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Loading... Strange Weather in Tokyo (original 2001; edition 2020)by Kawakami Hiromi (Author)
Work InformationStrange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami (2001)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I decided to buy the novel just because of the lovely picture of a Japanese girl floating through the air. The book was not about that but instead a slow-developing love story. She is Tsikiko, an office worker, thirty-eight and single, drinks too much saki, and is traveling slowly through loneliness. She meets Sensi, her Japanese teacher who is now a widower and retired. They meet in a bar and drink together. She didn't recognize him at first but he remembered her. Sharing saki and food together, a very slow building friendship and into a sweet romance. He is intriguing and saves old batteries to give them a beautiful rest before dying. Loneliness is well-defined in the fairy tale love story. Has the adaptation
"Tsukiko, thirty-eight, works in an office and lives alone. One night, she happens to meet one of her former high school teachers, "Sensei" in a local bar. Tsukiko had only ever called him "Sensei" ("Teacher"). He is thirty years her senior, retired, and presumably a widower. Their relationship-traced by Kawakami's gentle hints at the changing seasons-develops from a perfunctory acknowledgment of each other as they eat and drink alone at the bar, to an enjoyable sense of companionship, and finally into a deeply sentimental love affair. As Tsukiko and Sensei grow to know and love one another, time's passing comes across through the seasons and the food and beverages they consume together. From warm sake to chilled beer, from the buds on the trees to the blooming of the cherry blossoms, the reader is enveloped by a keen sense of pathos and both characters' loneliness"-- No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)895.636Literature Literature of other languages Asian (east and south east) languages Japanese Japanese fiction 2000–LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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“Strange Weather in Tokyo” is wistful, gently austere, and has a dreamlike quality threaded throughout that makes the whole story feel like you’re reading a fable at times. I really appreciate how Kawakami writes prose that is streamlined and simple yet FAR from boring; it’s really rich in the most minimalist manner. Her writing here gives a particular attention to food & the pleasures of eating, weather & nature as reflection of inner thoughts, and the tiny habits/quirks of individuals that are noticed by those closest to them.
The story as a whole was somewhat plain, but was composed and executed in a way that made me really enjoy the process of reading it! ( )