Todd A. Shimoda

It's been awhile since I've read this one, but this book was amazing. The book encapsulates the experience of "mono no aware", taking the reader on a journey of understanding the concept alongside the protagonist. The concept itself, as defined by the late Donald Richie is "a slightly sweet and sad quality as appreciated by an observer sensitive to the ephemeral nature of existence" (A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics p. 72), and this book manages to capture the feelings this concept evokes rather well. The book was a pleasure to read, and was also a pleasure to hold; the tactile sensations of feeling the pages beneath ones fingers added to this sense of awe that the book elicits.

If you are looking for a book that explores this concept as experiential instead of as an academic exercise, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. It's been quite a few years since I've read this, but I still remember the lingering sense of sadness and awe that I experienced while reading it.… (meer)

If "The Fourth Treasure" was a slightly more "adult" version of Banana Yoshimoto books (adult in the sense of grown-up, not X-Rated) this one seems to be a Japanese version of Ballard.

I don't mean that Shimoda can't write without parroting someone else's style, it's just that this book is more about disturbed characters and the madness that can thrive under the surface of a perfectly ordinary and apparently sane society (in this case, Japan).

In a sense a very slight trace of this was already present in "The Fourth Treasure", but now this specific brand of insanity gets center stage.

The author tries a few tricks fragmenting the main narrative and supplementing it with sidebars told from the point of view of various other characters, most contemporary, some for the past).

I liked it, but be warned that the tone is dark and could leave some aftertaste.… (meer)