zhakoisreading's profile picture

zhakoisreading 's review for:

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa
3.0

If I were not here, this full moon would not be here. Neither would the trees. Or the wind. If my view of the world disappears, then everything that I see disappears too. It’s as simple as that.

Sweet bean paste is a short, bittersweet story that respectfully could’ve been even shorter.

I liked learning new things about Hansen’s disease and its impact on Japanese history. 
I liked some of the dialogues. I liked the overall message.

However, it was written like a history recital at the end, with the beginning being extremely misleading slice of life drama, and the middle dragging on for no reason.

It has something to say and a point to make, but the story and the characters chosen for it weren’t the best, since the story wasn’t all that moving or relatable and was a tad boring towards the middle.

It’s telling that I enjoyed reading the author’s inspiration for the story in the note at the end more than the entire book.