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abomine 's review for:
Night on the Galactic Railroad & Other Stories from Ihatov
by Kenji Miyazawa
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
I'm going to be honest here; I only read this because I had seen the movie that is based on the title story, and I don't know if I would have enjoyed this as much if I didn't have the film as a point of reference. The clunky, overly literal translation of my particular edition didn't help either.
These stories reminded me quite a bit of Oscar Wilde's fairytales, with their talking animals, anthropomorphic everyday objects, poking fun at typical human failings, and overall sense of melancholy. From what I understand, Miyazawa was well-known for his literature for children, so were these stories originally intended for a child audience? Perhaps older children could read these and get some enjoyment out of them, but the gentle sadness and desperate happiness that permeates throughout these tales feels very adult. Again, like Oscar Wilde's fairytales. It makes me wonder about how lovely this prose would have sounded in the original Japanese.
These stories reminded me quite a bit of Oscar Wilde's fairytales, with their talking animals, anthropomorphic everyday objects, poking fun at typical human failings, and overall sense of melancholy. From what I understand, Miyazawa was well-known for his literature for children, so were these stories originally intended for a child audience? Perhaps older children could read these and get some enjoyment out of them, but the gentle sadness and desperate happiness that permeates throughout these tales feels very adult. Again, like Oscar Wilde's fairytales. It makes me wonder about how lovely this prose would have sounded in the original Japanese.