So I had never heard of this author going into these two books, and I can’t say I know a lot about her now, since for the most part, these are the only two novels that I’ve seen have been translated. I was recently on vacation and took The Nakano Thrift Shop with me, having found it in a Little Free Library, and it was kind of a perfect novel to read on the train. But then when we got to the vacation apartment, and fearing that I was going to run out of books to read, I saw that they had Strange Weather in Tokyo, so I decided to read that as well. Both were pretty short, but I can’t say that I thought either one of them was particularly strong. So don’t mistake my reading her books back to back as indicative of much. I read one, and wanted to give the second a chance, and ended up feeling similarly about both.
So the first book begins with the opening line that is the title of this post. We have a young woman (early 20s) working in a thrift store owned by an older man who is full of opinions, hides his personal life away for the most part, cares about his employees, but also keeps a pretty clear distance between himself and then. Our lead character is sexually naive and falls for, or falls under the spell a little, of a more sexually adventurous coworker. Not a whole lot happens in the novel, but she comes away with a better understanding of herself and what she wants from life and these small relationships.
For me, this novel reminded me a lot of the little relationships we form in our jobs, and depending on the nature of the job or the length of time and energy, etc, we put into it, how much influence those relationships have one us. I have had a “career” for a little too long now to remember back too much on the jobs I’ve had, but recall some of the intense experiences jobs allow for.
The second novel, which I do think was somewhat better, is about a woman in her late 30s becoming reacquainted with an old teacher of hers, who she refers to throughout the novel as sensei. She doesn’t quite form a friendship with him and doesn’t jump into a romance with him, but instead has many small encounters that lead to medium encounters and plans, and then there are drier period where they don’t see each other. It becomes clear throughout the novel that their feelings for each other do deepen by the end.
It’s an interesting novel because while this is a student/teaching relationship it’s one that happens when the student is 20 years removed and so the dynamic that could occur is softened and defined more by their age differences and the relative maturity and power she has as a woman well into adulthood. It’s not cringey or grimacey at all. It’s not a sweet story or a romantic one, but does show how a relationship can develop.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Nakano-Thrift-Shop-Novel/dp/1609453999/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32J54ZU7VPCG0&keywords=the+nakano+thrift+shop&qid=1554649073&s=gateway&sprefix=the+nakano%2Caps%2C236&sr=8-1)