Time to make up a reeeeeaally good story, I’d say 
4 Likes
start of chapter 7:
Suddenly it’s a mystery? 
I don’t actually know what genre this book is supposed to be. 
chapter 8:
I didn’t think it was so random, since they had this conversation a bit earlier in the chapter:
「名前は？」と既知の質問を投げかけると、「みつこ、です」と小さな声が返ってきた。
「どういう漢字？」
「美しいに、津波の津に、子供の子です」
「素敵な名前だね」
水割りの氷が溶けてからりと音をたてた。
「羊って漢字あるでしょ」
唐突に話を変えると美津子はふと僕の顔を見た。
「あれって、羊を正面から見た顔の象形文字なんだって。じゃあ羊全体を表した漢字ってなんだかわかる？」
彼女の眉宇がぴくりと動いた。
僕は亜夢の話し方や表情を真似して、「美しい、っていう字なんだよ」と言い、口角を上げて笑みを作る。
「もちろん、美津子さんは羊より美しいけどね」
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I thought the “random” part was in reference to asking her to bleat specifically, not the sheep connection. He could have just thought of her as a sheep (or tell her she is), both in reference to the title and the part you quoted.
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It did make sense with the context of that convo, it was just random since I didn’t see it coming! 
5 Likes
I have now finished. And… was there a point to this book?
Everyone sucks? People are manipulative? People are stupid? Money rules the world?
Tbh, after reading 痴人の愛 | L43 and 娼年 | L31, this felt quite normal in comparison. For some reason it reminded me of おいしいごはんが食べられますように purely based on vibes.
Overall, I think it was too long for what it was offering. 
Thanks for providing insight into the sequel, which I will not read. 
5 Likes
I suspect the people who found おいしいごはん to be a super fun, wild ride of a book are the same ones who also thoroughly enjoyed this one. I think this genre of ‘terrible people doing terrible things’ isn’t your thing
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Yes, I like the idea, but I guess it’s just not terrible enough for me.
1 Like
Both books specialize in very mundane terribleness (although Tuberose does get a bit worse given the suicide at the end) which I suppose you could call low stakes high drama
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“Thoroughly” is a stretch. I guess I would have liked it more if the plot made more sense (and generally better writing). But I see what you mean, although I’d say it would have been closer in vibes if (for instance, that’s not the only problem I had) we had been told (say, from her view point) that she is stealing company money much earlier (and provided with a reasonable insight on why she can’t just stop; the “oh no, I failed him and now his life is in shambles” isn’t convincing at all).
I guess it felt like a regular train wreck, rather than a slow motion train wreck.
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That’s fair. Also probably hard to compare a 芥川賞 winning novel with… Whatever Tuberose is
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Warning, major spoilers for the second volume
If you read the sequel, you discover that she was not actually stealing money. It was a lie/set-up by her lover, who was actually a horribly deformed man controlling his nearly brain dead brother with a Bluetooth headset and glasses that contained a camera. He took revenge on her for having sex with said brain dead brother by accident when he was not being controlled by the headset and glasses and had her framed for power harassment to have her transferred to the boring and lame accounting department, despite being a video game idea genius 
(like, what was her actual job lol?) Then, Mitsuko decided to take reverse revenge by grooming Kouta to carry out all of her amazing ideas and become successful in the company. She commits suicide when he passes the interview because she’s so happy and wants to go out on a high note basically…(after some other shenanigans such as aborting the child of deformed ugly brother).
Yes, that is all the actual plot of the book. I know, make it make sense. 
7 Likes
… that’s objectively worse than the initial premise. Also, that’s “money was actually not stolen” used twice in a row (well, once per book, I guess).
How did that get published…
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After finishing the first book it’s hard to believe it, but it indeed gets worse!
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Thank you for your service. Your sacrifice is appreciated. 
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