Scan barcode
A review by tristesse
A Hundred Years and a Day: 34 Stories by Fiction › World Literature › JapanFiction / LiteraryFiction / Short Stories (single author)Fiction / World Literature / Japan
3.5
Good collection of short stories, most are mildly entertaining. The stories I particularly take a liking: 7, 8, 15, 17, 27, 28, and 29.
I think it's fascinating how we get these glimpses into one's life, someone before, and after them; how some things change and others stay the same no matter how much time has passed.
Here is brief explanation of my favorites:
7. The character doesn't dwell too much, simply follows the flow of life.
8. Discuss economy plays an important part in our life.
“If you've got no money then you can't do anything, wherever you go. Wherever you go, it's the same.”
15. Relatable, how we just drift apart from some people without any fight.. the only reason being life happens.
“Sometimes they'd recall a particular movie that they've seen together in that cinema. At those times, they'd want to talk with someone about what they'd seen, but would have the feeling nobody would get what they were trying to say, apart from the person they'd been to the cinema with, so they didn't say anything.”
17. How we see a piece of someone's life through stuff they once owned. Wondering what attracted them to this object we are currently drawn into as we stumble upon it in a secondhand store.
27. The realization that the very place we are standing on didn't always exist, and may be gone.
“Would even this small coastal country─where ever more high-rise buildings were being built, and where the sight of soil beneath one's foot had disappeared long ago─be returned do desert someday in the distant future?”
28. Wintry vibes. I like this one most of all.
A boy having a conversation with his friend on their way home days before his disappearance, and this friend thought of something that seems foreboding.
“Looking at the fallen snow sparkling blue-white at their feet despite the darkness of the sky, from which fresh snow fell ceaselessly, the fourth-floor kid wondered if in fact those two words, scary and beautiful, meant the same thing.”
29. One of the characters saying “I feel like a ghost is less scary than someone with bad intentions." in response to horror gossip, commenting how creepy old guys' obsession with Japanese young girls in school uniform.
I think it's fascinating how we get these glimpses into one's life, someone before, and after them; how some things change and others stay the same no matter how much time has passed.
Here is brief explanation of my favorites:
7. The character doesn't dwell too much, simply follows the flow of life.
8. Discuss economy plays an important part in our life.
“If you've got no money then you can't do anything, wherever you go. Wherever you go, it's the same.”
15. Relatable, how we just drift apart from some people without any fight.. the only reason being life happens.
“Sometimes they'd recall a particular movie that they've seen together in that cinema. At those times, they'd want to talk with someone about what they'd seen, but would have the feeling nobody would get what they were trying to say, apart from the person they'd been to the cinema with, so they didn't say anything.”
17. How we see a piece of someone's life through stuff they once owned. Wondering what attracted them to this object we are currently drawn into as we stumble upon it in a secondhand store.
27. The realization that the very place we are standing on didn't always exist, and may be gone.
“Would even this small coastal country─where ever more high-rise buildings were being built, and where the sight of soil beneath one's foot had disappeared long ago─be returned do desert someday in the distant future?”
28. Wintry vibes. I like this one most of all.
A boy having a conversation with his friend on their way home days before his disappearance, and this friend thought of something that seems foreboding.
“Looking at the fallen snow sparkling blue-white at their feet despite the darkness of the sky, from which fresh snow fell ceaselessly, the fourth-floor kid wondered if in fact those two words, scary and beautiful, meant the same thing.”
29. One of the characters saying “I feel like a ghost is less scary than someone with bad intentions." in response to horror gossip, commenting how creepy old guys' obsession with Japanese young girls in school uniform.