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(3.70/5)Slow Paced Look at Marriage
If you like exciting thrills and twisty, turny mystery, then this is not the book for you. If you like slow paced, deep thinking, and reflective discussions on society, then you'll like it!
This book follows Kakeru as he looks for his missing fiance. To find out what happened to her he must delve into her past, and in doing so explores issues surrounding 婚活 (finding a spouse), familial pressure and control of children, and societal expectations surrounding marriage.
The biggest theme of all is, of course, what makes people prideful and what makes them good, and is one really better than the other, or can they equally hurt those around us.
This is a big chunky book, but I'm really glad I read it.
I think this is a great book for early N1 Japanese. There's a lot of advanced, but commonly used, kanji and vocabulary.
This is not a mystery book, as one might assume (at least I did), but a book about relationships and marriage culture. It had moments that drew me in and that I really enjoyed, but in the end there were too many slow parts that made me dread doing my weekly reading for the book club. On the other hand, the ending felt rushed and unsatisfying.
I still wouldn't call it a bad book, and I think there are a lot of people who would enjoy it. I think it's the author's style to make these intricate and slow moving character studies, so if you're into that, this book does it well. The only other thing I have read by this author was かがみの孤城 and while I think 傲慢と善良 is a better book, I see many of the things I disliked about かがみの孤城 in 傲慢と善良 as well. Mostly that it moves very slowly and that I thought a lot of it could be cut out and was pointless.
Language wise, it isn't too difficult.
Don't be misled by the beginning of this book, this isn't suspense or mystery. It's a long, detailed study into societal pressure to get married, how people go about finding a marriage partner, and why they succeed or fail in that goal.
While there is a lot of interesting cultural detail, and good insight into Japanese attitudes towards relationships and marriage, the book felt to me needlessly longwinded and didactic. It didn't help that, like in かがみの孤城, I felt zero connection to the characters, and didn't manage to care what would happen to them one way or another.
The language is generally easy and straightforward, and the 500 pages flow faster than expected, even though not all of them held my interest. I don't regret reading the book, but I'd only recommend it with reservations.
