Halloween Reads
Joke asked this question about Tokyo Ueno Station:
Am I the only one who missed that he is dead? I definitely got his ghostly presence, but I thought that was because he was absent and invisible the way a homeless person can be... I actually thought it was a comment on BEING homeless, and how society sees the homeless.
Ryan You certainly cannot be the only person. Largely because the protagonist's existence in life was identical to his time as a haunting spirit. There, bu…moreYou certainly cannot be the only person. Largely because the protagonist's existence in life was identical to his time as a haunting spirit. There, but not really there. An observer only, even to his own family. Although I thought it was made explicit in the opening, on re-reading a bit of it I now see that much of it could as easily be taken as a living man referring to the time before he became homeless. As opposed to a spirit speaking about his time among the living. There are also many times where it seems unclear whether he is recalling an experience from his life, or is observing as a spirit. But it really doesn't matter, and this is a big part of the book. So you may have missed it, but you still didn't really miss much. Especially the commentary on the nature of being homeless.(less)
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Tokyo Ueno Station
by Yū Miri
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