This is a sweet Japanese novel that sparkles on so many facets: a coming-of-age tale of a precocious 11-year-old girl (who has an enviable reading list - see below), a city-meets-country social commentary, and a slice of life narrative yet full of whimsy. As much as I would like my 10-year-old daughter to read this, I can see how difficult it could be to translate the novel into English when there is so much kanji wordplay that the Chinese translator had to include numerous expositions in the footnotes. Thankfully, my Japanese colleague pointed out that an anime based on this book came out in the summer of 2021 in Japan. I hope it will get subtitled and also do the book justice.
The protagonist Kikuko read and mentioned these books in the novel, in order of appearance:
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai
Grasshopper (Kirigirisu) by Osamu Dazai
Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Le Grand Cahier by Ágota Kristóf
Kani Kōsen by Takiji Kobayashi
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Moon and Sixpence by William Somerset Maugham
The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster
Touge by Ryōtarō Shiba
The quote I picked out for my kids is:
“要趁自己还是孩子的时候,做尽丢人的事情,多给人添麻烦,多挨骂,把这些伤害都受一遍,然后才能好好活下去啊。”