the other by life, brought closer to one by life and the other by death, and the rain, the rain, the rain, the rain.”
“To be homeless is to be ignored when people walk past while still being in full view of everyone.”
“Raindrops suddenly began to fall, wetting the roofs of the huts. They fall regularly, like the weight of life or of time. On nights when it rained, I couldn't stop myself from listening to the sound, which kept me from sleeping. Insomnia, then eternal sleep--held apart from one by death and the other by life, brought closer to one by life and the other by death, and the rain, the rain, the rain, the rain.”
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A passage of life, death, time. Floating through and past his own life, Kazu takes in his defining moments while peeking at the lives of passersby at Tokyo Ueno Station and the nearby park he found himself living in.
———
I’ve read people explain this book as a story where nothing happens. That does such a disservice to the story Miri Yu presents beautifully. Yu gives us, the reader, a quiet look into the life of an impoverished man, his family, and the group of homeless people he surrounds himself with at the end of his life as he struggles, as Kazu says, to try living. Doing what is asked and required of him seems to never be enough. In the end, his life is unfortunately tainted with a truth his mother sums up when she says “…Well, you never did have any luck, did you?”
Just finished it and I already want to read it again.
———
I’ve read people explain this book as a story where nothing happens. That does such a disservice to the story Miri Yu presents beautifully. Yu gives us, the reader, a quiet look into the life of an impoverished man, his family, and the group of homeless people he surrounds himself with at the end of his life as he struggles, as Kazu says, to try living. Doing what is asked and required of him seems to never be enough. In the end, his life is unfortunately tainted with a truth his mother sums up when she says “…Well, you never did have any luck, did you?”
Just finished it and I already want to read it again.
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
English Review Below.
هذا كتاب صغير ومخادع، رغم غلافه الملون وقصره، فهو كتاب حزين جدا. كما كُتب على غلافه، فهذه "قصة سريالية عن شبح متشرد يسكن إحدى محطات قطار طوكيو المزدحمة"، وهي كذلك وأكثر. شخصيتنا الرئيسية هو شبح قضى أيامه الأخيرة مشردا في حديقة يونو قبل موته، وتنتقل الأحداث بين وضعه الحالي كشبح وما يسمعه في الحديقة من المشردين الآخرين والأشخاص المقتدرين الذين يمرون بالحديقة ويتذكر حياته البائسة، وبنشوف حياته قبل الموت وازاي كانت مليئة بالمآسي وسوء الحظ.
بتناقش الرواية اختلاف الطبقات الاجتماعية، تاريخ اليابان، التقاليد البوذية، وصراعات طبقة الموظفين في اليابان وتأثير شغل المكتب عليهم وعلى عائلاتهم. فشخصيتنا الرئيسية هو مثال للرجال اللي مقضوش لحظة واحدة مع أطفالهم لاستمراره في العمل ليل ونهار ليكسب المال، حتى يفوت أوان محاولة التعرف على أولاده حتى. ده غير أن بطلنا الرئيسي حياته مرتبطة بعائلة الامبراطور بشكل غير متوقع، فهو ولد في نفس العام اللي ولد فيه الامبراطور، وابنه ولد في نفس يوم مولد الأمير، فبنشوف الفرق الصارخ بين الحياتين وبين الطبقتين، وده بيظهر كمية عدم المساواة اللي بيعيشها اليابانيين في العصر الحالي ومطحنة الشغل اللي محكوم عليهم يعيشوا فيها، وبترجع في الزمن لفترات مختلفة وبتبين ازاي أن دايما الشعب هو اللي كان بيعاني، مش الإمبراطور.
أسلوب الكتابة بائس وحزين، رغم أني في بعض المقاطع مكنتش بقدر أفرق إذا كان الجزء ده من منظوره كشبح ولا قبل وفاته، ولكن أفتكر أن دي كانت مقصودة، لأنه حتى بعد موته مقدرش يرتاح من أعباء حياته ولا قدر يلاقي الخلاص، فأعتقد أن الفكرة في النهاية أن ده لا يهم فعلا.
This is such a deceiving little book. With its colourful cover and short length, I didn't think it'd be this heartbreaking. As is written on the cover, it's a "surreal moving story of a homeless ghost who haunts one of Tokyo's busiest train stations," and it's exactly that and more.
Our main character is a ghost who spent his last days homeless in the park near Ueno station before his death, and the story alternates between his current state as a ghost and how handles it as he overhears the other homeless people, and rich people who pass through the park and he remembers his miserable life, and his life before his death which was filled with tragedy and loss. It discusses class, Japanese history, the Buddhism traditions, and the struggles or working men in Japan and the toll "office life" takes on them and their families.
This is a man who didn't spend any time with his kids and family, because he was always working trying to provide, until it was too late to try to get and know them. This man's life is tied to the imperial family, being born the same year as the emperor, his son being born on the same day as the prince, the novel doesn't only shed a light on the inequalities regular people live in modern times, it goes back in history, and shows how always the people struggled, while the rulers didn't.
The writing is haunting and heartbreaking, though sometimes I found it hard to tell if he was viewing a certain scene as a ghost or before his death, but I believe that was intentional, because even after his death, he can't be free of his pain and burdens, so it doesn't really matter in the end.
هذا كتاب صغير ومخادع، رغم غلافه الملون وقصره، فهو كتاب حزين جدا. كما كُتب على غلافه، فهذه "قصة سريالية عن شبح متشرد يسكن إحدى محطات قطار طوكيو المزدحمة"، وهي كذلك وأكثر. شخصيتنا الرئيسية هو شبح قضى أيامه الأخيرة مشردا في حديقة يونو قبل موته، وتنتقل الأحداث بين وضعه الحالي كشبح وما يسمعه في الحديقة من المشردين الآخرين والأشخاص المقتدرين الذين يمرون بالحديقة ويتذكر حياته البائسة، وبنشوف حياته قبل الموت وازاي كانت مليئة بالمآسي وسوء الحظ.
بتناقش الرواية اختلاف الطبقات الاجتماعية، تاريخ اليابان، التقاليد البوذية، وصراعات طبقة الموظفين في اليابان وتأثير شغل المكتب عليهم وعلى عائلاتهم. فشخصيتنا الرئيسية هو مثال للرجال اللي مقضوش لحظة واحدة مع أطفالهم لاستمراره في العمل ليل ونهار ليكسب المال، حتى يفوت أوان محاولة التعرف على أولاده حتى. ده غير أن بطلنا الرئيسي حياته مرتبطة بعائلة الامبراطور بشكل غير متوقع، فهو ولد في نفس العام اللي ولد فيه الامبراطور، وابنه ولد في نفس يوم مولد الأمير، فبنشوف الفرق الصارخ بين الحياتين وبين الطبقتين، وده بيظهر كمية عدم المساواة اللي بيعيشها اليابانيين في العصر الحالي ومطحنة الشغل اللي محكوم عليهم يعيشوا فيها، وبترجع في الزمن لفترات مختلفة وبتبين ازاي أن دايما الشعب هو اللي كان بيعاني، مش الإمبراطور.
أسلوب الكتابة بائس وحزين، رغم أني في بعض المقاطع مكنتش بقدر أفرق إذا كان الجزء ده من منظوره كشبح ولا قبل وفاته، ولكن أفتكر أن دي كانت مقصودة، لأنه حتى بعد موته مقدرش يرتاح من أعباء حياته ولا قدر يلاقي الخلاص، فأعتقد أن الفكرة في النهاية أن ده لا يهم فعلا.
This is such a deceiving little book. With its colourful cover and short length, I didn't think it'd be this heartbreaking. As is written on the cover, it's a "surreal moving story of a homeless ghost who haunts one of Tokyo's busiest train stations," and it's exactly that and more.
Our main character is a ghost who spent his last days homeless in the park near Ueno station before his death, and the story alternates between his current state as a ghost and how handles it as he overhears the other homeless people, and rich people who pass through the park and he remembers his miserable life, and his life before his death which was filled with tragedy and loss. It discusses class, Japanese history, the Buddhism traditions, and the struggles or working men in Japan and the toll "office life" takes on them and their families.
This is a man who didn't spend any time with his kids and family, because he was always working trying to provide, until it was too late to try to get and know them. This man's life is tied to the imperial family, being born the same year as the emperor, his son being born on the same day as the prince, the novel doesn't only shed a light on the inequalities regular people live in modern times, it goes back in history, and shows how always the people struggled, while the rulers didn't.
The writing is haunting and heartbreaking, though sometimes I found it hard to tell if he was viewing a certain scene as a ghost or before his death, but I believe that was intentional, because even after his death, he can't be free of his pain and burdens, so it doesn't really matter in the end.
**1/2
A valuable message and a fascinating angle undermined by a frustrating unevenness and lack of focus.
A valuable message and a fascinating angle undermined by a frustrating unevenness and lack of focus.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
