Reminder that we’re following the new schedule as voted on in the home thread
Week
Start Date
Chapter
Percentage
文庫ページ
Week 15
May 9
stop at the end of the book, not including 解説
98%
584
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I finished the book a few weeks ago already so here are my thoughts.
I really liked the book at first but a bit less afterwards. It felt increasingly slow and repetitive. Stuff does happen later on, nothing groundbreaking but some nice character development and interactions, some insights on kajimana… But in the end I felt a bit betrayed by the book. Like “that’s it??”.
I get it, it’s not a mystery book, it’s not a thriller, it’s a social commentary. It talks about themes that actually interest me like gender roles/equality, body image, and hum butter I guess. But I felt like the insights were all over the place (so kajimana is about XXX, actually wait, she’ll all about YYY, but wait, NOW I get it, it was all about ZZZ from the beginning), characters contradicting each other and themselves, all of this making me lose track of what the point is, and this is totally on me but I’m not good at analysis and need things spelled out in simple terms >_>
And yeah the fact that we don’t really get proper resolution on the kajimana case, which the book was never about anyway, but I realized that too late.
Still, it was an interesting read.
Puuhh that last stretch is so long. I still have over 35 pages to go. But I at least finished chapter 15
chapter15
The development of Kajii throwing reika under the bus like she did was actually not something I expected. I thought the dynamic of these two had shifted a little in the last few interactions. That just shows you how manipulative Kajii actually really is.
And right after getting hit by Kajii’s “husbands” article, she ends up in a hit-and-run accident. What a chapter. At least the crash nicely symbolizes how Reiko feels about Kajiis behavior. But I find her internal thoughts during that incident problematic again. Connecting the deaths to her accident.
And then she enters a doomscroll internet hate spiral. Kinda relatable to be honest. Though I find interesting that she realizes herself that she tried to extend a hand to others when they needed it, but being in a situation herself, where she would need some help, she doesn’t feel like reaching out.
What also probably hurt her more than she expected is the loss of the cooking class connection. It really felt like she enjoyed all the interactions and the cooking there very much. Though that one is totally on herself.
At least she found her own way to get out of it by the end of the chapter. Although it involved 誠, at least it’s not like they are getting back together again.
I’m not sure where the story goes in the last chapter. Kinda a lot is happening in the last few chapters (especially compared to the beginning), though the book still mainly deals in internal monologues that try a little too hard to be “deep” for my taste.
I took my sweet time to finish out the book, but I made it. I think this is one of my proudest achievements since I started learning Japanese. The last 2 chapters or so actually felt pretty smooth to read especially when I think back to the start of the book.
That I stuck through it, and took it as a learning opportunity, kinda makes me unreasonably proud somehow.
(Really interested as well how many people will actually sit through it and finish the book ^^)
I would still only give the book 2.5/5 for entertainment purposes. It had its nice scenes and some aspects where I liked the introspection. But it tried way too hard to say a lot, ultimately losing the plot itself, and becoming more of a drag than engaging. It’s pretty good if you want to learn to parse longer sentences and for training to follow even pretty scattered thoughts, I think.
chapter 16
I think her reasons for buying the apartment are really dangerous. But maybe selling and buying a house is way easier in Japan and if it doesn’t work out she can get more easily out of it. In Germany, you would probably not have gotten the loan even ^^.
The scene where she prepares the turkey goes really hard with the descriptions. When she puts her hand into it especially. Not sure why that part was that exaggerated.
Overall the turkey gathering was really nice. It gave me fluffy feeling inside. Especially that shinoi managed to bring his daughter was really nice. All around good vibes and delicious food talk. I also liked Rikas observation that Japanese rob themselves of these moments by being such omotenashi perfectionists. It’s so rare to get invited to a Japanese persons house. Kinda sad.
What a fucking long and winding speech from rika again for the Kanpai…
Interesting I think I felt the exact opposite way. The beginning was really slow for me and kinda uninteresting. Except for 1 week, I think I liked everything after they all crashed at shinois house the most. It also felt like it was trying a little less to be introspective, which is probably what turned me off from the first 3/4.
I was happy Kajimana took a bit of a background role actually ^^.
Therefore, I’m also not sad that we didn’t get a resolution to her court case or any follow up how she and her husband are doing now. I quite liked the hopeful and kinda upbeat ending.
This part of your criticism I can support 100%. That is also a big part why the book fell flat for me.
And thanks @pocketcat for taking over the book lead even though you didn’t nominate it.
We have made it! I finished the book a few days ago but was waiting for good timing to sit down and write my comment.
Summary
I agree with other comments here that while the book had some interesting social commentary, it tried to do too much. There were numerous threads that feel like they were just dropped, or due to the length of the book I have already forgotten about.
I think I was also more interested in the beginning because I didn’t know where things would lead, or how themes would develop, but overtime due to the slow pacing and overall length of the book I started to tire out.
I do enjoy books that focus on character studies or themes rather plot points, but I don’t feel like the book was that effective with either. There were times it felt like the plot might heat up, but not much every came of it.
I do like the final scene being a feast that brings together all of the characters in Rika’s life together, I feel like that fits the story perfectly.
Although as soon as she said she was going to try making turkey I knew she was going to slice into it right after taking it out of the oven instead of waiting the 20+ minutes properly smh. Hope they all enjoyed that dry turkey.
One theme I noticed later than I should have it about power struggles. The book is a constant power struggle between Rika and Kajimana, with them switching sides. We also hear from the cooking class woman how Kajimana was trying to socially rank the other woman. In the end, Rika says she’s going to write a series interviewing women who have been hurt by Kajimana, with their consent, and we get the sense that there is no power struggle there. I suppose genuine female (and male) friendship ended up being a major theme, which I did not expect.
I could write more, but I will leave it at that! Unless if I come back again, but I am feeling rather tired haha.
Thank you to pocketcat for hosting, as well as everyone else who wrote comments or read along with comments here.
