Skip to main content

Review - Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki

We despise our present life when we feel it is becoming monotonous. As nothing new is happening and you feel stuck, but even in this space, a zillion things happen which we cannot observe. This book feels like one. If you look at it from a third person's perspective, nothing much is happening. The protagonist also feels the same way for a while, I believe. The change lies in the Spring Garden and how the environment and nearby area have changed around it over a few years.

If you are going to look for a story in this book, you will find none. What you will get instead is the tidbits of the people who are obsessed with this Garden. How can a single object become everything for someone? You might feel weird at some point and wonder what is happening. Well, ain't we feel the same when we are frustrated? This book doesn't come with a sense of belongingness. Instead, it compels you to observe and choose a course of action. 

The barrenness of the city life can be perceived easily with the protagonist behaviour and lifestyle. We all know some people interact little, but take note of everything around. They won’t be the first person to reach out to you. It doesn’t mean they don't want to help, but you have to ask them out and, once you do, they might not look that odd. Our protagonist is an easy-going person, but you might call him lazy because of his habits or choices he made in life. Contrary to this, anyone can be like this irrespective of whether the person is from the countryside or city. Their individual decisions and choices make them who they are. 

I enjoyed reading this one, though this is a short book I took my time finishing. Maybe going slow is the reason I liked it more. The ending is not that great because I was expecting more from a character and got something else. Also, there are five more books in this standalone novella series. These are perfect for my current reading needs. So, I might get to these next, most probably. 

Rating – 4/5

Genre – Contemporary, Japanese Fiction

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review - The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

T here are certain books where you know you will like them even when you have read just 10 pages. There can be reasons behind it though, perhaps you have read the author before, or have found the narrative interesting, maybe the first para hooked you since the beginning or your instinct made you feel so. All these factors sum up what I feel for this story. It was too much to see Rumi long for the alter ego, meanwhile taking part in the worldly things where he used to judge and help people but from a distance. And as Shams entered his life, things changed drastically overnight. Meanwhile, there is a parallel story going about Ella and Aziz Zahara. These two stories intermingle in such a way where you can’t stop comparing one character to another. This book is all about love in different forms, it doesn’t restrict itself to romance but love between father and children, between two friends, between husband and wife, between a teacher and his disciples and between two strangers. There are ...
3 comments
Read more

Review - The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy

There are moments when you just want to ask questions and sit beside your friend. You want someone to answer them for you even if you know the answers yourselves. When the answers come from someone you are close to, they look much easier to deal with than before. They make more sense whenever you fail to convince yourself. Such is the magic of good friends and companionship. This book is all about it. You will read all about love, kindness, tenderness, and courage. The book revolves around The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, as the title suggests. First, the boy meets the mole, and later they meet Fox. As the journey goes on, they ask each other questions which are simple but thought-provoking. You would want to sit and think about answers that you would have given or hoped for after you are done reading. It will make you wonder how sometimes the simplest of things have the most impact. My favourite quote from the book is when the boy asks, “What is the bravest thing you’ve e...
2 comments
Read more

Productivity & Time

“As time goes on, you’ll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself. – Haruki Murakami” We all have been given this luxury right now to utilise the time at hand as per our needs, but are we able to do it? It seems so easy when we think about it but it isn’t; because if it would have been, we would not have been sitting in our living room wondering about either what to do next or how to get things done without being lazy. This lockdown has solved as well as created many problems for us. Where once we used to crave about the much-needed free time; now, we don’t know what to make of it. On top it, the added pressure of doing something productive is wreaking havoc in our mind. We all want to do something, learn something and some just want to chill (because that is the ultimate goal of their life). I wish I had that luxury too. Yes, I always end up using this statement because after every few ...
4 comments
Read more