jenrinaldi 's review for:

Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri

4.0

informative reflective sad

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A devastating contemplation of regret from the perspective of a ghost haunting Ueno subway station. A social history of the surrounding Ueno Park and neighbourhood--with a forgotten mass grave--recounted by unhoused elders who formed an encampment there. A nonlinear accounting of how the shaping of a contemporary Tokyo meant waves of loss for the city's most precarious residents. Main character Kazu helped build Olympics infrastructure,

only for it to lead to his displacement

. He found solace in a granddaughter

only for a tsunami to sweep her away

. His life milestones share overlap with the imperial family, setting a sharp contrast between their wealth and his deprivation, diverging only due to coincidence and circumstances of birth. How he died was a gut-punch that tied him to his geography and brought the story fully into focus.