旅する練習

by Yusuke Norishiro, 乗代雄介

第164回芥川賞候補作小説家で、人気（ひとけ）のない風景を描写するのが趣味の私。サッカー少女で、中学入学を前にした姪の亜美。2020年3月、コロナ禍で予定がなくなった春休み、利根川の堤防道をたどり、千葉の我孫子からアントラーズの本拠地まで。「サッカーの練習しながら、宿題の日記も書きつつ、鹿島を目指す」姪と叔父の風変わりな旅が始まる。「これでほんとに鹿島に着くのかなー」「着くよ」成田線を跨ぐ高架に差しかかって「歩いてりゃ」と私は言った。（本書より）本当に大切なことを見つけて、それに自分を合わせて生きるのって、すっごく楽しい。（本書より）実力随一の若手作家の新たな傑作！

Tankobon Hardcover

About the author

Born in 1986 in Hokkaido, Japan, Yusuke Norishiro (Japanese name: 乗代雄介) graduated from Hosei University and taught at a cram school for ten years. He made his debut with the coming-of-age novel From Seventeen to Eighteen after it won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers in 2015. He has been shortlisted for the Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s highest literary honor, four times for Traveling Practice, The Ultimate Mission, Mina no arabashiri, and The Truth of It. Traveling Practice went on to win the Mishima Yukio Prize in 2020 and the Tsubota Joji Literature Prize in 2021.

Reviews

[Andrew Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this novel, it was my favorite of the January 2021 Akutagawa Novel finalists. A story of charming young girl and her intelligent, nurturing novelist uncle, learning and experiencing as they walk down the Tone River from Abiko to Kashima. Their trip happens in March 2020, with the COVID lockdowns, and the girl has available time when her soccer camp, scheduled for spring break before her first year of middle school, is cancelled. The descriptions of nature were beautiful and the thoughts about human nature and religion were insightful. It is a road story, with no antagonists, but I was never bored. Their world gets shaken up when they come upon and are joined in their journey by Midori, a young woman who is has allowed herself to be bossed around by her father her whole life, and is unsure who she is. The budding relationship between the three is beautifully portrayed.

The simple conversations of the characters are juxtaposed with the highly literary journal entries of the uncle, a novelist, who depicts the nature they encounter in loving and highly educated detail. The author is fascinated with literary figures who have lived along this river in the past, like Yanagita Kunio and Shiga Naoya. His constant referring to their works has a charm, but it pulls us out of the story somewhat, reminding us that this is a novel by a well-educated young author, who is maybe a little too eager to show off the things he has learned, rather than a story we can get lost in.

The Kashima Antlers, a professional soccer team, and their Brazilian coach Zico, a hero in the city and a model of teamwork, dedication, and careful preparation (highly appealing attributes in Japanese society), are major elements of the story, an odd and interesting touch.

There is a big shock and abrupt switch in tone on the very last page. The second half of the novel increasingly includes foreshadowing of the event, and Abi’s growing interest in Shingon Buddhist ideas helped to prepare the reader for it.

The other Akutagawa finalists this year are all about people suffering terrible tragedies, and/or in broken or abusive families. It was refreshing to read this book about good people looking out for each other.

[Emi · Rating 3 out of 5]

なぜか風景描写が全然入ってこなくてそこはほぼ流し読みになっちゃったけど、話全体としては楽しめた。ただやっぱりなんでこの結末にしたんだろうとは思う。