Finishing this book is like letting go of a bird and still finding yourself caged. Locked with thoughts of what could have been’s, especially the shared moments between R and the narrator. The book was inconsistent with the small things such as the forgotten still being present

fruits, for example

but the feelings and the bleakness of their homes were there all throughout the book. I fell in love with the characters, finding the old man as my favorite. I see him as the symbol of humanity, the idea of helping a person with no return or exchange, and

his death had caused the disappearance of the narrator and the island, in connection

I cannot fathom the pain that R would have felt in the end

the knowledge that the person he had come to see in clarity is gone and there is no one else to look forward to

Ogawa truly highlights the virtues of life.