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Lonely Castle in the Mirror
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"Lonely Castle In the Mirror" Discuss Everything *Spoilers*
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Lonely Castle in the Mirror—salientsI was trudging—clothed unlike Chaucer—my roven brain betwixt Tsujimura’s novel and NY School poets…
I know you are thinking the leap is Grand Canyon in scale—prolly—yet my restless brain arrowed straight there as I traversed the mundacity* of the earliest chapters (Semester One). Mi scusi a minor diversion as I circumnavigate the chasm. NY School’s John Ashbery—yes, that harebrained, homegrown surrealist—narration of the prosaic, in his own words is an exercise in the what and wherefore of poetics. Ever seen a Jackson Pollock? Translate that into words and you have the poets and poetry of the NY School.
Like Kokoro, I felt trapped in the unrelenting humdrum and just wanted to find my escape. It was a risk on Tsujimura’s part to spend so much of the start of the novel in the minutia of existence set equally against Kokoro’s hedge of unrelenting wretched ill treatment tantamount to a Grimm’s Fairytale.
As we follow Kokoro through the looking glass we move far from the mundane to the tragically relevant. Like the stories of all those captured by the Wolfe Queen, our news is filled with stories of bright lights brimming with potential just snuffed out because others think they are clever and enjoy torturing another being.
From there we weave back and forth between stories of bullying, abuse, and neglect to meaningful character development (friendships) and the formation of a “gang.” Disparate from Sanada’s gang, the castle crew works to check harmful behavior between them. Laudable is Tsujimura illuminating just how adhering to a societal norm (homogeneity) opened the way for ijime (bullying)** and the more common shūdan ijime (group bullying) to prosper among the young in Japanese schools.
And then it ALLL changes
Tsujimura’s real magic comes from her gift of creating her own fairytale and a mystery using the ghosts of other Grimm’s tales and mythology. She puts Hansel and Gretel to shame as even as far back as the dreaded mundacity she is weaving a web of clues for Kokoro. The first major clue were the line drawings at her friend Tojo’s home. They include scenes from Little Red Riding Hood, Wolf and the Seven Young Goats, and Hansel and Gretel. I mean Tsujimura when describing the H&G one and IT is literally Hansel walking through the forest tossing breadcrumbs !!! There are so many, many clues…
Unlike Grimm, It’s a small world after all…
Kokoro defies the lie she believes (“There’s nothing special about me. I’m not athletic, and I’m not smart.”) and gains/regains her agency and deciphers the many breadcrumbs Tsujimra littered throughout to free her friends being snarfled by the wolf. Kokoro’s sheer strength of will and desire to protect Aki is the driving force (“I’ll be waiting, in 2006, fourteen years in your future. Come and see me…”) for Akiko Kitajima manifesting some serious destiny.
”The Cherry trees were in full bloom and their blossoms fluttered silent to the ground. A light wind was blowing.”
Mio (meaning beautiful cherry blossom) welcomes Kokoro back to school.
*Ursäkta the few neologisms sprinkled about.
**Japan is significantly worse even than the U.S. with more than 600,000 cases of bullying in a single year. Over 600,000 cases of bullying and an accompanying high rate of child suicide. In 2022, there were 514 suicides of children 6-18.
Wow, Tara, your knowledge of the japanese language gave the book another new depth for me. I just finished the book and I'm still a bit awstruck. And you're addition with Mio meaning beautiful cherry blossom made it almost sparkling in my mind. I was a bit irritated with the kids for not working out that they're in different timelines, I thought it was obvious, but when they finally did and it all came together it was so emotional that I started crying. I did not expect Aki to be mrs Kitajima, but it made the story come together so nicely. And as you said Tara, the breadcrums where there but didn't make sence until the ending.
I also have to add that despite reading a lot of fairytales and being from sweden. I don't think I've heard about the wolf and the seven goats. Or maybe I've just forgotten, as it did seem a little familiar at the end.
I gave it five stars :)
Oh I just noticed there were questions. 1. I thought the maincharacters where believable and at the end when we had gotten to know everyone the felt rich and deep.
2. The parents of Rion felt a bit bland though, and I had a hard time getting into his mothers way of thinking. The other families I thought were believable, and I could almost see them before me. I think most of them could exist in our world. I especially liked Akis grandmother, she seemed cool.
3. Since I'm 30 I'm sad to say that I think it's for teenagers, but as I really liked it I think it works for all ages. Most of us have been through something in school and for many people it follows us through our lives. I've met people well over pension age that stills carries painful memories from school. Reading about it can make the pain lessen a little I think.
4 - 5 Read my first comment :)
Hallå Elin:I think that Seven Goats is not all that popular but it suited Tsujimura perfectly as the seventh goat--only one not caught--is ALSO found in a clock. I loved the abundance of cultural references layered throughout the story. I am sure I missed so many.
There were many numeric references (repeating threes, sevens): Seven is a major in Japanese (Buddhist) culture (seven lucky gods) as is three (trinity: heaven, earth, humanity) also considered lucky. There are seven children called to the castle and they are (with one exception Mio’s 7, making a gap of 14 years) seven years apart temporally.
The children's names also brought meaning to the story and at times a nod to Japanese culture or history. Like Sumida, who shares the name of a Japanese businessman (sake) from Hiroshima who immigrated to Hawai’i
Do you have any favorites?
Thanks for all of the additional context, Tara! It definitely added to my appreciation of the story and what the author was trying to do. This is the third book I've read in recent years by Japanese or Japanese-American authors that had a school bullying aspect. After reading Tsujimura's notes at the end of this book, it makes me very sad for young people in Japan that it sounds like this is such a pervasive problem and has had such negative impacts on youth mental health. I think Tsujimura does a very effective job of showing how bullying affects the different characters and their internal feelings of isolation and anxiety.
Overall, I found the book to be pretty slow paced until about half-way through, and I almost stopped reading. I'm glad I stuck with it because the second half definitely pulled everything together well. I figured out the different timelines part pretty early on, and, like Elin, I was a little irritated that it took the characters so long to work it out. I did really like how Aki as Mrs. Kitajima threaded everyone together in the end. And I appreciated that the kids used their wish to save Aki (and each other), even though it meant forgetting about the castle.
I also feel like this book is aimed at a teenage / young adult audience, but it didn't bother me. I enjoy reading middle grade and YA books, keeping in mind that I'm not the target audience. I think teenage me would have probably given the book 5 stars had I read it at that age.
Hej Tara ;) and hi Kaia :)I don´t know as much japanese culture as you seem to do Tara, so I´m sad to say that I didn´t pick up on much of that. I did love the one about the cherry blossoms you wrote about though. I also thought about Subaru who mentions something about his name meaning pleiades (the seven sisters). Having read the Lucina Riley books I remembered that the seventh star was blinking in and out of reality, not really there, and so I thought of Mio and her blinking in and out of the castle. Maybe she was the seventh sister? But maybe that´s a stretch.
I did pick up on some other things though:
I´ve read some japanese literature before and my inkling is that it´s usually a lot of literary references that I don´t know about and have to check. In this book it surprised me that it was a lot of references to western or european literature such as Alice in wonderland, Harry Potter, The Wizard of oz and Narnia. I was wondering wether the wardrobe in Akis room also was a reference to Narnia, since the only reason it seemed to be in her room was because she liked fashion according to Fuka. An empty wardrobe does not inspire much of fashion, does it?
There was also the paintings in Moe-chans house of western fairytales. What caught my attention in those was that the main characters where missing. I have never seen a depiction of hansel and gretel with no gretel in it. In the picture of little red riding hood there was only the wolf and the hunter. If you know the story, you know that the grandmother and little red riding hood are inside the wolfs belly.
I think that their absence make us think more about them then the characters actually depicted. Like who cares about Hansel, when we´re busy wondering where Gretel is? And I noticed that, that effect was a concurring theme throughout the book. Kokoro´s mother started paying more attention to Kokoro when she noticed she wasn´t home. In school despite Kokoro being absent for almost a year, her presence still made itself known and affected the dynamics of the girls group. Maybe she affected the class even more by her absence then she did when she was there for them to ridicule.
In the name of this theme I also started to think about how there was one character missing. I do not believe that a girl in sickbed just gets the idea to create a safe haven for other children and then makes it real all by herself, accurately predicting the day she would die. And according to what I know of timelines from other literature it wouldn´t work to just change Aki´s and Subaru´s timelines 14 years after the events, their life choices would have already been made. No, I think that there was someone in the background, creating the castle, inviting all the children, giving Mio the power to be the wolf queen. Maybe that person was indeed doing this for other children contrary to what Rion thought, but it was Mio´s first time as she was timetraveling to. I think that person was ms Samejima and her being a witch or a fairy god mother making her presence known by being absent in the story.
Beyond that I also thought about this being a bit like a fairytale were the third times the charm.
I think the first time was when Kokoro was standing by the bicycle stand after Chuta had been mean to her. Miori says "You´re so dumb, You can die for all I care". She isn´t physically hurt but she stills reacts with physicall symtoms to words. She does not say anything. The second time has to be when the girls surround her home, again she isn´t physically hurt but it feels like she´s about to die. Again she doesn´t respond. The third time are quite similar to the second. She can hear the wolfs howling, but she can´t see them, they don´t touch her, she isn´t physically hurt. This time she fights..and win..third times the charm.
The third times the charm also applies with Ureshino and his love interests. Aki, not interested, Kokoro, not interested but the third time with Fuka there´s a small development.
That was some of my breadcrumbs. I also think that this story does a great job depicting the feels and human behaviour around bullying just as you wrote Kaia. For me that´s the important part of the book and why it has to be slow at times, to really go through the motions and showcase the pain.
Mod
Thank you :) Yes I know, I'm having the exact same troubles writing on the phone. I wrote that long one on the computer ;)
Elin wrote: "Hej Tara ;) and hi Kaia :)I don´t know as much japanese culture as you seem to do Tara, so I´m sad to say that I didn´t pick up on much of that. I did love the one about the cherry blossoms you w..."
Yes! She did not just rely on cultural references. There were the repeating Danish remarks: Hans Christian & the ugly duckling. And like the ugly duckling was suffering and isolation and then the climatic event (wolfie) happens in winter and resolves itself in the spring.
And like you said Elin, the Ms Samejima, Aki had never met her before, yet her grandmother sent her to look after her?!? First words she says to Aki, "I hear you've dropped out of school?"
After goes to Ms. Samejima for help...
“And she started to want to study again.
She’d thought there was no one who could help her, but now she saw that there was Ms Samejima, offering a hand. It came as a sudden realization.
That was when she started to feel a sharp pain running down her forearm. It felt as if someone was pulling her arm.”
Aki now on destiny's journey to Kokoro no kyoshitsu inception.
Wow, thanks, Elin and Tara! Your analysis definitely adds a lot to my appreciation of the book. Elin, I love your thoughts about absence - in the paintings and in the character’s lives - and the idea that the castle wasn’t created by Mio but that Mio was incorporated in later. I had missed the timeline problem with her creating the castle after some of the character’s childhood storylines would have played out. I think the wardrobe connection with Narnia also makes a lot of sense.
I’m bummed I had to return my copy to the library because I’d love to go back into the text to find and re-read the “bread crumbs” that you all found with this new context in mind.
I also thought about the ugly duckling and how it's basically about bullying to, didn't make the connection to the change of the seasons though. It's cool that you noticed that Tara! Thank you Kaia for giving me confidence in my ideas!
I was also thinking that time seemed to be everywhere in the book, except for in the kids minds apparently. Like in the end with Aki hiding in the grandfather clock and then venturing out and finding almost everybody through time as she grew older. Or they having to keep track of the time while in the castle like small cinderellas.
I also did notice that while Kokoro checked all the x:s there wasn't an x for her, was it? Like you Kaia I have returned my book so I can't check but didn't she touch one x for each person, which would add up to 6 x:s? So the person who really hid in the grandfather clock should have been Kokoro, shouldn't it? She was the 7:th goat?
I don't know if that made any sence, but it has been bothering me a bit.
Never shy from sharing your insights...they were spot on!X's
Masamune - kitchen shelf
Fireplace - Ureshino
Laundry basket - Subaru
desk - Fuka
Bed - Rion
Wardrobe - Aki
Kokoro was never caught. She wasn't in the castle when Aki broke the rules so there wasn't an X for her
Ah I see, well never mind that then :)
Just finished and I totally loved it. Even though I'm far from being a teenager :) But having two boys that soon are to be teenagers, I had lots of things to connect to in the book. And I had a number of things pointed out to me that I should think about as a parent. Regarding the story, the characters and how it all was rounded up in Mia being in the gap between Kokoro and Aki, and especially how Aki turned out to be Mrs Kitajima, I totally agree with everything said above and it was said far better than I could ever do. I only feel a slight dissatisfaction that not all characters were knit together in the end. Subaru and Masamune were not mentioned and we know only that Fuka and Ureshino meet an older version of Aki at some point because they told about it themselves, but we don't actually see it 'real time' as with Kokoro. So, I'm thinking, have I missed Subaru and Masamune as adults in the last snapshot of 2006 when Aki, Rion and Kokoro come together...
I also enjoyed the way the fairy tales were connected to the story and was very surprised to see The Enormous Turnip and The Wolf and the Seven young Goats mentioned. Every 2yo here knows them, but it's the first time I came across them in a book by a foreign writer.
I guessed the time difference pretty early on, almost immediately after they got into the castle, but I was blind do the fairy tale parallels until they were explained. I actually forgot how to see the world through the prism of fairy tales. Sad.
Not finished yet but...For me this started out pretty slow... now that I'm > 50% done though it's getting interesting for me. Also reminded me of my grade school experience to an extent lol.
I liked it! Aki being Mrs Kitajima was a wonderful surprise! A couple of questions:When the girls surrounded Kokoro's house, I think they were talking about killing her or something. Is bullying really that bad in Japan??? I felt like that was really extreme.
Was there any significance to what time they had to be out of the castle each day?
I liked it except the pacing!Why have all the reveals (except Kokoro's) at the very end? Why starve us of information until the last 2 chapters and then shove an entire book's worth of secrets down?
Also, I know the author has a platform to bring awareness to bullying, etc., but it was a cringy amount of anxiety.
Overall, an interesting and satisfying book.
Mod
Please check this thread, which is where the Zoom link will be posted about an hour before the meeting, and has a calendar link if you'd prefer to follow the group calendar!
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Allison wrote: "A reminder that our Virtual Book Club will be discussing this book this Sunday at 1600 GMT/ 1100 Eastern !Please check this thread, which is where the Zoom link will be posted about an hour befor..."
I missed this notification but that's a cool idea (this was my first book club read)
Mod
1. What did you think of the characters?
2. What do you think of their families?
3. Who do you think is the audience for this book?
4. What worked or didn't?
5. Overall thoughts?
Non-spoiler thread here: First impressions