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beetective 's review for:
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
by Michiko Aoyama
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
WYALFIITL is an anthology of five loosely interconnected stories. While I don’t mind anthologies, my pre-thoughts before reading thought different. A story of a woman finding meaning in reconnecting with books perhaps? Finding social life and coming out of her shell? A somewhat melancholic look into repression and overcoming it? I’m not one to read blurbs, because I like to go into things completely blind, but it was for sure a bit of a letdown, which is more a me-thing than a book-thing.
Our first story covers Tomoka, a young woman working in retail. I initially liked the start of this, her unknowing and general floating through life was relatable. Directionless with her job being the only thing that gets her going. Soon I noticed something though – the writing. It was absurdly simple and honestly borderline juvenile. I don’t know if it’s just the translation, but I’ve read other books from Japanese writers, and they were much more fluid and heavily written. It really makes it out to be a primary school-type text rather than one meant for adults, this isn’t labeled as YA even, the exact opposite is stated on its GoodReads. I know some writers prefer simplicity, like Hemingway (not that I particularly like him either, I just think that it works more in his case), but here it almost feels like being talked down to. Combined with the…ingenuine? One-dimensional? Supposed morals it’s trying to convey…it really just doesn’t leave me with much to chew on.
Tomoka works in a female clothes store. She gets a bad customer from a previous encounter and doesn’t know what to say or do because the customer is so hostile and outright combative. Another co-worker steps in and defuses the situation, and then proceeds to tell Tomoka that people should be listened to more and understood. This, on the surface, is fine if you don’t think about it much. Tomoka beats herself up over this, when in reality she didn’t do anything wrong. She didn’t say anything to provoke the customer, or be outright hostile herself, she was just defensive, which the narrative condemns her for. The moral is that you should be open and understanding to everybody all the time (especially if you’re a retail worker), and it just falls flat. It’s, in a word, childish.
Our second story Ryo doesn’t offer us much, though it is less condescending than the last. This story's moral is to follow your dreams (and everything will work out for you!), which still, if you think about it for more than five seconds, really isn’t anything at all. With how the world is, people have to sacrifice their wants over practicalities more and more. It’s safer and more rational, unlike this child-like rhetoric.
Natsumi, our third, brings back a bit of Tomoka’s resolution; women must take upon the emotional burden and be supportive always. Both balancing looking after her small child and having a job, Natsumi finds it increasingly hard to keep up with it all. Her husband? Nowhere to be seen most of the time, on business drinking with his buddies. When Natsumi confronts him about feeling unbalanced and that he doesn’t pick up the slack of parenting his own daughter, he retaliates, arguing against her. They bicker for a bit until their daughter comes out meekly, prompting Natsumi the chastise herself for being so selfish and inconsiderate of her daughters’ feelings. While the father does apologize, who’s to say that things won’t go back to the way they were? Why should Natsumi feel awful when she herself is drowning with no support? It feels just like Tomoka, but this time it isn’t addressing how the men have done wrong at all. In the end, Natsumi has to directly tell what she would like her husband to do, instead of, I don’t know, using his brain?
Our fourth story focuses on a NEET. There isn’t much that happens here, though follows up the whole men-sit-back-and-do-no-wrong deal going on; this man is completely taken care of by his mother at thirty, has never had a job for more than a week, and does nothing all day while his mother unconditionally supports him no matter what. He’s bland and not really likable, with the mother just being used to prop him up, something that he doesn’t seem to deserve.
The last story focuses on Ryo, a sixty-five-year-old retiree. This man has not done a day of housework in his life, whether that be cooking or cleaning, not even knowing how to fold socks, his wife doing everything for him (while I think she had a job? I can’t remember). Why should the women here constantly have to be babying men? Why should I feel sympathetic to their stories at all?
Two, four, and five, are pretty boring, cut and dry, with the first and third having more to talk about because of women being spoken down to. Really, all these stories are formulaic, generic, and childish, with nothing much to offer the reader at all.
3/10 – because while it is bad, there’s nothing here that really makes me angry or begrudges me, it’s more so just boring!
Our first story covers Tomoka, a young woman working in retail. I initially liked the start of this, her unknowing and general floating through life was relatable. Directionless with her job being the only thing that gets her going. Soon I noticed something though – the writing. It was absurdly simple and honestly borderline juvenile. I don’t know if it’s just the translation, but I’ve read other books from Japanese writers, and they were much more fluid and heavily written. It really makes it out to be a primary school-type text rather than one meant for adults, this isn’t labeled as YA even, the exact opposite is stated on its GoodReads. I know some writers prefer simplicity, like Hemingway (not that I particularly like him either, I just think that it works more in his case), but here it almost feels like being talked down to. Combined with the…ingenuine? One-dimensional? Supposed morals it’s trying to convey…it really just doesn’t leave me with much to chew on.
Tomoka works in a female clothes store. She gets a bad customer from a previous encounter and doesn’t know what to say or do because the customer is so hostile and outright combative. Another co-worker steps in and defuses the situation, and then proceeds to tell Tomoka that people should be listened to more and understood. This, on the surface, is fine if you don’t think about it much. Tomoka beats herself up over this, when in reality she didn’t do anything wrong. She didn’t say anything to provoke the customer, or be outright hostile herself, she was just defensive, which the narrative condemns her for. The moral is that you should be open and understanding to everybody all the time (especially if you’re a retail worker), and it just falls flat. It’s, in a word, childish.
Our second story Ryo doesn’t offer us much, though it is less condescending than the last. This story's moral is to follow your dreams (and everything will work out for you!), which still, if you think about it for more than five seconds, really isn’t anything at all. With how the world is, people have to sacrifice their wants over practicalities more and more. It’s safer and more rational, unlike this child-like rhetoric.
Natsumi, our third, brings back a bit of Tomoka’s resolution; women must take upon the emotional burden and be supportive always. Both balancing looking after her small child and having a job, Natsumi finds it increasingly hard to keep up with it all. Her husband? Nowhere to be seen most of the time, on business drinking with his buddies. When Natsumi confronts him about feeling unbalanced and that he doesn’t pick up the slack of parenting his own daughter, he retaliates, arguing against her. They bicker for a bit until their daughter comes out meekly, prompting Natsumi the chastise herself for being so selfish and inconsiderate of her daughters’ feelings. While the father does apologize, who’s to say that things won’t go back to the way they were? Why should Natsumi feel awful when she herself is drowning with no support? It feels just like Tomoka, but this time it isn’t addressing how the men have done wrong at all. In the end, Natsumi has to directly tell what she would like her husband to do, instead of, I don’t know, using his brain?
Our fourth story focuses on a NEET. There isn’t much that happens here, though follows up the whole men-sit-back-and-do-no-wrong deal going on; this man is completely taken care of by his mother at thirty, has never had a job for more than a week, and does nothing all day while his mother unconditionally supports him no matter what. He’s bland and not really likable, with the mother just being used to prop him up, something that he doesn’t seem to deserve.
The last story focuses on Ryo, a sixty-five-year-old retiree. This man has not done a day of housework in his life, whether that be cooking or cleaning, not even knowing how to fold socks, his wife doing everything for him (while I think she had a job? I can’t remember). Why should the women here constantly have to be babying men? Why should I feel sympathetic to their stories at all?
Two, four, and five, are pretty boring, cut and dry, with the first and third having more to talk about because of women being spoken down to. Really, all these stories are formulaic, generic, and childish, with nothing much to offer the reader at all.
3/10 – because while it is bad, there’s nothing here that really makes me angry or begrudges me, it’s more so just boring!