I don't know if it was the formatting - one long meandering story - or simply the hodgepodge of themes and issues that plagued this book. Maybe adding sub-headers would have given it some structure, instead of the shapeless blob it became in the end. And really, I had such high hopes for it when I began my reading. But this heartbreaking dystopian tale of a beleagured, hungry and isolated Japan, with its contaminated food, forbidden foreign words and maps, weak children and immortal, überhealthy elders who remember too much, left me as forlorn as the country.
Yoshiro, Mumei's great-grandfather, yearns for a former existence built on superconsumption and life beliefs that made sense, A time when children were the strong and the elderly the weak. The relationship between the two was sweet, but I wanted to know more Mumei, who we learn early on is a special, hypersensitive star child. Unfortunately, 75% of the book was told from elderly Yoshiro's POV (which was good, mind you), when suddenly, the book switches to Mumei's narration. That would have been great if it had simply stuck with Mumei, but the remainder of the book again splinters off into other directions, with new and unfamiliar characters appearing out of nowhere. What happens to Yoshiro? Who knows. I also wanted to know more about what disaster had befallen the country to cause the contamination and extreme isolationism. Did it happen suddenly, or over time? Are we living up to that collapse right now? I guess. This was a mixed-up cautionary tale that had good intentions, but ultimately fell flat.
Yoshiro, Mumei's great-grandfather, yearns for a former existence built on superconsumption and life beliefs that made sense, A time when children were the strong and the elderly the weak. The relationship between the two was sweet, but I wanted to know more Mumei, who we learn early on is a special, hypersensitive star child. Unfortunately, 75% of the book was told from elderly Yoshiro's POV (which was good, mind you), when suddenly, the book switches to Mumei's narration. That would have been great if it had simply stuck with Mumei, but the remainder of the book again splinters off into other directions, with new and unfamiliar characters appearing out of nowhere. What happens to Yoshiro? Who knows. I also wanted to know more about what disaster had befallen the country to cause the contamination and extreme isolationism. Did it happen suddenly, or over time? Are we living up to that collapse right now? I guess. This was a mixed-up cautionary tale that had good intentions, but ultimately fell flat.