Thursday, October 15, 2009 I've pestered everyone I've come in contact this week nearly to death by relating events and dialogue from Itaike na Shujin (Nakazato Mitsuru). Since I really can't put my thoughts regarding it into any kind of bloggable order (and I'm not even halfway done so it really wouldn't be fair) I thought I'd dump my equally disordered thoughts regarding Dorobou no Meijin (same author) instead. I wrote them up a few days ago intending to see if I could produce a coherent book review, and I think that anyone who reads this will agree with me that they belong here more than anywhere else. Dorobou no Meijin. The illustrations and summary made me wary of this book. Frankly, I thought it would be creepy, but I decided to give it a chance after reading a couple of reviews. While I still don't like the way the illustrations portray the protagonist, I quite enjoyed the book overall (and I rather like the illustrator's style - just not their all of their character designs). Set mainly in an antiquarian bookstore devoid of customers and an apartment where the only leisure activity is reading, wrapped up in reminiscence and comparisons to folk-tales, the atmosphere was enjoyably surreal. When I tried to explain this impression to her, my mother pointed out a certain similarity to The Thirteenth Tale (Diane Setterfield), which I couldn't help but agree with to some degree. I also liked how the story was developed. With the exception of the drama surrounding the conclusion, it read like digging through a set of unusually well-ordered memories pertaining to a particular life-changing event. Conversations that were significant to the heroine, her thoughts at the time, footnotes added while reminiscing at a later date. Some strange hybrid between a soliloquy, a diary and a collection of memoirs. That is not to say that it does not contain things like servicey sororal skinship, a tsundere elementary schooler and a few other well-worn cliches. The story is fluff, but fluff constructed of material which I found interesting. Labels: books J was inspired at 11:13 PM 0 pennies 0 Comments: Post a Comment

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