Harare Review of Books

224 pages.

Expected publication date: May 3, 2022.

Genre: Fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Europa Editions for this eARC.

Fuyuko Irie is a proofreader. She does not get on with her co-workers, who find her quite weird, and exclude her as a result, even bullying her a little. She has no social life at all, and when she interacts with other people, she finds herself tongue-tied, and awkard.

Her life changes when someone with whom she once worked, Kyoko, offers her an opportunity to freelance. Because she hates her workplace, she realises she has nothing to lose, and in fact can spend all her time in her apartment, limiting social interactions. She meets Hijiri, who works for the new publisher, and who is to send her galleys for proofreading. Hijiri is an extrovert, with a vibrant social life—the opposite of Fuyuko.

At first things go fine for Fuyuko, although she finds her new life lonely, apart from her interactions with Hijiri, which become more frequent and more social, sometimes happening in bars. Fuyuko does not drink at these meetings, but, seeing Hijiri drink, and feeling that she wants to be more like her—more uninhibited—Fuyuko starts to drink at home, and then starts to carry alcohol around in her tote.

In another effort to expand her life, Fuyuko decides to go to college, where she meets Mitsutsuka, an older man who says he’s a physics teacher, and who attends courses at the same college. They embark on a friendship that Fuyuko comes to depend on, and meet regularly at a cafe.

This is the basic plot of Kawakami’s story, with a great in-depth study of Fuyuko, why she is the way she is, and then her journey back to herself. There are long passages that are almost in stream-of-consciousness style, which started to make my eyes glaze over in parts—particularly when Hijiri was speaking, which was a lot. There is also a plot twist that I did not really see coming, at the end, which I’m still not completely sure I’m happy about. However, Fuyuko’s story arc, the core of the novel, is a wonderful, redemptive one.

In all, this took me longer to read than it should have, and maybe that’s because the pacing is slowed down by monologues. This is also my first Kawakami, and I’m encouraged to seek out the author’s other books.

Rated: 7/10.