A short story about the inner self of a woman in her thirties, who has forgotten secrets of her past. The main character, honestly, was a bit annoying, as she was too full of her self and she thought that she was better than anyone else, being an actress and all and now living in Tokyo. That attitude of hers was repulsive at first, as the story starts with her complaining about having to attend a school reunion at a rural area. The big secret was surprising, and still, one could easily figure it out. What the reader can't figure out is where the story is heading. And I love how this author can create a universe in such a limited space. A few pages and you have a story!
"If we think of our memories as having a shape, then one possibility is that they come in the shape of a box..... And so it happened that one day a box was delivered to me. I can’t say how big it was or what it looked like, but there was no mistaking that I had received it."
A thirty-something, successful woman travels to her rural town to attend a school reunion. Casual conversation results in her having flashbacks of a friendship with someone forever lost in time. You may read the story here. Mieko Kawakami
“If we think of our memories as having a shape, then one possibility is that they come in the shape of a box. I know that this is not entirely an original idea, but that doesn’t make it untrue. After all, we are born with more or less ordinary faces and bodies, deal with ordinary problems, share them with other ordinary people who come and go in our lives and eventually die. We all go through that, every one of us. As long as we’re alive, we can’t escape the utter ordinariness of our existence.”
Just in few pages Kawakami can create a whole world, she’s so talented!
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