Specs
Reviews
(3.63/5)Sensación agridulce
Historia: Pese a que en general me ha gustado, tengo sentimientos encontrados. Decidí leerlo principalmente porque la premisa de eliminar cosas a cambio de ampliar el tiempo de vida me parecía muy interesante. El tema es que es sólo una excusa para hablar del pasado del protagonista, lo cual no sería un problema si no fuera una vida tan aburrida... Sobre el primer tercio del libro me planteé dejarlo porque me estaba pareciendo soporífero pero como no me gusta dejar cosas a medias lo continué hasta terminarlo. Afortunadamente luego mejora, pues empieza a profundizar en las relaciones humanas de una manera acertada, en mi opinión. En general no diría que lo recomiendo pero si no tienes otra cosa que leer no creo que sea mala opción. Al menos hay un gato.
Aprendizaje: En cuanto a la dificultad del libro, considero que es bastante fácil. Gramática simple en su mayor parte y palabras que se repiten contínuamente. Realmente la única dificultad con la que me encontré es que el protagonista, en determinados segmentos del libro, hace varias referencias a nombres de películas, actores, cantantes, etc., los cuales tuve que buscar en Google porque no soy una persona que se fije en esas cosas y tampoco es que pudiera reconocer esos nombres en カタカナ xD. Por lo demás, casi todo son palabras muy comunes así sentí que avanzaba bastante rápido leyendo.
Good practice but dear lord
God where to start. It started off with a decent premise but it ended up being one of the worst books I ever read. It felt so trite and forcedly sentimental with flashbacks all over and the protagonist remembering sentences that were literally shared one scene ago making question what attention span the author thinks I have.
The only reason kept reading because I was curious how much worse it could get. And I have to say there were parts in between where I started hoping again that it can have a come back but somehow it really wasn't for me.
Now for language practice this book was great. Lot of repetition. Lot of decently common vocab. Honestly if you're bored out of your mind and your reading speed is somewhat decent I'd say give it a spin but otherwise do stay away.
Easy but trite
This book perfectly suited my reading level but it's incredibly sentimental and the "profound" observations on the meaning of life and connections are laid in with a trowel and not particularly original.
Good for first psychological novel
Story was sometimes a bit boring, and main character was uninteresting. But in later half there was a lot of thoughts that in the end made me like him. Language wise it was a bit challenging, but maybe because im used to light novels.
90% angsty stream of consciousness
I was excited for a thoughtful exploration of the value of a single day of life. I was looking forward to satisfying character growth as the main character saw the implications of his choices unfold for the rest of the world. But I was disappointed.
Probably 90% of this book consists of the main character just thinking. Lots of philosophizing, some narrative as he recalls past events. If you're hearing this much of someone's thoughts, you want to like them or at least find them interesting. Unfortunately, I didn't find the main character very likeable. He seems pretty self-centered and emotionally unintelligent, and his philosophical rambles don't strike me as being as deep as he thinks they are. There's a little bit of character growth, but by the end of the book he's about where I expected him to be in the beginning.
In terms of language learning, there are a handful of difficult kanji used and a teensy bit of samurai-speak, but in general the vocabulary seems fairly common. I definitely picked up a few useful idioms and expressions while reading.
Enjoyable and easy read
There's not much to say that others haven't: I accidentally bought the version with full furigana and it was very easy to read.
Very good story with a slight Faust flair
The book is about a postman who finds out that he will die of brain cancer. The devil appears and suggests a deal: For each extra day to live, an item from earth has to disappear (the devil will pick it of course). The postman agrees and starts thinking each day about the impact of the disappearance of simple things such as telephones or clocks.
At first, the story reminded me of Faust - but only because of the deal with the devil. The story went on quite differently. The book made me reflect about the impact of the existence of items in our lives and the emotional attachments. I enjoyed it a lot.
Here are my two cents from a learner's point of view. The story has simple language which fits the character well. This also makes it easy to understand even though you might not know all words. The Kanji used in the book are very common and repeated frequently so looking them up wasn't too bothersome even though it has almost no Furigana. I am around N3 and I could understand about 95% of the book (with lookups) - so it is a good challenge without causing frustration. I read the first half while listening to the audiobook. The voice actors talk in an engaging way but quite slowly so they can be understood well. They also differentiate well between different speakers by changing the voice and setting the mood with accompanying ambiance music. The audoo book and physical book matched so it is a good book for a read-along.
Not what I expected
The story of a terminally ill man who makes a deal with the devil: For every one thing he agrees to make disappear from the world he will be granted one extra day of life ...
- Entertainment: Based on the description I expected some pointed commentary on things in our lives that we take for granted but couldn't live without. Maybe even some humor about how strange the world would be if everyday items disappeared from it. Instead, the author basically ignores this aspect entirely and only uses the book's premise to explore the main character's (mostly tragic) past relationships with various people in his life. Expect a lot of soul searching about the meaning and value of life. Overall, it is a pretty sad story. After a strong start, the middle part gets a little repetitive and even drags a bit, but the story picks up again towards the end. 3.5/5
- Language Learning: For a book like this, the language is surprisingly easy and the vocabulary is all very beginner friendly. It is manageable at an N3 level.
Interesting philosophical ideas, realistic people, but for me a dull read.
This book isn't for everybody, that's for sure. The plot is, at first, basic. A man finds out he's going to die, and the devil shows up to make a deal. Per thing that vanishes from the world, the man gets one extra day in his life.
The story has the potential to evoke some very captivating thoughts, about how the world or humanity would change if some things would vanish. The protagonist acts realistically in the given context and it feels natural, how the story evolves.
In the end, I enjoyed it the most when I didn't read the book and just thought about the content or the questions that were posed,
Highly Recommend!
It's a story about a man who only has a day to live and makes deals with the devil in order to extend his life. It's a really touching story that will make you think about your own life and what you regret not doing. Definitely a must-read!
The language is quite easy and there are only a handful of difficult kanji that appear like 罵倒する or 朦朧する. Anyone with a N2 level should have no problems reading it.
I listened to the audiobook version of this - it was well produced and I recommend it. There is also a movie based on this book, which I have not seen but the trailers suggest it will make you cry buckets.
EDIT: I have watched the movie and it differs enough from the book that I didn't really enjoy it that much. It also lost pretty much all the light hearted elements like the cat talking and the majority of the scenes with the devil.
Basic plot: A man finds out he's going to die and the devil shows up to make a deal -- he'll extend the man's life in exchange for vanishing things from the world.
This is a human drama with a bit of magic to make it interesting. A man reminiscing on his past relationships, family, and so on while continually being prompted by the devil, "Do you want to stay alive, at the cost of losing this?".
Should've been called "What if cats dissapeared from my world only"
Language learning
Easy vocabulary, repetitive phrases, easy read all around. "I imagine", "my chest hurts", "Tears welled up", etc - you'd read that 10 times each.
Some samurai speech sentences in the middle there but nothing that'd be hard to comprehend even for beginners.
Content (no spoilers but lots of complaints)
Premise: what would you be willing to erase from this world to live a day longer? With chapter titles being "What if X dissapeared?"
Reality: For none (n o n e) of the X above we don't actually go into the consequences of those disappearances. The author sets up things with a very direct impact on people close to him and the MC himself, but for MC he ignores the impact and for the close people he never addresses it (we don't actually check back to see how they are living post his changes)
This should've been called "What if cats disappeared from my world" (and I could never perceive them again while the rest of humanity is not impacted) (Like in Romantic killer) and then the name would fit the content and I would have less complaints.
Writing style issues
If I was an editor, there are parts of the books that I would've made the author rewrite by saying things like '“write about the character, not about yourself!".
1) you're a stay at home writer, but your character is a postman; you don't need certain things that he needs very much day to day, you don't value certain things that are 90% of his work, write from his perspective and not yours!
2) when your character says X is not important and then you proceed to make a bunch of flashbacks where without X nothing would be done - maybe fix that "not important" part during re-read/editing stage?
3) when your character can go outside for 5 minutes to a train station and see what he did, don't write “I imagine” and go off a tangent about high schools - you imagine, while the character goes and checks his reality around him, is this your first book?!
But I'm not an editor and this somehow won an award so the bar is in hell anyway.