4.5. Just Yoshimoto! this collection comes to show that her strength is mid length works. I didn’t like that the shorter stories included smth that would make the protagonists life tragic (dv, rape) with minimal character development nor explanation to show the purpose of such things being included. On the other hand, the longer two 幽霊の家 and デッドエンドの思い出 were sooooo good and wrote abt yearning and timing with exactitude.
I'm not usually a huge fan of short stories, but these were all very interesting and left me thinking for a long while. I think the writing style of the everyday grounds the abstract wonderings about how can someone be truly kind (can you be kind if you've only grown up with good things) or how long-standing cultures or traditions might mean the submersion of individual tragedies in the grand, long scheme of history. Even with such heavy topics, the characters are still filled with lightness and an eye for seeing things that are beautiful and colorful, and I enjoyed that very much.