A review by flying_monkey
The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami

2.0

I liked the other two books I had read of Kawakami's, and Strange Weather in Tokyo particularly, so I was looking forward to this. I wasn't wowed by the set-up, which seemed pretty clichéd: basically, a cast of eccentrics whose lives are centred around a decrepit second-hand store (that isn't quite high class enough to sell antiques) chat and fall in and out of love. It seems designed to be a typically quirky and undemanding Japanese movie. You might almost expect to be drowned in an avalanche of whimsy, except that the characters just aren't even as interesting as the set-up. The protagonist, Hitomi, is a typical young woman drifting towards her 30s without a plan, and who spends a lot of time wondering why she and other people do the things they do; one of the other main characters, Takeo, is her male equivalent and love-interest, but he's so laconic and pathetic that his character is practically a sketch drawn in only those colours. It's almost impossible to understand what attraction he has for anyone. The owner, the eponymous Nakano, wears bobble-hats of different colours whatever the weather and says a lot of inexplicable things, seemingly continuing conversations he's having in his own head. He's also apparently very attractive to women; apart from his wife (who we never meet), he has either 1 or 2 girlfriends at any one time, who are always too good for him. His sister, Masayo, is a well-groomed doll-maker who becomes something of confidente for Hitomi. There are number of similarly whimsical suppoting characters. And that's it really. Nothing much happens, nothing goes anywhere. And then there's a kind of epilogue, which seems both unnecessary and stupidly unlikely.

Another review gushed that this is SO JAPANESE (in capitals), and so it is, but it's a good demonstration that there's nothing instrinsically great about the nationality or culture of any author. You've still got to write a good book. And sadly, this is a pretty bad book, especially by Kawakami's high standards. It's dull, unengaging and is not even the sum of its parts.