Connie’s Reviews > Birnbaum: Rabbits, Crabs Paper > Status Update

“What is a destination? She does not know. For Kazue, is there something at the destination resembling happiness? Is happiness not the accumulation of the present circumstances upon which one builds, or, rather, is happiness something that lies ahead after she gets through her present circumstances? Is the surging ahead the only thing for Kazue? Is she merely going forward restlessly without even being conscious of the something ahead? Is it mere animal strength? Kazue does not know.”

“They lived together in that place, where they excluded all emotional influences, avoiding all contact. Or they put on the appearance of not seeing while actually seeing what the other person was doing, and in this manner they minimized the injuries they inflicted upon each other.”

“But Kazue is now alone in this mountain house. Perhaps because no one tries to stop Kazue from acting positively, she does not have to think about hesitating because the other person objects. Her only restraint is lack of money, and there are perhaps times when she does not even pay attention to this. Kazue probably does not feel the loneliness of living by herself since, as was mentioned before, Kazue collects any number of fragmented bits of happiness from her existence and lives with them at her side. For there is the great enjoyment she experienced the moment she looked down from her second-floor terrace and saw that the stream has frozen over and the water had formed small mirrors of ice. Is this her way of protecting herself? But there is also the fact that Kazue can recall the turmoil which welled up in her heart on the day she wondered whether all the men she had lived with were on the sidelines observing her and, standing at the spot from where they had sent her on her way alone, had heaved a sigh of relief.”