Entry tags:
March in books
Trying to remember my thoughts about books I read a month ago and have already mostly forgotten ;___;
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Quirky and intermittently bleak historical fiction that follows (and critiques) the trajectory of the Russian Revolution. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is tried and sentenced to a lifetime of confinement in the Metropol for being a class enemy, but he opts to embrace what life has to offer. Life embraces back.
For most of the novel you follow him through his routine from his little room in the attic to the fancy restaurant, barbershop, etc etc, and he gets to grow emotionally and find family among the hotel staff and some of the guests. Over the course of thirty years, the various effects and undulations of the Revolution trickle into his little life.
I'm generally pretty blind to history so I guess it was useful for me to have this contextualized in fiction (even though I skip-read a lot of the early bits ^^;). Rostov's that type of wish-fulfillment Gary Stu that is mostly inoffensive but I simply don't care about. He's a ~gentleman~, one of the last true ones in Russia, which means all the cool people like him and are impressed by him. There are some found family beats I found touching, but I'm not a fan of fatherhood fantasies where the daughter is precocious and emotionally well-adjusted. Again, I don't think this is one of the worst offenders since the daughter figures are still characters in their own right and it's very sweet that they change his life and his priorities. I just think it shouldn't be this convenient, especially with one of them going through a lot of trauma.
Keigo Higashino - Miracles of the Namiya General Store (translated by Sam Bett)
Historical fantasy novel that reflects the state of Japan's economy from 1980 to 2012: a magical mailbox creates a bubble in time that connects past and present with letters. As more letters appear, you see how the characters' lives intersect. The convergence point is very moving!
I was already kind of familiar with the premise, especially since there was a Who's the Murderer episode that came out during the pandemic featuring a Chinese cover of the Mika Nakashima / amazarashi song I Once Thought About Ending It All (I really love both language versions), but never knew how much real estate was involved in the original story... Overall a solid book with twists and emotional knives. Not sure I loved it but it's a well-executed ensemble canon with a lot of humanity.
Both the Japanese and Chinese movies came out in 2017 but I haven't seen either and don't know if I ever will because I don't deal well with heavy themes onscreen... I just want to experience the songs haha.
Content notes: contains themes of death, suicide, aging parents
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Also finally finished the Dungeon Meshi manga (vol8 onwards; fantranslation)! I'm so happy the canon is complete. ♥ I didn't expect to mainline the last volumes, actually! I normally read these in increments, which I think is the most natural pace, but the plot really does pick up towards the second half, which is very meaty and satisfying. It's not the kind of manga I usually read (and in fact I've never been fannish about it), but my tumblr/Twitter moots circa 2015-2017 were very into it. XD And the art, characters, and world-building are so well-designed and the themes so memorable and well-constructed. ;__: Because the storytelling style has a more, idk, tabletop RPG structure, the character expositions are spread out very well and it felt organic for them to tell their stories as they reached a sufficient amount of intimacy with the other characters.
PS. I didn't notice the logotype until the anime (which I'm not watching) OP2 dropped. It's been like that since the manga apparently!!!! It's so good ;____;
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor TowlesQuirky and intermittently bleak historical fiction that follows (and critiques) the trajectory of the Russian Revolution. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov is tried and sentenced to a lifetime of confinement in the Metropol for being a class enemy, but he opts to embrace what life has to offer. Life embraces back.
For most of the novel you follow him through his routine from his little room in the attic to the fancy restaurant, barbershop, etc etc, and he gets to grow emotionally and find family among the hotel staff and some of the guests. Over the course of thirty years, the various effects and undulations of the Revolution trickle into his little life.
I'm generally pretty blind to history so I guess it was useful for me to have this contextualized in fiction (even though I skip-read a lot of the early bits ^^;). Rostov's that type of wish-fulfillment Gary Stu that is mostly inoffensive but I simply don't care about. He's a ~gentleman~, one of the last true ones in Russia, which means all the cool people like him and are impressed by him. There are some found family beats I found touching, but I'm not a fan of fatherhood fantasies where the daughter is precocious and emotionally well-adjusted. Again, I don't think this is one of the worst offenders since the daughter figures are still characters in their own right and it's very sweet that they change his life and his priorities. I just think it shouldn't be this convenient, especially with one of them going through a lot of trauma.
Keigo Higashino - Miracles of the Namiya General Store (translated by Sam Bett)Historical fantasy novel that reflects the state of Japan's economy from 1980 to 2012: a magical mailbox creates a bubble in time that connects past and present with letters. As more letters appear, you see how the characters' lives intersect. The convergence point is very moving!
I was already kind of familiar with the premise, especially since there was a Who's the Murderer episode that came out during the pandemic featuring a Chinese cover of the Mika Nakashima / amazarashi song I Once Thought About Ending It All (I really love both language versions), but never knew how much real estate was involved in the original story... Overall a solid book with twists and emotional knives. Not sure I loved it but it's a well-executed ensemble canon with a lot of humanity.
Both the Japanese and Chinese movies came out in 2017 but I haven't seen either and don't know if I ever will because I don't deal well with heavy themes onscreen... I just want to experience the songs haha.
Content notes: contains themes of death, suicide, aging parents
-
Also finally finished the Dungeon Meshi manga (vol8 onwards; fantranslation)! I'm so happy the canon is complete. ♥ I didn't expect to mainline the last volumes, actually! I normally read these in increments, which I think is the most natural pace, but the plot really does pick up towards the second half, which is very meaty and satisfying. It's not the kind of manga I usually read (and in fact I've never been fannish about it), but my tumblr/Twitter moots circa 2015-2017 were very into it. XD And the art, characters, and world-building are so well-designed and the themes so memorable and well-constructed. ;__: Because the storytelling style has a more, idk, tabletop RPG structure, the character expositions are spread out very well and it felt organic for them to tell their stories as they reached a sufficient amount of intimacy with the other characters.
PS. I didn't notice the logotype until the anime (which I'm not watching) OP2 dropped. It's been like that since the manga apparently!!!! It's so good ;____;