Ms Ice Sandwich: Mieko Kawakami (Japanese Novellas)

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The cusp of adolescence is a tumultuous time when everything you thought you understood about life, yourself and others is suddenly rent asunder. I had the thought that to create a proper love song, you need to confront a certain kind of shallowness and selfishness.

But life keeps getting in the way - there's his beloved grandmother's illness, and a faltering friendship with his classmate Tutti, who she invites him into her private world. The casual tone of his narration, which often emphasised his age and naïveté, made his voice all the more authentic. If you want to see somebody you have to make plans to meet, or even make plans to make plans, and next thing you end up not seeing them anymore. The translator Louise Heal Kawai should also be commented on her excellent translation from the original Japanese source to English where she manages to make the story flow in a natural manner.Ms Ice Sandwich is a succession of wonderful, vividly depicted observations seen through the innocent eyes of a bright, attentive child, and is very effective despite being relatively short. Ever since the publication of Breasts and Eggs Meiko Kawakami’s has become more popular but before the English translation of that novel, indie press, Pushkin quietly released this novella way pre-Kawakami mania.

The story revolves around a young boy whose name and exact age are never really revealed (I'm guessing he's a junior high schooler but I could be wrong), who has fallen in love with the lady who makes and sells sandwiches at the supermarket. It’s quite sweet rather than gross because in the later section of the book he becomes distantly protective of her, yet he feels helpless about it all – and/but doesn’t feel like she is his for the taking. Ultimately, he must learn that image and looks are not what make a person and this is his first foray into the cruel and unjust standards enforced in a patriarchial society. I felt the loneliness and confusion of this kid, who is something of an outsider, disconnected even from his mother, who seems more interested in her phone than her son. Again, I’m always so glad to have your insight into literature and your participation in the Japanese Literature Challenge(s).A friend casually told me once when we were out drinking (pre-Covid) about how he thinks high-school (romantic) relationships ‘don’t count’ as proper relationships. And she goes on to talk about how even as a grown woman, there are certain moments, during the half-conscious moments of waking up from a deep sleep – in a sort of peaceful haze – that she almost forgets that she’s a ‘woman’. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. The Japanese philosophy “mono no aware” (an appreciation of the beauty attached to the fragility of life) is a recurring theme in Japanese art and literature and this story is a great example of that. Stories with child protagonists, stories about adolescence, and coming-of-age stories are not usually what I reach for.