By Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Setting & details: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Authenticity of Japanese characters & dialogue: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Translation quality: ⭐⭐⭐
Entertainment value: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My recommendation: The idea behind these charming connected short stories is a clever one, each one playing out in a way that is uniquely Japanese. The reasons each of these characters longs to go back and relive a moment in their lives are not so different from those of people anywhere in the world, but the way this changes their lives is thought-provokingly Japanese.
The question this book poses is simple: what would you change if you could re-do a crucial scene in your life? Naturally, there’s a catch—you can only relive something that happened in the cafe where the stories are set, with the people who were there at the time, and you must come back to the present before your cup of coffee grows cold.
Each short story’s character has a sympathetic reason they’d like a Take Two—to ask a question that will help make an important decision, see a lost loved one for the last time, fix a botched break-up—and each pursues their chance to do so by doggedly overcoming the requirements imposed by the cranky ghost who occupies the time travel chair.
What makes these stories worth reading is that each character comes away with the answer they need, not the answer they expected. And even though their reasons for wanting a re-do are universal, the solutions are delightfully and thought-provokingly Japanese.
The one drawback is the translation, which is as good as a literal rendering can be, but does render the prose into the kind of nuance-challenged sentences that plague a lot of Japanese literature in translation. Fortunately, the success of these stories depends the plot, not delivering insights into the characters’ psyches or motives, so the book doesn’t suffer too much because of it.
You can get it right now from your favorite bookseller, or check out the May Japanagram Mini to see if you won a copy! All subscribers are automatically entered to win—if you’re not yet a member of this lucky group, click this button to subscribe, and be automatically signed up to enter.
How I pick the book giveaway winners: At the end of April, I will load all the email addresses of current Japanagram subscribers into an online random name picker and ask it to choose one lucky subscriber to get the book from this month’s review. I’ll publish the winner’s email in the next Japanagram (obscured in a way so only the subscriber will be able to recognize it as their own, of course) so check your May Japanagram Mini to see if you won!
If you’d like to be automatically entered every month to win the book or Japan swag giveaway, subscribe!
•
Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
Japanagram 