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호텔 선인장
- GenresJapanese Literature
Paperback
First published April 1, 2001
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Kaori Ekuni
120 books166 followersIs a Japanese author, dubbed the 'female Murakami'. She is the daughter of the Haiku poet and essayist Shigeru Ekuni.
See 江國 香織.
See 江國 香織.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 24, 2016
A slice of life story about friendship.
"2", "Cucumber" and "Hat" live in the same apartment building and quickly become friends. The narration goes back and forth amongst the three of them so there is no main character. There isn't much happening, they hang out, share and do stuff friends would do (ie. go at the horse racing ring, visit Cucumber's family, try their best at "dating" the new girl in the block, write and share poems, talk about their fondest memory, share their favorite piece of music...)
The book has many one- and two-pages illustrations. I've counted 37 pages in total. If you don't count those and don't count the usual annoying (to me) afterword, by Takahashi Genichiro, it's quite short! The illustrations depict nothing but appartments, mostly stairs... :P It fits the story in a way, I thought they contributed to the peaceful atmosphere.
It reminded me of Aruzenchin Babā =Argentine Hag, both in the design and content, but this one is sooo slice-of-life that there's no avoiding the word mundane. Nothing tragic, nothing unusal... their friendship isn't being put at the test or anything like that. On the one side, it's a breath of fresh air to diverge from the traditional plots, but it could almost be argued that your time would be better spent having a slice of your own life at this point lol.
Quite easy to read in Japanese! I'll be reading more from her (probably starting with 東京タワー Tōkyō Tawā )
"2", "Cucumber" and "Hat" live in the same apartment building and quickly become friends. The narration goes back and forth amongst the three of them so there is no main character. There isn't much happening, they hang out, share and do stuff friends would do (ie. go at the horse racing ring, visit Cucumber's family, try their best at "dating" the new girl in the block, write and share poems, talk about their fondest memory, share their favorite piece of music...)
The book has many one- and two-pages illustrations. I've counted 37 pages in total. If you don't count those and don't count the usual annoying (to me) afterword, by Takahashi Genichiro, it's quite short! The illustrations depict nothing but appartments, mostly stairs... :P It fits the story in a way, I thought they contributed to the peaceful atmosphere.
It reminded me of Aruzenchin Babā =Argentine Hag, both in the design and content, but this one is sooo slice-of-life that there's no avoiding the word mundane. Nothing tragic, nothing unusal... their friendship isn't being put at the test or anything like that. On the one side, it's a breath of fresh air to diverge from the traditional plots, but it could almost be argued that your time would be better spent having a slice of your own life at this point lol.
Quite easy to read in Japanese! I'll be reading more from her (probably starting with 東京タワー Tōkyō Tawā )
February 5, 2013
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11251774
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11251774
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews