A review by snigdha12
At the End of the Matinee by Keiichirō Hirano

4.0

The words in the book flow with ease and elegance like a piece of classical music. The feelings of the main characters are presented beautifully, nothing seems superfluous. It touches aspects of war in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Japan through the lifes of Yoko and her parents which is in contrast with Makino whose life has only been about classical guitar and we don't find out anything about his parents. There is a line in which Makino says "The me that doesn't love you no longer exists. He isn't real." which made me think about how you can't go back from loving someone, even if you grow out of love, there is still a part of you that loved and you can't erase it.

Spoiler

The only thing that I did not like about this book is the twist in the middle of the book in which Mitani Sanae sends Yoko an email from Makino saying they should break up. It felt childish and did not feel coherent to the whole plot. It felt forced in order to add another unnecessary conflict and increase book length or experience parenthood apart from one another. Then the book redeems itself again by the spectacular writing and warm open ending.