Overall I had a pretty good time! For what he explicitly wanted to convince people of, which he wrapped back to at the end, I still remain mixed, but I enjoyed the stories. Plus, as I was talking about in one of the weekly threads, I did like the warm, human connections coming through. While the stories were usually super obvious where they were headed, it’s a cool glimpse into life growing up in those circumstances. Eventually I found the Japanese reading side to be pretty smooth, and it was a nice little confidence boost at times.
Poor ばあちゃん in the end, but the book certainly gave the impression she was well known and liked around the area, so at least she probably wasn’t stuck in the lonely elderly person life.
Thanks for the well timed invite, @NicoleIsEnough ! And for running this. And thanks to everyone who’s been posting about it!
I started reading this kinda late but with my increase in free time I was finally able to catch up in the last week . Also had a really pleasant experience reading overall, a nice and warming story for once. Although I have to say that I was kind of expecting a little more of the ending(?). The whole goodbye scene and him leaving Saga felt so sudden that I felt bad for the grandma. I hope she was okay after the parting.
Looking forward to seeying you all in the next clubs to come!
Completely agree with this. I enjoyed the stories a lot, but the prologue and epilogue… I guess I can see what he’s trying to convey, but I don’t really like the whole „stop whining about 不景気, people had it much worse back then“ part of his message.
Also, most of the ばあちゃん quotes were very cute and funny, but this one quote:
世の中には、 病気で死にたくない人がいっぱいおるのに、 自殺なんて贅沢だ。
It just didn’t sit right with me
I‘m sorry, ばあちゃん! You seem like a lovely person and reading about your life experiences was very interesting nonetheless!
Just finished our reading. What a great little lighthearted book!
Lots of small life lessons included here. Nothing earth-shattering in my opinion, but some are good to aspire to! Like how true kindness is something people aren’t directly made aware of.
I had a tear in my eye when he was leaving at the end…and ばあちゃん was splashing water to hide her tears, right?. Reading him say thank you in the あとがき, and seeing the photo of ばあちゃん was also touching.
I felt this way too! Especially at the end, where I could catch up on the last couple of chapters in a day. I imagine 海辺のカフカ won’t quite be the same…
The book overall was enjoyable to read but seemed to shift the focus from grandma to himself somewhere in the middle of the book. It’s almost like there were two separate books. Although there were occasional references and interactions dealing with grandma in the second half of the book, I felt like she got lost from our attention along the way. I would have preferred sticking with grandma throughout the entire book, expanding on his anecdotes dealing with her.
Anyway,thanks @NicoleIsEnough for doing another great job running things.