すべての神様の十月

I didn't enjoy this book. It’s not a particularly bad one, but none of the stories really brought me any kind of emotion or taught me anything. In this genre of light, personal, contemporary, interconnected short stories, I think works such as those of 青山 美智子 are somewhat more profound, richer and a lot less formulaic.

Language wise it’s not hard but more of a mixed bag that you’d think: some of the stories are written in a really simple neutral/polite style with very common vocabulary. Others (2, 4) will have narrators with a lot more colloquial style of expression, of will have more corporate jargon. If you’re not used to it, be prepared. It’s not necessarily a bad thing though.

Collection of light short stories - Shinto

In terms of language learning, I think this book is a good light read. The short stories and conversational tone of the characters makes it a good choice for N2 learners. The themes of Shintoism and information about the gods, although I wish was more prominent was also interesting.

In terms of entertainment, I personally did not enjoy the book. Although there were a number of female characters they were written very poorly (though I suppose that is par for the course in modern Japanese literature) which made it a chore to read. The novel was also a bit too light thematically for my personal taste and each short story felt repetitive - coming across didactic in tone with the featured type of god just switching out but the same basic moral story with the character learning something about life from the gods repeating.

I sincerely enjoyed this book, it was just fun. The chapters are short stories about different gods, and a few are written as casual monologues. If you've read the English book Good Omens, it has a similar air of silliness mixed with sincerity.

I personally found it quite easy to read, but thought it might be helpful to share a couple quotes from the book so people could gauge for themselves a bit and have an idea of the more casual style:

そうそう、貧乏人は貧乏人なりに楽しみを見つけるもんなんすよ。

and

人を殺すってことは、自分を殺すのとおんなじだってさ。だから、どんなことになっても人殺しだけはしないって誓ってる。