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すみれびより
初恋は実らない。花すら咲かない。だから再会なんてしたくなかった―。学生向けの下宿を営む祖母のもとで暮らす芙蓉は、六年前の淡い恋の記憶だけを大切にして生きている。それは芙蓉にとって一番大事な宝物だ。ところがかつての片思いの相手である西澤が、大学進学のために祖母の下宿に入居してきた。昔の面影を残しながらも、もっと魅力的になっていた西澤に、切なさとともに胸の痛を覚える芙蓉だったが…?
219 pages, Paperback
First published March 10, 2015
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About the author
Kei Tsukimura
70 books11 followersAssociated Names:
* Kei Tsukimura (Japanese)
* 月村奎 (Japanese)
* Kei Tsukimura (Japanese)
* 月村奎 (Japanese)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 2, 2015
A lovely, lovely story.
Fuyou (written 芙蓉, which is the name of a flower, the cotton rose) has a rather unhappy childhood. His parents get divorced when he is six, and after that, his mother, overwhelmed by the situation as well as being fed up with it, often tells him she wishes he hadn't been born. Fuyou thinks this makes his naming rather apt - Fuyou can also be written 不要 ,which means "unneccessary" or "unneeded". While she doesn't hit him, his mother ignores Fuyou as best as she can, and as a result of this neglect, Fuou goes to school unwashed and wearing dirty clothes. That of course leads to him being bullied, but finally, in his last year of elementary school, someone appears who is to become the light of Fuyou's life: Nishizawa, a transfer student from Tokyo, is kind to everyone and beloved by students and teachers alike. Fuyou is convinced it's out of a sense of duty that Nishizawa makes a point to team up with him - he dances with him during a folk dance, he partners with him during lessons and even sits next to him on the bus on school trips. And one day, he even invites Fuyou to his house and lets him borrow one of his books. When Fuyou is twelve years old, his neglect is noticed by the child protective services, and he is sent to his grandmother's place in Tokyo, where she is running a boarding houss for university students. He leaves Nishizawa behind without saying goodbye but taking the borrowed book - a field guide on weeds - with him.
Six years later, after finishing high school, Fuyou is still staying with his grandmother and helping her with running the boarding house. He's also become quite the expert on weeds - which makes tending the garden a bit difficult sometimes because he's so fond of all the plants. When the new semester starts and new students enter the boarding house, Fuyou gets quite the surprise: among them is Nishizawa. Fuyou has long since realized that he was in love with Nishizawa back then - but first loves never come true, and someone like Nishizawa would never fall in love with someone like him - right?
Right. The story develops as you'd think, and the love story between Fuyou and Nishizawa is very sweet. Fuyou's unability to value himself really hurts to read sometimes, and I lost count of how many times I felt like hugging him. It was a very satisfying novel, but as is often the case with Tsukimura Kei's books, it lacked something to make it perfect. Because part of it ran in Shousetsu Dear+ before, the book is split in three parts, and that structure made it lack a certain smoothness. Also, it felt like a lot of important issues weren't addressed in the last part and so it felt a bit unfinished. The idea, and the imagery of weeds was really great, though, and I really enjoyed myself reading. But it's because of that that even though I like her books, so far she hasn't become one of my "must-read authors".
While I don't like the cover picture at the beginning all that much, the cover and the cover pictures for the individual parts are absolutely wonderful, as are the other illustrations of course.
Fuyou (written 芙蓉, which is the name of a flower, the cotton rose) has a rather unhappy childhood. His parents get divorced when he is six, and after that, his mother, overwhelmed by the situation as well as being fed up with it, often tells him she wishes he hadn't been born. Fuyou thinks this makes his naming rather apt - Fuyou can also be written 不要 ,which means "unneccessary" or "unneeded". While she doesn't hit him, his mother ignores Fuyou as best as she can, and as a result of this neglect, Fuou goes to school unwashed and wearing dirty clothes. That of course leads to him being bullied, but finally, in his last year of elementary school, someone appears who is to become the light of Fuyou's life: Nishizawa, a transfer student from Tokyo, is kind to everyone and beloved by students and teachers alike. Fuyou is convinced it's out of a sense of duty that Nishizawa makes a point to team up with him - he dances with him during a folk dance, he partners with him during lessons and even sits next to him on the bus on school trips. And one day, he even invites Fuyou to his house and lets him borrow one of his books. When Fuyou is twelve years old, his neglect is noticed by the child protective services, and he is sent to his grandmother's place in Tokyo, where she is running a boarding houss for university students. He leaves Nishizawa behind without saying goodbye but taking the borrowed book - a field guide on weeds - with him.
Six years later, after finishing high school, Fuyou is still staying with his grandmother and helping her with running the boarding house. He's also become quite the expert on weeds - which makes tending the garden a bit difficult sometimes because he's so fond of all the plants. When the new semester starts and new students enter the boarding house, Fuyou gets quite the surprise: among them is Nishizawa. Fuyou has long since realized that he was in love with Nishizawa back then - but first loves never come true, and someone like Nishizawa would never fall in love with someone like him - right?
Right. The story develops as you'd think, and the love story between Fuyou and Nishizawa is very sweet. Fuyou's unability to value himself really hurts to read sometimes, and I lost count of how many times I felt like hugging him. It was a very satisfying novel, but as is often the case with Tsukimura Kei's books, it lacked something to make it perfect. Because part of it ran in Shousetsu Dear+ before, the book is split in three parts, and that structure made it lack a certain smoothness. Also, it felt like a lot of important issues weren't addressed in the last part and so it felt a bit unfinished. The idea, and the imagery of weeds was really great, though, and I really enjoyed myself reading. But it's because of that that even though I like her books, so far she hasn't become one of my "must-read authors".
While I don't like the cover picture at the beginning all that much, the cover and the cover pictures for the individual parts are absolutely wonderful, as are the other illustrations of course.
Displaying 1 of 1 review