I’m interpreting them as marking the beginning of a character’s thoughts (I assume they’re just silent punctuation)
Spanish novels do a similar thing for quoting speech.
I’m reading the third chapter now, and the first instance seems to indicate the start of an onomatopoeia instead of a thought. Still seems like it’s functioning as an open quote though.
Wow, people are super polite in this book. (That explains the 芳山くん from the previous chapters too, I guess).
お止し ??? Are you serious??? (end of p. 20 for the Kadokawa edition)
… Well, okay, I guess.
Well, I don’t know how people talked in Japan in the 60s, but in France, at least, “politeness” (or its lack thereof) has been pretty much constant. The words have changed, sure, but the intent did not.
But again, that may not translate to other countries.
Well. In the US, things have changed dramatically in the last hundred years. One example is that we used to do more like Japan, where everyone was their surname. Even your students at school, you’d call “Mr. ~~”
Also, if it gives any indication, in my Japanese textbook written in the 50s or 60s, it gives わたくし as the most appropriate pronoun to use in almost any situation.
This chapter was quite a bit harder than the last two for me. Have I understood these sentences correctly? Unfortunately no page numbers as I’m reading on kindle.
…、自分に自信がもてないのだ。なにか自分がいまに、とんでもないことをしでかしそうなのである。
She has no confidence because it feels like she has made a ridiculous mess of things?
二ブロックほどなれたところにある、ふる店の煙突が、煙につつまれているのが見えた
She could see a ふろ店’s chimney engulfed in smoke about two blocks away in a place that she’s familiar with? (can’t seem to find a translation for ふろ店)
警官が声をからしてどなりながら…
While the policeman’s voice was becoming hoarse from yelling…
Translations seem fine to me, except the last one. The idea is fine, but the ながら means “while”, as in the policeman, while shouting in a hoarse voice, …