July 16, 2023

The Nezumi series is historical fiction (apparently Akagawa’s only historical fiction series) – the title character is a robin-hood-ish thief who steals from rich daimyo but is always ready to help out the poor and suffering townspeople of Edo who get caught up in little incidents and come to him for help. All the books are collections of short stories which I think are first published in a magazine and then get collected into book form later. They’re generally mystery plots of one kind or another. Sometimes a victim gets a narrow escape and a happy ending, sometimes they get killed off; sometimes the bad guy is not-so-bad, sometimes Nezumi kills him. Tone is generally fairly light, though as I say people do die.

Akagawa's writing style is typically easy to read and dialogue heavy, so if you're looking for an easy entry into the historical fiction genre this is what I'd recommend -- you will still have to pick up the genre-specific vocab for Edo-period objects and people, and the "samurai-speak" dialogue style that's the accepted way to represent speech in historical fiction, but you can do it in a book that doesn't present any other major language challenges.

Gradings:42
2
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pm215 graded
on November 3, 2024
harder than夢についてL29
pm215 graded
on September 18, 2024
pm215 graded
on August 3, 2024
similar in difficulty to隠れの子 東京バンドワゴン零L30
pm215 graded
on July 23, 2024
easier than変りものの季節L29
pm215 graded
on July 23, 2024
similar in difficulty to金沢殺人事件L30
pm215 graded
on July 23, 2024
pm215 graded
on May 13, 2024
harder than紫水晶殺人事件L29
pm215 graded
on May 7, 2024
similar in difficulty to密室の鍵貸しますL31
pm215 graded
on May 7, 2024
similar in difficulty to雨の夜、夜行列車にL28
pm215 graded
on May 7, 2024
pm215 graded
on May 7, 2024
easier than玄鳥L35
pm215 graded
on May 7, 2024
harder than秘密のひとときL28
pm215 graded
on May 7, 2024
similar in difficulty toぼんくら 上L29??
pm215 graded
on March 15, 2024
similar in difficulty to黒い森の記憶L30
pm215 graded
on August 30, 2023
harder thanジュージューL29
pm215 graded
on August 22, 2023
easier than日光殺人事件L30
pm215 graded
on August 22, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 30, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 30, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 30, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 26, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 19, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
easier thanかまいたちL33
pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
easier than午後の恐竜L31
Relevant gradings from other volumes
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pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 17, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 16, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 16, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 16, 2023
pm215 graded
on July 16, 2023