Author: Genki Kawamura
Year of Publication: 25th October 2012
PLOT: 4.2/5
CHARACTERS: 3.8/5
WRITING: 3.5/5
CLIMAX: 4/5
ENTERTAINMENT: 4/5
Plot:
This fiction book is an attempt to find an answer to one of the most important questions of our lives- What matters most in life? This story is set in Japan (I love this country <3), our protagonist is being informed by his doctor that he has limited number of days to live because of brain tumor. While he is sad and shocked he parallelly starts thinking on what next- what should he do next to make his last hours worthwhile. While he was trying to figure out his rest of the short life, devil knocks on his door with an agreement-If he wants to live, everyday he will have to select anything which devil can wipe off from the planet. The more easy it sounds, the most difficult it gets.
Cats and humans have been partners for over ten thousand years. And what you realize when you’ve lived with a cat for a long time is that we may think we own them, but that’s not the way it is. They simply allow us the pleasure of their company.
Finally, the devil provokes protagonist to make the cat disappear from the world. This was impossible for our hero because of his love for cats which was passed on from his mother. Most of the time when we have pets at home, a common notion across minds is that we own them, we take care of them, but like mentioned above, this isn’t true. It is our pets who give us their unconditional love and care and which eventually help us to sail through life.
What I liked about the book?
Here our protagonist chose to wipe off phones, movies and clocks from the world. At first glance all of these seem so vital for living a happy life but later as they were wiped off our main character didn’t had any problem and was getting acclimatized to its absence. This was the time when he realised that devices like phones and clocks have not only made our lives easier but also have increased our dependency on them. On loosing our phones today, we would loose a lot of important & basic information, like some one else’s number or address or important dates etc.
Before disappearing movies, our main character wanted to watch ET, not because he loved the movie, plot or anything but mostly because it was one of the first movies that he had seen with his family and through rewatching the movie he wanted to relive that moment again. I really loved how immediately he was taken aback and relived all moments.
I also really liked how the author had clearly explained toxic masculinity in our society. A father and son, unable to talk to each other about their feelings. Both of them continued to live a life without speaking to each other and in the end our main character drops a letter to him, opening up about his feelings.
Who should read this?
This book is easy to read and should be read by all. The biggest spoiler lies in the title itself. At time you are easily able to predict the story line. But this is definitely a must read book, a journey of a man towards closure and reconciliation. Everyone should definitely read this book once.
Final Verdict
Yes, definitely a one time read.
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