Translated by Cat Anderson
Normally it’s rare for me to manage to fit in a Japanese book for #JanuaryInJapan hosted by Tony’s Reading List, but not having totally focused on Nordic fare this Jan (although I do have one to come before the month ends), I did it! And I shall try to read one or more Japanese books in February too, as Dolce Belezza’s Japanese Literature Challenge 18 runs throughout Jan and Feb.
It was impossible for me to resist this title, and the lovely cover too. I bought it crossing my fingers and hoping that it wouldn’t be too twee or formulaic. Since the success of the Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Morisaki Bookshop series, to pick out just two of many now, the market has been flooded in cosy Japanese translation recently.
Although it reads like a novel told in the first person, The Bookshop Woman is actually a memoir, which I hadn’t realised when I bought it. Nanako Hanada tells the story of her year after her break-up with her husband and the novel way which she uses to find and meet new people and make friends, all suffused with a love of books and bookselling.
As I said, she has recently split up with her husband. As she begins her story, she is determined not to be defined by her broken marriage.
My life is so lacking . . . I feel like I want to see things I’ve never seen before. To put myself out there, become a new me, a happy me.
Nanako manages a bookshop in Tokyo. When she first went to work at Village Vanguard ten years ago after uni, it was known as a quirky bookstore where the staff wrote recommendations on sticky notes on the books, and had a sideline in merch. Nowadays, the tables have turned and the shop’s literary origins are being supressed by all the media merchandise. Nanako isn’t so happy there any more – she joined the company to sell books. Should she start looking for a new job?
It is once she has settled into a new flat, that she finds out about a people-matching site called ‘Perfect Strangers’. The tagline is ‘Spend just half an hour chatting to someone new.’ She signs up and starts looking. All kinds of people are on the site, realising its those with intriguing profiles that she is most interested in meeting. Eventually, she comes up with a hook for her own:
I’m the manager of a very unusual bookshop. I have access to a huge database of over ten thousand book, and I’ll recommend the one that’s perfect for you.
She soon gets her first match, and agrees to meet Tsuchiya, who turns out to be early forties and works in advertising. They meet at a cafe and have a good conversation, although it becomes clear that he’s up for a hook-up should she be inclined. But it stays congenial, and she promises to send him a book recommendation, even though she won’t see him again. That said, her first few matches are all helpful in giving her tips to get the best out of the site. Each match is accompanied by a little drawing of their profile picture, that’s Tsuchiya to your left.
But there was someone from PerfectStrangers who I stayed friends with – who I’m still friends with, in fact. His name was Endo and he was a filmmaker, three years younger than me. He worked in the trendy Harajuku district, in a shared office he’d set up with friends.
Endo (right) will crop up again as he helps Nanako decide what she wants to do with her life. As does Yukari, a lovely lady who uses her calling as a life coach to help those she meets in their matches. All the way through Nanako is recommending books to those she meets, and the matches soon tot up to over 50. Then through PerfectStrangers, she meets other booksellers, and they arrange a joint book recommendation event which is a success in the end! All of these matches and new friendships are propelling Nanako towards handing in her notice at Village Vanguard, as she realises she’s outgrown the shop. But does she have the nerve to go for it?
Two Appendixes list firstly all the books that Nanako recommends to people in the text (only a few of these are available in English translation), and secondly a list of recommended reading chosen by Nanako, which includes The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami, and Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink.
As memoirs go, this was such a refreshing read. Chatty and companionable, it was a pleasure to hear Nanako’s story and share her surprise that it turned into such a good book. Nothing bad happens, instead we have a life-affirming account of friendship, the love of reading, and the joy of sharing that passion for books. We get an insight into her world of Japanese 20-30-40-somethings who have yet to settle down. Admittedly, it’s all rather positive, but it’s not twee at all, it resides on the quirky side and I enjoyed it very much.
Source: Own copy. Brazen Books hardback, 224 pages. BUY at Amazon UK or Blackwell’s via my affiliate links.
