The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami

Happy Earth Day! This is a quiet book that I liked but did not love. Part of that reaction is on my, though--I think I at the very least don't quite get it and at worst, it is a failure on my part to not be able to sit still long enough in the book to fully appreciate it. The story is is about relationships. The author, observing through her characters, how we are often more interested in other people’s relationships than our own, how unobservant we can be about the people who surround us, and how little we often truly know about other people. Hitomi works in a second hand store that is more of an upcycling depot than it is valuable antique mart. She often fails to see what is right under her nose, puzzling over the things her co-worker, Takeo, says to her. She observes her boss in detail but doesn’t understand him as a person either. To her, Mr Nakano is an enigma, appearing and disappearing throughout the day, reluctant to share personal information about his life--the reader quietly observes the goings on in the thrift shop and form our own opinions. It’s a very Japanese book, with strange formality in places that it isn’t really required mixed with incongruous moments of utter frankness. It’s also a book about introversion. For all introverts who find the presence of others a drain on their mental energy, this has something to day to us.