Disclaimer: My dislike of this novel is all on me, I take full responsibility. This is a great novel.

In my enthusiastic whirl after reading Kusakamura, I had high expectations for this novel, which is a recipe for disaster if you asked me.. 
It was technically imho a great novel. Only it wasn't for me. 

I don't usually like novels with themes of obsession and idolizing people, and I'm really weirded out with olden cultures romanticizing suicide. I was uncomfortable reading this. By the halfway point, I was dragging myself by my hair to read it. This fact, in hindsight, should've led me to sense early on that eventually I would not like it, but I was again in my enthusiastic whirl, and I ignored all signs and followed through. I should have dropped it.

P.S.

Sensei is a cunt