By Mieko Kawakami
I read this in Tokyo on the 13th of October, 2024. It wasn’t quite the best holiday read, but a well-written book nonetheless. It’s about two kids, both bullied in school, one for his lazy eye, the other for her slovenliness and dirtiness, who become friends, bonded through their shared experiences. We found out that in fact, both are fixable: the girl’s filthiness is intentional, as a way of remembering her poor father, while the boy’s lazy eye can be corrected through a cheap operation. By that point however, they’d already discussed how the things they were bullied for were vital to themselves, causing the boy’s decision to fix his eye to destroy their friendship and budding romance.
It’s definitely well-written: the boy’s internal voice is distinctive and fascinating, as if you’re watching bacterial cells through a microscope, while the depictions of the bullying and school interactions can be utterly brutal. The violence was of course unrelatable but the casual cruelty and power dynamics were so faithful and unflinching it was sometimes painful to read.
The book didn’t do that much for me though tbh, it was memorable but something about the writing (or translation) failed to fully engage me. I liked the bits where they were falling for each other, that tentativeness was wrought well, but the rest of it left me cold.