Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, written by Satoshi Yagisawa and translated into English by Eric Ozawa,

Takako feels like she has an average life, with an adequate job after graduating from an adequate college. When her boyfriend Hideaki tells her he’s getting married to someone else, Takako drops him and quits her job, taking refuge in hours and hours of sleep.  (He’s not even cheating on her with someone he met recently or in a whirlwind romance, Takako painfully discovers that she’s been the other woman he’s been seeing behind his long-term fiance’s back.) It’s an appealing novel right from the start, even if Takako’s situation is not ideal. The descriptions of extreme sleep actually felt peaceful and appealing, somehow it called up times I’ve been ill and how restfully healing those 13-hour nights can be. And the description of a girl from outside the city coming to live and work in perfectly-good Tokyo job reminded me of Tomoka, the fashion retail worker in the beginning of What You Are Looking For Is in the Library.

Her unconventional uncle Satoru calls her and convinces her to move into the family’s bookshop and help him with the store. This is where the setting really shines, since the Morisaki Bookshop is a second-hand bookstore surrounded by other bookstores, in a neighborhood of secondhand bookshops. The setting works so well because Takako arrives kind of underwhelmed by the neighborhood, in a depression haze, but eventually she finds enjoyment here.

I often think Charming Little Bookshop™ is a twee setting for a cozy mystery or a romance novel, but it worked here. I think it works here because Takako isn’t impressed by being surrounded by books, and Satoru seems to be trying to balance being a book lover and being a businessman. Then there are the regulars, who are interested in following their hobbies or getting 100-yen bargains. The author and translator avoid letting any of the bookstore regulars seem too Quirky, but it does feel like real readers and used-book shoppers make the Morisaki Bookshop part of their days. This all works to make an engaging, attractive, and not too-cute literary setting.

Also, the novel’s theme is less about the magical power of books, more about the ways books help our characters to connect and to see themselves more clearly. It’s why What You Are Looking For Is in the Library worked for me, too, by focusing on how characters changed their actions and their thinking, rather than some magically transformative power of books.

Takako discovers classics of Japanese literature, but most of the titles weren’t familiar to me. I’m sure it would add more to know what mood she was getting from each book, but it kind of doesn’t matter for following the story. Any reader can empathize with the feeling of connecting with a new author.

The book is divided into two sections, one that’s more about Takako’s independence and one that’s more about her uncle Satoru and his wife Momoko. Unsurprisingly, I liked the coming-of-age part best. Takako’s realization that her life is not over, instead, it’s beginning and deepening, makes this a compelling story. The second part is good, partly because I was already so invested in Takako and Satoru, and partly because we move past a young person’s coming-of-age discoveries about life and happiness, into a middle-aged look at love and happiness.