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jacob_s 's review for:
Tokyo Ueno Station
by Yu Miri
This one snuck up on me.
I attempted it a couple of times, feeling disconnected and disoriented by the abrupt changes in timeline and the periodic snippets of dialogue overheard by passersby. About half way through, though, I found myself genuinely moved by a scene between the narrator and his wife, and the momentum built from there.
The structure of this book (and the unconventional narrator, for that matter) does it a disservice - a more linear narrative would have been less confusing and more emotionally resonant, in my opinion. Ultimately, though, after a few false starts, this turned out to be a touching story about grief, regret, sacrifice, and the ways that human systems can dehumanize the most marginalized members of society. Not bad for such a small book.
I attempted it a couple of times, feeling disconnected and disoriented by the abrupt changes in timeline and the periodic snippets of dialogue overheard by passersby. About half way through, though, I found myself genuinely moved by a scene between the narrator and his wife, and the momentum built from there.
The structure of this book (and the unconventional narrator, for that matter) does it a disservice - a more linear narrative would have been less confusing and more emotionally resonant, in my opinion. Ultimately, though, after a few false starts, this turned out to be a touching story about grief, regret, sacrifice, and the ways that human systems can dehumanize the most marginalized members of society. Not bad for such a small book.