The chapters have names. Here is a list of them with a rough length estimate:
Number
Chapter Name
Length 光文社
Length 新潮文庫
1
ある夫
~ 18 pages
~ 26 pages
2
失踪
~ 28 pages
~ 41 pages
3
北の疑惑
~ 27 pages
~ 40 pages
4
地方名士
~ 15 pages
~ 21 pages
5
海沿いの墓場
~ 24 pages
~ 35 pages
6
義兄の行動
~ 17 pages
~ 25 pages
7
前歴
~ 19 pages
~ 28 pages
8
毒死者
~ 9 pages
~ 14 pages
9
北陸鉄道
~ 33 pages
~ 49 pages
10
逃亡
~ 14 pages
~ 20 pages
11
夫の意味
~ 26 pages
~ 38 pages
12
雪国の不安
~ 45 pages
~ 67 pages
13
ゼロの焦点
~ 60 pages
~ 89 pages
Total
337 pages
496 pages
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Are you planning to read ゼロの焦点 with the book club?
I will be reading with the ebook as well, so I am happy with the existing schedule. If anyone reads the paperback though, maybe we could have two schedules that show the appropriate page breaks? I can’t imagine why it’s so much longer, though. Maybe it has some short stories or a very long 解説?
I thought it’s longer just because the pages are smaller compared to the Tankoubon edition? But not sure of course. I will try to find out more once I‘m at my computer.
By the way I don’t intend this to be a reading schedule, rather a reference to get an overview. I am planning to participate in the online discussion event, so I need to be done reading in early May (which is like, 9 weeks or so?)
In the informal book clubs I was in so far, everyone reads at their own pace and we sync through the comments, basically. I hope that works for you?
Started reading today (mainly because I will potentially be quite busy from mid March for a few weeks and want to make sure I can finish the book in time).
So far it is very smooth sailing, I don’t really see yet why this is Level 35… feels rather like 32 or so to me. But we’ll see.
Chapter 1, ある夫
I know this is an older book (published in 1959) but really, I can’t wrap my head around this “arranged marriage” thing… I know that it must have been the same around that time in Germany and elsewhere, but not knowing anything about the partner, and not even having met once in private? Wow, that’s really incredible for me. Plus, the age gap - I mean, nothing wrong with that as such, but obviously his experience and expectation is way different from hers, and the way she described his actions made my skin creep. Imagining that she is married to such a bloke, and not being able to dump him straight away, is such a disgusting and horrifying outlook.
Other than that, the first chapter was more or less introducing the two characters. He being quite pushy, flat-out refusing her wish to travel to Hokuriku for the honeymoon… My first thought was that he probably lives a parallel life over there, living with somebody else while he is there for work, and now having built another warm nest in Tokyo with Teiko.
What was also striking that this communication regarding the honeymoon was done through their common acquaintance, so they did not even get to talk about it directly. This is such a weird life…
And then, BAM! He sets out to travel to Kanazawa a last time, and is not seen again. Did he disappear and go back to his parallel life? Or did something happen to him? We’re left hanging in suspense.
[Unfortunately in my quest to find out about the different versions I read the blurb which gives away this puzzle in the first word, so don’t read if you want to keep the suspense!]
That does work for me! Sorry, I referred to it as schedule but I just meant the table that has all the sections for referring to when posting, so I shall call it section table.
It feels more and more shocking how little she knows about her husband. And the others apparently not telling her the truth doesn’t help either… it feels more and more as if he has a parallel life - or maybe two, given the two houses? It is admirable how well Teiko handles the situation and tries to find out more about her husband and his disappearance. I wonder how long the others will keep her in suspense, and whether the police can find out more.
Huh - slowly it’s getting a bit repetitive… I guess that’s the curse of the magazine-published books? The reader needs to be reminded in every chapter what happened before. That’s what I hated in 点と線 already; in this book I was surprised how swiftly it proceeded so far, but it’s becoming pretty repetitive as well.
For the contents, nothing much happened. Teiko more and more gets the impression that her husband has another woman. The police didn’t find anything (quite shocking though the statistics of what happened in only a few days, especially the suicides…) and the co-workers don’t say anything either. Hopefully her mother can find out some more about her husband…
Finished the first chapter! So far I am finding it much easier than I was expecting. There are a few difficult words sprinkled in occasionally here or there, but the writing is clear and engaging.
ある男
While reading, I was thinking how I would feel if I was Teiko and entering an arranged marriage like that. Especially at that age and with an older man. The way the book is narrated makes it easy to get into Teiko’s head and follow her pov, so I have already 感情移入した and am interested to keep following her perspective and see how the story develops.
Uhara is slightly pushy, but he was an older man and this was in the 50s so I am rather enjoying the portrayal of how relationships back then may have been versus judging him too hard (yet - let’s see what his past is first, though…). There were some hints and foreshadowing dropped already, like the fact it sounded like he had been to one of the hotels before, or that he was comparing her to other women. Maybe he has been married before (or is married?!). Mysterious!
I am also liking all the dark and moody descriptions of 北陸. Just like Teiko, I want to know about Uharas life there too, and why he’s so reluctant to go there on their honeymoon.
Right? I’m really surprised about the approachability, especially as it was written in 1959 (iirc). Some passages have their fair share of keigo but this simply adds to the general atmosphere and is not hard to understand either.
Chapter 4, 地方名士
I read this quite some time ago, but life happened before I could write a comment, and now I realized I remembered less than I wanted, so trying to cross-read again to brush up my memory.
We start with an invitation to visit the local industrial mogul, boss of a factory for fireproof bricks, who knows Teiko‘s husband well through his work.
Teiko and Honda go visit him in his office, and while he can’t contribute relevant facts, he suggests they visit his wife as she might have noticed things he missed out on. Surprisingly smart and kinda emancipated view
One thing that strikes Teiko is that everyone describes him as sharp mind and bright character, whereas she had rather perceived him as gloomy and deep in thought all the time.
On top of that, Teiko suspects that he has another woman in Hokuriku - my suspicion exactly! The question is: why did he agree to the marriage? What kept him from simply marrying his other partner? Was it just an affair? (And did her husband find out, maybe? )
On the way to the company bosses wife, they drop by the police station and learn that a corpse has been found. The description matches Teiko‘s husband, except that he is wearing a suit neither Teiko nor Honda recognize….
But as the wife is waiting for them, they decide to first visit her.
When they reach her house, Teiko realizes that it’s one of the two houses whose pictures she had found. Ok that solves one puzzle - or rather shifts it to „why on earth did he have a picture of that house?“ Teiko had learned that the wife is the former lover of the company boss, who married her after his first wife’s death - was Teiko‘s husband the lover of the wife??
Hahaha I couldn’t remember for the life of me what they learned from visiting the wife - turns out they have not entered the house yet That explains why I can’t remember.
I really like this buildup and learning more about Teiko‘s husband though different angles. Let’s see what the wife has got to share!
Everything is still very mysterious, and it seems the colleagues of Uhara aren’t quite telling the whole truth. Why would they not mention to the police that Uhara went to 高岡 the day he disappeared? And where was he living for the last year and a half? Teiko’s suspicions that he has another woman seem reasonable enough, but I wonder what circumstances there must be that made it so Uhara couldn’t marry her. Along the same line of thought, why did Uhara get married to Teiko then? I am looking forward to slowly getting some answers.
The pace of the story did feel like it slowed down a lot more in these chapters, with a lot more exposition, but it’s still ok for me so far. There was that brief section where Teiko was looking at a map of Ishikawa prefecture and train lines, and I got scared for a moment since I remember reading the posts in the 点と線 book club about the train timetable madness!
OK so luckily it was not her husband who was found at the shore. The suit had the wrong colour after all
But everything is getting more and more mysterious. Did she really see her brother-in-law at the train station? Why was he there although his wife told Teiko that he’s in Kyoto? (Well ok maybe she believed this as well, but why did he say one thing and act another way?) And then got in touch with her two days later and told her that he had just arrived from Kyoto. Does he know something about his little brother’s whereabouts (present or past)? And his determination in refuting that his brother might have committed suicide. Despite the fact that Teiko had perceived him as being gloomy and deep in thought…
And then, Honda. Is he really trying to flirt with Teiko? No matter who has which feelings, that’s beyond tactless anyway, right after her husband is missing, after having been married for only such a short time.
This was a good summary of the chapter! In hindsight, so much happened and it was a long one.
Chapter 4 & 5
Things remain very mysterious still and there are no clues. It does seem certain that Uhara had another woman or some kind of double life, though. I was surprised to find out he used to be a police officer, though! I wonder what relevance that has to his mysterious past? It also seems like Honda is developing some feelings for Teiko? A bit awkward timing, considering he is helping her look for her missing husband…
The brother in law showed up in Kanazawa and his behavior was quite suspicious! Why would he lie about arriving to Kanazawa a day later, and why does he know that Uhara sent just his jacket for cleaning somewhere? I don’t have any guesses on what it could mean. It was nice of Honda to help Teiko investigate, but he’s now officially interested in her to the extent both Teiko and her BIL noticed. I wonder what clues he will turn up while Teiko is back in Tokyo.
We find out details of Uhara’s life as a police officer in this section. It felt like the story took a turn, covering social issues during the American occupation with women becoming prostitutes. I wonder if that’s something that will become relevant again later?
Also a surprise that the BIL is now missing! So many questions but no answers so far…
(which is like, 9 weeks or so?)
). There were some hints and foreshadowing dropped already, like the fact it sounded like he had been to one of the hotels before, or that he was comparing her to other women. Maybe he has been married before (or is married?!). Mysterious!
)
The description matches Teiko‘s husband, except that he is wearing a suit neither Teiko nor Honda recognize….
That explains why I can’t remember.
