I don't know why I bother to read this. But I did. The author's last short was 'First Person Singular' (2020), and he hasn't released a short in a while till this one. So I read it, and I'm glad I did so that I can have a critique about it. LOLOLOL
The story begins with 26-year-old children's book writer Kaho on a blind date with a nearly 40-year-old man named Sahara. The contact they had in common is Machida, Kaho's editor in a small publishing company in Kanda. Sahara and Kaho had dinner. After dessert and before coffee, he intentionally insulted her with,
“I’ve dated all kinds of women in my life,” the man said, “but I have to say I’ve never seen one as ugly as you.”
“Saying you’re the ugliest may be a bit of an overstatement,” the man added after a pause. “But you are the plainest woman I’ve seen, no doubt about it.”
Gawwd. The nerve of a blind date to say that. He's almost twenty years older at that. The story didn't describe how he looked or his physique or such. But I'm just going to think the worst of him. The best reaction to this sort of insult, is to quietly stand up and walk out at the steady pace. Never let this type of man have the satisfaction of seeing you infuriated or extremely affected.
Now, Kaho happens to be a woman who is oblivious or indifferent to her looks. So she didn't react in the extreme. She was offended, but she was more curious about the reasons why he said that. So for the rest of the story, we speculate alongside Kaho why he had insulted her such. I rolled my eyes at yet another 'Murakami Man'. However, I'm slightly cheered by this story because it signifies a slight shift in this author's worlds to featuring stronger women. Let's see how it goes. If I like his treatment of women in his future stories, I'd call them the 'Murakami Woman'.
In an interview with the same magazine about this short story, the author said that,
I wrote this story specifically for a public reading, and I needed to capture the audience’s attention from the first paragraph. I’m sure they were quite surprised by what they heard.
Sahara had the nerve to ask her out for a second date. Kaho, surprisingly, agreed, but on three conditions that it must be in the day, with no meal or alcohol involved, and in an uncrowded and quiet enough place for a chat. Kaho wanted to find out why he said those rather offensive lines to her. He explained that he did it intentionally, and he doesn't just say it to her; he says it to all the women he meets. From then on, it wasn't a pleasant conversation. This man is a complete narcissist, maybe a psychopathic killer.
The story ended on a really positive note. Kaho wrote and drew picture books for children, but she never became very known, and her books don't sell that well. She was in a funk. The encounter with Sahara provided the push that she needed — it formed the inspiration for her to produce a new children's book, published and sold to roaring success. Six months after that blind date, the story about a girl who lost her face while asleep and wants it back, and goes in search of her face hit the shelves. Everyone loved it! Well, I'd love to read this story in a picture book format too.
For some reason—and Kaho herself wasn’t at all sure why—this book seemed to spark something in the hearts of children, especially girls in their early teens. These young readers excitedly followed the girl’s adventures and trials as she set off into the wide world in search of her face. And when, in the end, the girl found her face and discovered inner peace, readers breathed a sigh of relief. The writing was simple, Kaho’s illustrations symbolic, monochrome line drawings.
And that tale—the work of writing and illustrating it—brought a kind of emotional healing to Kaho as well. I can live in this world as me, just as I am, she realized. There’s nothing to fear. The dream she’d seen at the bottom of the sea had taught her that. The anxiety she’d felt in the middle of the night grew fainter. Though she couldn’t say it was gone completely.
The book sold steadily, through word of mouth, and got a good review in a newspaper. Machida was thrilled.
“I’m thinking this children’s book may become a long-term best-seller. I just get that feeling,” Machida said. “It’s a completely different style from your other books, which surprised me at first. But I wonder, where did you get the idea for it?”
After thinking about it for a moment, Kaho replied. “In a very dark, deep place,” she said.
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