Strangers

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He goes to catch a show at a local variety hall -- and finds a man there who looks exactly like his father.

related in a pared-down prose style that matches well with Harada’s spartan life. He’s doesn’t seem to have any friends, he has lost touch with his only son and has no interest other than working on the script for a new series. Understandable therefore that he feels the pull towards this other surreal world. Eventually, however, Kei makes it clear to him that he must essentially choose between this unreal wallow in nostalgia and embracing the present.Strangers is written with a clarity I have come to recognise as Japanese." - Kate Kellaway, The Observer One night the woman who appears to be the only other residential tenant in the building shows up at his doorstep with a half-empty bottle of champagne, looking for some company, but he pretends he is too busy and so she leaves. The reliance on the supernatural -- which is occasionally simply too clumsy or simplistic -- is irritating, but for the most part Yamada does tell his story effectively. Meanwhile he also become more involved with the woman in his building, Kei, with a real relationship developing between them. Nevertheless, it is still an engaging story: told from Hideo's perspective his desperate wanting to believe allows the reader to do the same.

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. This is a strange little book. The protagonist, Harada, is a middle aged screenwriter, orphaned aged twelve when his parents are killed in a traffic accident. Recently divorced, he throws himself into his work. He is tired and lonely. Pe de alta parte, daca acceptam supranaturalul, atunci putem afirma ca prin suferinta, prin divort, Hideo a devenit un fel de "felinar", un "magnet" pentru spiritele care mai aveau ceva de spus in lumea noastra. Acesta este un concept des intalnit si in filme, indeosebi cele japoneze, cand eroul devine un portal pentru spiritele de dincolo. Eu as tinde spre aceasta explicatie, mi se pare mai pe gustul meu. :)

I liked this book. Again, it was somewhat stilted and formalized in translation but that's easily overcome. The dialogue sometimes was kind of silly, with little annoying things like money being called "dough" etc which seems out of context in the story. Kind of simplistic in tone, although it does delve into the whole search of self by Harada-san and why he feels like he must continue to see his "parents." Harada is a very tragic figure to begin with, and by the end of the book I was really pulling for him. When a book does that for me, then it's a good read.