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A review by kmardahl
Min fjerne barndomsby by Jirō Taniguchi
5.0
This was an excellent and amazing story that was perfectly suited to the manga/graphic novel style. It's my third Taniguchi, but now I need more. My mind is also ruminating over possible panels to follow the very last panel in the album!!
Oddly, there is no description here on Goodreads, so I'll provide one for orientation.
Hiroshi Nakahara is a 48-year-old busy businessman on a business trip away from home. He sounds like a workoholic who is also a bit dissatisfied with life in some vague way. While heading home after the trip, he takes the wrong train. He ends up in his childhood village. He has a few hours to kill while waiting for a train in the right direction, so he wanders about town, sees where his home used to be, and visits his mother's grave. While praying to her, he feels something happen and discovers that he is in a child's body - the body of his 14-year-old self. Somehow, he is back in 1963 with his mother, father, and little sister a few months before his father mysteriously disappears forever from their lives. With his 48 years of knowledge! When he realises he is stuck in time, he vows to stop his father from disappearing...
The illustrations are what I call clean drawings. That is, realistic drawings of people and objects and places. I love this style from the brush and pens of Taniguchi. I love the details and the stories the illustrations themselves tell. They enhance the words spoken or thought by the characters.
I read this in Danish and Mette Holm, the translator, indicates her admiration for Taniguchi in her preface. She felt it was an honor to be asked to translate Taniguchi. I think that respect shines through. I can't read the original Japanese, so I must trust the quality of her words. I think she did everything perfectly because I was caught up in the story and the characters created by Taniguchi. So thank you, Mette Holm!
Nakahara poses a lot of serious questions about what we want or expect from life. At the same time, we get a very entertaining story about life in Japan after the war and into the early 60s. Entertaining? Nothing wacky happens. This is an everyday tale (except for the time travel!), and that is what makes it so appealing to me. Everyday people do ponder a lot of big, serious questions all the time. This is just one perspective. It's not an intense or deep philosophy, but the questions are still valid. The vehicle of the manga is just perfect for telling Nakahara's tale.
Take a look at the book online, in your library, or your local graphic novel store. I can highly recommend getting to know Hiroshi Nakahara. Thank you, Jiro Taniguchi (and Mette Holm)!
Oddly, there is no description here on Goodreads, so I'll provide one for orientation.
Hiroshi Nakahara is a 48-year-old busy businessman on a business trip away from home. He sounds like a workoholic who is also a bit dissatisfied with life in some vague way. While heading home after the trip, he takes the wrong train. He ends up in his childhood village. He has a few hours to kill while waiting for a train in the right direction, so he wanders about town, sees where his home used to be, and visits his mother's grave. While praying to her, he feels something happen and discovers that he is in a child's body - the body of his 14-year-old self. Somehow, he is back in 1963 with his mother, father, and little sister a few months before his father mysteriously disappears forever from their lives. With his 48 years of knowledge! When he realises he is stuck in time, he vows to stop his father from disappearing...
The illustrations are what I call clean drawings. That is, realistic drawings of people and objects and places. I love this style from the brush and pens of Taniguchi. I love the details and the stories the illustrations themselves tell. They enhance the words spoken or thought by the characters.
I read this in Danish and Mette Holm, the translator, indicates her admiration for Taniguchi in her preface. She felt it was an honor to be asked to translate Taniguchi. I think that respect shines through. I can't read the original Japanese, so I must trust the quality of her words. I think she did everything perfectly because I was caught up in the story and the characters created by Taniguchi. So thank you, Mette Holm!
Nakahara poses a lot of serious questions about what we want or expect from life. At the same time, we get a very entertaining story about life in Japan after the war and into the early 60s. Entertaining? Nothing wacky happens. This is an everyday tale (except for the time travel!), and that is what makes it so appealing to me. Everyday people do ponder a lot of big, serious questions all the time. This is just one perspective. It's not an intense or deep philosophy, but the questions are still valid. The vehicle of the manga is just perfect for telling Nakahara's tale.
Take a look at the book online, in your library, or your local graphic novel store. I can highly recommend getting to know Hiroshi Nakahara. Thank you, Jiro Taniguchi (and Mette Holm)!