あこがれ

by Mieko Kawakami

みんな遠くへ行ってしまう。本当の自分を知っているのにね――。四年ぶりの長篇小説! 麦彦とヘガティー、思春期直前の二人が、脆くはかない殻のようなイノセンスを抱えて全力で走り抜ける。この不条理に満ちた世界を――。サンドイッチ売り場の奇妙な女性、まだ見ぬ家族……さまざまな〈あこがれ〉の対象を持ちながら必死で生きる少年少女のぎりぎりのユートピアを繊細かつ強靭無比な筆力で描き尽くす感動作。

Genres: Japanese Literature, Japan, Fiction

223 pages

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Mieko Kawakami (川上未映子, born in August 29, 1976) is a Japanese singer and writer from Osaka.

She was awarded the 138th Akutagawa Prize for promising new writers of serious fiction (2007) for her novel Chichi to Ran (乳と卵) (Breasts and Eggs).

Kawakami has released three albums and three singles as a singer.

Reviews

[Emma Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mieko Kawakami is really something else—a former singer-songwriter and blogger whose literary efforts have won both Japan's most prestigious awards and effusive praise from one Haruki Murakami. Given her reputation as a philosophical, Akutagawa Prize-winning experimentalist, I was not expecting this book—a coming-of-age story (two coming-of-age stories?) shared between two friends, a preteen boy and girl—to be so funny and accessible! Kawakami's narrators are kids, and they mostly think and talk like kids. Thankfully, there's very little forced tweeness here; the voices of Kawakami's child narrators are rarely cloying or contrived, and the story itself is gentle stuff.

The plot is as follows: In the first story, "Miss Ice-Cream Sandwich," Mugi describes his crush on a strange-looking woman who sells ice-cream sandwiches at the local shopping center. Over the course of the story, he learns that other people in town see her differently and also copes with loss. In the second story, Mugi's friend Hegati (Tutti in the English translation—her nickname is some kind of pun on how her farts smell, which I don't really get in Japanese) learns that her widower father was once married to a woman other than her mom. She also works on a middle-school yearbook. Various other things happen, and in one of the stories, the characters watch the movie Heat.

Only the first half of this book has been translated into English (under the title Ms Ice Sandwich), which is kind of a shame, because I was slightly more taken with the more conflict-heavy second. That said, I'd still check out the translation, because reading this book made me happy-sad.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn’t just one book but two short stories in one. I was surprised to find that they were actually connected to each other with the same characters. Ms. Ice Sandwich has been translated into English and was such a joy to read, the second story, however, had yet to be translated. At first I thought this was odd considering that they seemed so connected, but after reading both short stories, I felt the second one fell a bit flat for me. The story had an extremely convoluted plot that didn’t make much sense. Despite all the exciting things happening, I felt ironically bored. I think this is because of the way the female character reports her world to the readers. The male character in the first story was much more interesting to me and easy to follow. The first story is really strong and worth a read but maybe don’t expect much from the second one…

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

TWBookclubで取り上げられている本だったので、手にとって見た
(英訳のMs Ice Sandwichが課題本だったけど、書かれた言語で読みたかったので、こちらを先に図書館で。)

どうせお察しください系の、大人が理想とする小学生の成長物語だろ、と全く期待せずに読み始めたが、予想外によかった。

第１章の「ミス・アイスサンドイッチ」は小学校4年生の少年の一人称で書かれている。
表題の「ミス・アイスサンドイッチ」は、少年の近所のスーパーのサンドイッチ売り場で売り子をしている女性に少年がつけた名前なのだが、どうやら彼女は整形に失敗してしまった女性らしい、という事が、周りの同級生や近所のおばさんの話からわかる。でも少年はそれに対して「可哀想」だの「醜い」だの思わずにただ「すごいまぶたの、大きい目の持ち主」を見ている。その、恋でもない哀れみでもない好奇心でもない、少年の目線が、小学4年生の限られた世界観と合間って、自分の4年生の時の世界の解釈の仕方と似ていて、読んでいて懐かしくも悲しい。(私のが4年の頃は、家庭内がぐちゃぐちゃ＋アメリカ移住で大混乱だったが)

第２章の「苺ジャムから苺をひけば」は、１章の少年(ここで麦くん、と呼ばれているのを読んで「そういやし主人公の名前ちゃんと知らんかったかも」と思った)の友人、へガティの一人称。
お父さんは昔別の女性と結婚していて、自分には半分血の繋がった姉がいる、というかなりドラマチックな展開だが、これも、6年生の私が体験したらこうなるだろうな、という、リアルな話の進み方をする。
また、最高学年になった麦とへガティの友情と、「そろそろ卒業する」という人生初の「卒業」を迎える小学生の気持ち、クラスの中での恋愛模様(といっても、やはりここは小学生レベル。でもこういう「付き合う」を無理やり押し付けてくる女子グループいたよな…と思い出す)、押し付けがましくない、いい描き方。

とにかく、どちらの章も、自分の小学生の時を思い出して、懐かしくなった。
「小学生が主人公なのに、変に大人びた口調」と英訳の方で感想を書いている人もいたけれど、そんな事はないと思う。小学生って結構考えている。
この作品を読んで、物悲しくも嬉しく懐かしい気分になった。いい感じの複雑な気分。

英訳との比較：
・このあとすぐに英訳も見てみたが、日本語で読んでいて意味がわからなかった、「カラスをみたら『ネバモ！』と叫ぶ」というやつ。英語は「Nevermore」だった。なるほど(笑)
・それと、一ページ目の「ウェナミニ」は「Wait a minute」…でもここに羅列されている言葉と数字の関係が私には分からない。何だろうこの数字。
・また、第二の主人公「へガティ(屁がTea)」は「Tutti-Frutti」から「Tutti」。一瞬この英訳読んだときは、音楽用語のイタリア語「皆」かと思った。へガティは他の言語に訳しづらいよな…でもやはり「へガティ」の方が変でいい。(ただ、ティという語尾は合っていて、翻訳者すげーとは思う。)
・「ネバモ」のシーンで初登場するへガティ、言語の日本語では性別が分からず、数ページ後の会話部分で「あれ？」となった。英語だと、地の文で性別が一発で分かる。この性別が曖昧なところが、性別を超えた友情を思わせるから、やはり日本語で読むのがいい。
・残念ながら、第２章の方は英訳されていないようだが、この２作、続けて読むからこそ、登場人物の成長と、外から見た時の彼らと、頭の中の違いがわかって面白いんじゃないかな、と思う。
(私は本の表紙デザインに惹かれて、先に英訳を手に入れたので、この日本語原作を借りてきた時には「あれ、これ短編集なのか」と思った。)。いつか２章も翻訳されて、両方一緒に英訳出版されるといいんだけど。

カバーデザインも好きだし、内容もとても気に入った。
友人に薦めたいし、多分本屋で見つけたら買ってしまうと思う…ので、星５つ。
(英訳はこれからちゃんと読む予定)

[Tiffany Starling · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai apprécié cette lecture, très simple, qui recouvre plein de sujets à travers les yeux d'un jeune garçon et de son amie Hegatea. L'écriture me fait penser au "stream of consciousness", qui a le mérite de rendre le livre très immersif. Les personnages, notamment le personnage principal, sont très attachants par leur naïveté et les liens affectifs qu'ils développent entre eux. J'ai été surprise, ayant lu Seins et Oeufs juste avant, bien que certains thèmes se rapprochent (chirurgie esthétique, injonctions sur les apparences, éducation sexuelle et questionnements de l'enfance/adolescence), par la légèreté du récit.

[feedesmots · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

Les personnages sont attachants et l’autrice a cette manière singulière de décrire le monde intérieur d’adolescents, que j’aime toujours autant (cf. Heaven). J’ai apprécié cette lecture !

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encore une fois, un roman très réussi de Mieko Kawakami, qui arrive à donner une voix à des enfants qui tentent simplement de comprendre le monde dans lequel ils vivent, avec toutes ses injustices et ses difficultés.
Article : https://comaujapon.wordpress.com/2022...

[Trevor Kew · Rating 5 out of 5]

日本語でaudiobookに聴きました。

This was the first time that I've ever listened to the audiobook of a novel in Japanese that I hadn't read before in English (I listened to Kafka on the Shore recently, but I've read it many times in English so the story was already in my head, more or less), so I was more than a bit concerned about whether I'd be able to follow along. But while the first part of the novel was definitely easier to follow than the second, overall it wasn't too tough and in fact I really enjoyed the story, particularly the protagonist's obsession with "Miss Ice Sandwich." The scene where he presents Miss IS with a painting he has done of her is particularly wonderful in its mix of his sincerity and nervousness, and her surprise, confusion...and ultimately, politeness. For any boy who has had a crush and expressed it awkwardly (especially to an older girl/woman!), this scene will ring just so true! Her kindness to him is quite lovely.

I was surprised to find that "Miss Ice Sandwich" is actually the title of the English translation of the novel (the Japanese title, Akogare, refers to a sort of "dreamy yearning"/adoration or aspiration). It's another good example, I feel, of how to find a title that better captures the essence of the story for English readers. I'm endlessly fascinated by the differences between Japanese and English titles (for films/novels especially) in translation, which are often changed (in either direction) due to the conventions expected of titles within the different cultures as well linguistic/cultural factors. For example, one of Ozu's films is called "An Autumn Afternoon" in English but in Japanese refers to "sanma" (a fish eaten in autumn...which has no other relevance to the story in the mind of English viewers but is an immediate culture marker for fall in Japanese, akin to autumn leaves in English). One of my favourite novel translations is Yukio Mishima's "The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea" which in Japanese is called literally "Afternoon Towing." Apparently Mishima just loved the strangeness of English title and I must concur!

[Anne Awaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel depicted a nuanced perspective of the thoughts and dialogue of upper elementary school students in the year 2015. It took me a little bit of energy to get used to reading the flow of their thoughts because there seemed to be a ton of second-guessing and iterative clarification. But I enjoyed this- the characters were fleshed out and real and very relatable.

[CJ Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the relationship between the two main characters. Their complex friendship is shown great and I like the comparison between their perspectives in the first and second story (as well as how their growing up changes their perspectives).

[Lison · Rating 4 out of 5]

mieko kawakami💖💖💖💖💖

[Saya]

really sweet, i love stories about very emotionally mature children lol. idk if this is meant to be YA but very good level for me