December Books - Japanese double bill

The sound of Waves - By Yukio Mishima

I had never heard of the author but picked the book because of it’s aged look. The paper was was almost brown but the book was in one piece. Also the fascinating bio of author. He was one of the famous writer of Japan who made an impact in the western world. Many of his books are made into movies but most controversial fact is that he committed seppuku (ritual suicide) when he was only 45 years old. This book was written in 19 54, 15 years before I was born. 

It’s a simple story of love between 2 young adults. The story is based in an idyllic Japanese fishing village in an island somewhere in Japan. It brings out the simple lifestyle and hardships which people in that time were going through. Men did fishing and women dived to get sea weeds / corals. Life was very very simple - very few actually went to the city. Shinji’s (the man in the story) brother goes to Tokyo for the first time and sees a movie. It’s like life was in that age in many villages of India especially tribals. The book paints a very nice visual image of Japan in 50’s - their focus on praying to sea god that they come back safe and sharing their catch with the priest of shrine or the lighthouse keeper who are doing service for the society. The myth of the shrine which was built on top of the mountain 1000’s of year before and people climbing 100’s of stairs to pray. Then the duty.  of the family member in getting water or washing etc. After a long time I read a simple book - more than book the experience and the kind of feeling it evoked was that of peace, love, the power of values and principles, respect. 

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop - Satoshi Yagisawa

This was written in 2010 but got translated in 20 23. Again a very simple book about transformation and making choices. The environment has become modern because of connectivity physical and mobile/internet. The cultural milieu is similar to the other book although they are written 60 years later. Takako’s uncle is trying to run a book shop which sells 2nd hand books that too of a specific category. Being a book lover I found the whole concept of a district / market which has many shops selling only old books very interesting. What is more interesting is that every store specializes in a particular type / category of book. In a way the story revolves around books, it’s transformation capability or how a book can make 2 people friends or maybe fall in love. A warm book to read on a winter night. I read it during my travel in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan which was very cold and was a perfect book to give me company.

I read The sound of waves then Normal People and then Morisaki Bookshop. The day I finished Normal People I was quite agitated, nothing specific but just that the book was so intense that it like a storm or hurricane has hit you and it created a sense of anger in me for labeling people treating treating them in a bad way. When I finished both the Japanese books it was like a beautiful sunset which you want to touch, you want to believe in love, joy and all that is beautiful in life. And looking back it clearly shows the impact a book can have in a reader.