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robinks's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Some of this felt vaguely similar to Mieko Kawakami. The parts of this that dabbled into fantasy were my favorite. However, I couldn’t get over the age/power gap between Tsukiko and Sensei. There were also times where I was really bothered by how Sensei treated Tsukiko.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Misogyny, and Sexism
Moderate: Death and Sexual content
Minor: Infidelity
ichthusangel's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
The book starts with an introduction of the protagonist’s sensei (a respectful term for a person’s teacher) who taught her Japanese in school. Having never paid attention to Japanese class, she doesn’t remember her teacher’s name however the teacher does remember her name. Tsukiko Omachi. They meet (unplanned) each other at a bar and end up eating & drinking together as slowly, their relationship grows from faint acquaintance to companionship, friendship and blossoms into love (still they hardly ever plan to meet at the bar).
The story is nicely written, and very practical, be it with Matsumoto’s (sensei’s) sexist remarks, his sentimentalism, love for haiku, his love-hate for his ex wife, his irritation, Omachi’s mental issues, her struggles with relationships, her irk for being called ‘girly’, her clumsiness and lonely independence. Even the side characters, with as much as we get their story, are practically written. No character is eulogised or lacks the commonly present evils of Japanese society even if it gets irritating for the readers at times.
Small things and gestures are what makes this book beautiful. Apart from that, sensei and omachi’s loneliness has a distant beauty to it (sort of the aesthetics I search for on tumblr to feel better about my loneliness). Japanese writers usually intertwine state of mind and nature beautifully as does this book, be it in Omachi’s musings, parties thrown to watch cherry blossoms and when Matsumoto (later joined by Omachi) wrote haiku.
Some places are funny, some are excruciatingly tender, some are lonely and some are irritating, but nothing seems overdramatic. I’ve read people calling Omachi dumb, childish and spoiled which led me to realise that perhaps non Asians do not understand the mental issues caused by reasons most cannot trace the reason back to which is a common thing for Koreans, Japanese, Indians and Persians (at the very least), thus found heavily written in many books. So if you’re not a fan of unexplained loneliness, lacklustre everydays, profound and powerful emotional connection with friends, lovers and nature and societal stereotypes presnted without admonition, this book would be utter trash and a waste of time for you. For me, however, it was a beautiful experience reading it. At one point it reminded me Banana Yoshimoto’s Moonlight Shadow in Kitchen (one of the best books I’ve read till date). That part was slightly confusing and surreal but nicely written.
As much as I found the book nice & beautiful, I’m confused as to what to take away from the book. Perhaps the book was meant to serve as a friend of lonely souls, and that’s what makes me appreciate the book a lot. Partly practical, partly whimsical, this book is a story of a tender person living their life, and on the way, falling in love with a tender person despite their age difference.
(The book was too short to really explore any of the characters deeply. The book could’ve been longer, deeper and better, in my opinion.)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism
now_booking's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I found this to be a weird sort of other-worldly, meandering novel. I picked it up because a reading challenge I’m participating in demanded a romance novel in translation. Admittedly this can be said to be a sort of romance novel in that romantic love, unrequited romantic love is sort of the main theme of this book. However as a fan of romance novels and a stickler for what I consider the genre rules are, I would say this is more the awkward love story between an awkward Japanese 30-something and her former Japanese teacher who’s about 40 years her senior. Even beyond love, this is a story of intergenerational friendship and kindred lonely spirits finding one another and building an odd relationship.
I started out really liking it for that quiet, understated, observational literary style I’ve come to love in Japanese novels. It was expectedly slow-moving, but I loved the relationship slowly building between Tsukiko and her Sensei. But then somewhere around the halfway mark, this just kind of stagnated and became perhaps a little too abstract and too… meandering for me. A large portion of this had no movement. Characters were introduced like Tsukiko’s old schoolmate with the crush on her for no real purpose and with no real direction. Timelines of what happened when and where were completely blown. Tsukiko’s heavy alcohol use meant that it was always doubtful what was said and what was real and what was imagined and she kind of seemed juvenile for her age. And yet, I did like her as a character overall. The resolution was beautiful but extremely abrupt and out of nowhere and brief and jarring. And I think the book kind of was a little to ponderous for the abruptness of the ending. It almost felt like the author got a little bored and wanted to end things. Overall, I didn’t dislike this, but it’s also not my favourite. I liked the first half, but for my taste, not enough existed to fulfill that potential in the second half. I’m glad I pushed through for the couple of pages of payoff but I wouldn’t read this again.
I started out really liking it for that quiet, understated, observational literary style I’ve come to love in Japanese novels. It was expectedly slow-moving, but I loved the relationship slowly building between Tsukiko and her Sensei. But then somewhere around the halfway mark, this just kind of stagnated and became perhaps a little too abstract and too… meandering for me. A large portion of this had no movement. Characters were introduced like Tsukiko’s old schoolmate with the crush on her for no real purpose and with no real direction. Timelines of what happened when and where were completely blown. Tsukiko’s heavy alcohol use meant that it was always doubtful what was said and what was real and what was imagined and she kind of seemed juvenile for her age. And yet, I did like her as a character overall. The resolution was beautiful but extremely abrupt and out of nowhere and brief and jarring. And I think the book kind of was a little to ponderous for the abruptness of the ending. It almost felt like the author got a little bored and wanted to end things. Overall, I didn’t dislike this, but it’s also not my favourite. I liked the first half, but for my taste, not enough existed to fulfill that potential in the second half. I’m glad I pushed through for the couple of pages of payoff but I wouldn’t read this again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism and Alcohol
Minor: Misogyny and Sexism
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