[148th] Michiko Mamuro's bookshelf "Indranet" by Natsuo Kirino / KADOKAWA
Known as the "original charismatic bookseller," DAIKANYAMA TSUTAYA BOOKS, who recommends books in a variety of media including magazines and TV.
In this series, we take a peek into the "bookshelves" in the mind of our most popular concierge.
Please enjoy it along with his comments.
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"Indranet"
Natsuo Kirino / KADOKAWA
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Click on the image to go to the purchase page.
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The protagonist, Akira, is a boring 25-year-old young man. He graduated from a third-rate university, worked a job full of complaints, his room was in a terrible state, and now his personality is twisted and he's aggressive towards women. He's a terrible guy.
He had one glorious memory. In high school, he was friendly with a male classmate named Nonomiya Sorachi, who was the embodiment of intelligence and good looks. Sorachi chose Akira, who had nothing to be proud of in terms of looks, grades, or athletic ability, and he was the only one who was invited to his house. Thanks to him, he became someone everyone looked up to.
Moreover, Charisma had beautiful sisters. Touko, who was like a female version of Sorachi, was stunningly beautiful, and Ai, who was just "cute!" They also welcomed Akira. And then there was his carefree father, who came to his son's room to check on him, hanging a bottle of sake from his hand and asking, "Would you like a drink?" Only his mother was cold, but Akira was living in the light of Sorachi.
However, after graduating from high school, they became estranged. Their e-mails stopped and their phone numbers were changed. That was the beginning of Akira's miserable life.
One day, Akira receives news of the death of Nonomiya's father from his mother at home. He attends the funeral hoping to meet Sorachi, but neither he nor his sisters are there, and it is a lonely ceremony with less than ten mourners. Akira is forcibly taken to the coffin by his spiky mother, and when he peers in, he is shocked to see that his fat, cheerful father has become a "shriveled old man." His mother, who looks somewhat dirty, says in a disinterested tone, "It seems Sorachi has gone to Cambodia."
On the way home from the funeral, a man named Yasui approaches them. He introduces himself as Touko's ex-husband and asks if they can go to Cambodia to look for Sorachi, offering to cover the expenses. "The three siblings are always together. If you find one, you'll find them all. I don't want to get back together with Touko, I just want to make sure she's safe." Miwa, a man looking for Ai, also approaches them.
Whatever kind of person Yasui is, the scene where he asks Akira, "Since I lost sight of Touko, I've been getting worse and worse. Nothing's going right, and something's strange," and "It's the same with the Nonomiya family. Dad shrunk so much when he died, and now Mom is like a witch. Have you changed at all?" is memorable. It works like a curse on the whole story. Indeed, everyone who was involved with the three siblings and left them is living a life of decline...
Akira grows up in Cambodia, as if he is getting closer to the light source and his figure is becoming clearer as he searches for Sorachi. Some people look at the photo of the handsome searcher and ask, "Do you like men?" with a grin, but this is not homosexuality.
For Akira, Sorachi is his "soulmate." Most adventure stories tend to end with "charisma and companionship," but in a good story, at a certain point the hero also entrusts himself to his companions. It becomes a relationship that goes beyond "master and servant," "protect and be protected," "friendship," or "love," and is one in which they share a destiny. It's not a case of "if we meet again, we'll be able to bathe in the light again, and that's a good thing." It doesn't matter whether he has power or not. In the heated atmosphere, Akira just madly wishes that Sorachi would entrust himself to him.
How readers interpret the last scene will be up to them. The two are one in the same body, as they could not have wished for. Is it joy or despair that wells up inside them? This is a great masterpiece by Natsuo Kirino.
He had one glorious memory. In high school, he was friendly with a male classmate named Nonomiya Sorachi, who was the embodiment of intelligence and good looks. Sorachi chose Akira, who had nothing to be proud of in terms of looks, grades, or athletic ability, and he was the only one who was invited to his house. Thanks to him, he became someone everyone looked up to.
Moreover, Charisma had beautiful sisters. Touko, who was like a female version of Sorachi, was stunningly beautiful, and Ai, who was just "cute!" They also welcomed Akira. And then there was his carefree father, who came to his son's room to check on him, hanging a bottle of sake from his hand and asking, "Would you like a drink?" Only his mother was cold, but Akira was living in the light of Sorachi.
However, after graduating from high school, they became estranged. Their e-mails stopped and their phone numbers were changed. That was the beginning of Akira's miserable life.
One day, Akira receives news of the death of Nonomiya's father from his mother at home. He attends the funeral hoping to meet Sorachi, but neither he nor his sisters are there, and it is a lonely ceremony with less than ten mourners. Akira is forcibly taken to the coffin by his spiky mother, and when he peers in, he is shocked to see that his fat, cheerful father has become a "shriveled old man." His mother, who looks somewhat dirty, says in a disinterested tone, "It seems Sorachi has gone to Cambodia."
On the way home from the funeral, a man named Yasui approaches them. He introduces himself as Touko's ex-husband and asks if they can go to Cambodia to look for Sorachi, offering to cover the expenses. "The three siblings are always together. If you find one, you'll find them all. I don't want to get back together with Touko, I just want to make sure she's safe." Miwa, a man looking for Ai, also approaches them.
Whatever kind of person Yasui is, the scene where he asks Akira, "Since I lost sight of Touko, I've been getting worse and worse. Nothing's going right, and something's strange," and "It's the same with the Nonomiya family. Dad shrunk so much when he died, and now Mom is like a witch. Have you changed at all?" is memorable. It works like a curse on the whole story. Indeed, everyone who was involved with the three siblings and left them is living a life of decline...
Akira grows up in Cambodia, as if he is getting closer to the light source and his figure is becoming clearer as he searches for Sorachi. Some people look at the photo of the handsome searcher and ask, "Do you like men?" with a grin, but this is not homosexuality.
For Akira, Sorachi is his "soulmate." Most adventure stories tend to end with "charisma and companionship," but in a good story, at a certain point the hero also entrusts himself to his companions. It becomes a relationship that goes beyond "master and servant," "protect and be protected," "friendship," or "love," and is one in which they share a destiny. It's not a case of "if we meet again, we'll be able to bathe in the light again, and that's a good thing." It doesn't matter whether he has power or not. In the heated atmosphere, Akira just madly wishes that Sorachi would entrust himself to him.
How readers interpret the last scene will be up to them. The two are one in the same body, as they could not have wished for. Is it joy or despair that wells up inside them? This is a great masterpiece by Natsuo Kirino.
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DAIKANYAMA TSUTAYA BOOKS Literature Concierge
Michiko Mamuro
【profile】
She is the "original charismatic bookseller" who recommends books in various media such as magazines and TV. She has a serial in the magazine "Fujingaho", the online magazine "Tabiiro TABIIRO", and Asahi Shimbun Digital's "Honya no Hon". She is also active as a book critic, and her paperback commentaries include "Tiny Stories" (Yamada Eimi/Bunshun Bunko), "Motherhood" (Minato Kanae/Shincho Bunko), "Meandering Moon" (Sakuragi Shino/Futaba Bunko), and "Staph" (Michio Shusuke/Bunshun Bunko).
