I just finished 海の見える理髪店, the winner of the 155th Naoki Prize.
The book is a collection of 6 short stories. The author had just turned 60 when he wrote them, and so it’s maybe not surprising that many of the stories are about looking back on one’s life, about reflecting and of course also about regretting. These stories are very slow, and basically nothing ever really happens in them. (I think I’ve hardly ever read such a slow book in my life…) Nonetheless the characters were amazingly relatable for me, and the reflections about the past are mixed into the descriptions of the present in a smooth and almost dream-like fashion that pulled me along and allowed me to dive deep into the lives of the protagonists. While most of the stories had their sad parts, there were also rays of hope through glimpses of a possible future that looked bright and promising.
Interestingly, in the set of 6 there was one story that was not about reflecting and regretting at all, probably because the protagonist was an elementary school pupil. In this story we are faced with basic questions such as “What is justice?” “What are our expectations towards people, and what are they based upon? What if these expectations are not met?” which made me think about myself for a bit.
I must say that at some point (around the middle section or a bit further) I got a bit fed up with the stories because the general theme seemed to be very repetitive, but in the end I was happy that I finished it because the last story was my favorite one after all.
Overall the book contains calm and thoughtful stories for deep reflection. It’s not something I’d want to read every day, but it was definitely something special and I can imagine reading more of this author at some point.