Ms Ice Sandwich: Mieko Kawakami (Japanese Novellas)

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The only song that comes to mind when I was reading Kawakami's novella is Yonezu Kenshi’s ‘Gray and Blue’/ Haiiro to Ao’ which shares the same theme of friendship and love.

The boy’s relationship with his grandmother and the memories of his father also tie into this viewpoint and give you pause for thought. EXPERTLY translated (and I know I'm very particular, I can't help it - see my review of Dandelions たんぽぽ). Subscribing to a default way of feeling feelings might be the easier option for some, but (perhaps a biased view) I think it’s so unnatural and grossly robotic.Another aspect that really works is the way that the narrator feels all these feelings and thoughts but Kawakami details the frustration in attempting to take the helm of your own emotions when you still lack the emotional language and maturity that serves as a compass to express yourself to others. Then when she finally takes my money and gives me the change and her eyelids turn upwards and I can see those great big eyes again, without any warning that squishy, yellowy, orangey stuff inside my head becomes extra bright, then that hollow place right under my chin, above my collarbone, feels like it’s being squeezed really tightly. Butt-ugly females like you, you think you’re better than anybody else with your facial reconstruction crap. in this glimpse (and i do mean glimpse, as this is like 7 pages long) we got very little of our protagonist's mother or his grandmother, or his life really at all, but maybe that was the point.

The writing in this book is really childish, but again the narrator is fourth grader, so it just works fine. Myself being a fairly timid child that had no inclination to leave behind some of my more childish tastes in games, hobbies and movies around this age, I deeply felt his discomfort when he shows up for a movie night at Tutti’s house and she puts on the Al Pacino film Heat. The second part of the book, with the weaving of the school life along with the mc's love life, as well as the conclusion of the story, was pretty much the best and masterfully handled and written.

I am a fan of the novella format, especially in contemporary genres; for me, it is the perfect length to tell a story because it gives time to the author to develop a full plot, but also keep it concise. I found this little novella strangely moving: Kawakami tells the story of a fourth grader who learns about loss. Ever since the publication of Breasts and Eggs Meiko Kawakami’s has become more popular but before the English translation of that novel, indie press, Pushkin quietly released this novella way pre-Kawakami mania. Instead, it is a fascinating, touching and quiet coming-of-age story with a plethora of lessons to be taught and inspiring passages.