For what it’s worth, 朝日文庫 is the original publisher (the novel was initially a serialisation in the 朝日新聞 and then the first 1998 hardback was published by 朝日文庫), so this might be a case of something being added rather than removed. 新湖文庫 only got the rights to it in the 2000s and maybe the author/publisher took the opportunity to make some edits?
Incidentally I’m surprised that “long novel serialized in serious newspaper” was still a thing as late as the 1990s – I’d kind of filed it in my head as an early twentieth century phenomenon.
Very cool! Although now that I’m thinking about it, maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised, given that the manga serialization industry is going as strong as ever. I think it’d be cool to have the opportunity to read a novel in the process of serialization; I wonder if there are any digital options out there? (Not webnovels or anything like that; I want the Charles Dickens experience without cluttering up my apartment with 200 issues of a magazine, haha.)
I have finally joined.
Just finished chapter 1. It took me a bit to get into the way this is written, but I have started to enjoy it, albeit it’s a bit slow for my liking - there’s a lot of information - but it makes sense for the style. That’s an interesting development at the end of the chapter (none of the bodies are the actual owner of the flat ).
Same. I had 3 different covers to choose from and it might be a first that I prefer the movie cover.
Right? I already gave up remembering stuff. I’ll just let the author explain everything at some point…
you are an angel.
I wonder how much those numbers would be today. I feel like Japan is the only place were things have gotten cheaper - comparatively. I grew up with ppl telling me Japan is expensive (80s child) but it’s one of the cheapest places I have been to as an adult with a similar - if not higher - standard of living as my own country. If it weren’t for the flight, it would be a cheap holiday destination for me.
I wished the narrator would indicate better when it’s someone talking (eye witness report) and when it’s just normal writing.
They kind of lost me for a bit going off about the details of the woman who married a chiropractor, but once we got into the interview with 静子 I was in She doesn’t really redeem herself, does she? I could tell she was spinning everything to put her in the best possible light, and so I suspect it won’t be until we hear all sides we’ll be able to truly pick apart how much was true in her account.
I also spent the whole time being like ‘ughhhh I know you’ because if you’ve met someone like her before you immediately pick up on the type I feel bad for the kid, he seems decent despite his parents.
Agreed. I don’t trust her account of events at all. She kept insisting that none of this is her fault, it made it hard to really sympathise with her. I do feel a little bit bad for her, but a lot less than I normally would.
There were a lot of dates this chapter, so I tried to put together a rough timeline.
Timeline
1995 Around March
静子 hears about how the apartment is going to be seized and auctioned of for the first time
Beginning of October
Meeting with the teacher, 静子 says they are getting divorced
December
信治 talks about how he has plans to get the place back
1996 March 8th
They take only what they can carry and leave the apartment
April 10th
Buyer is decided
June 2nd
Call from the police in the morning, they run away before the police arrives at their current home, 孝弘 manages to convince his father, they head to the police at around 15:30
Finished chapter 6. This was a long one.
Was there a point to the chiropracticer part?
Also the wife does not improve on closer acquaintance…
I am in reply jail once again.
Finished chapter 7. I was zoning out so hard in this one at times… It started out OK and then just… oof… it was not holding my attention… I re-read some pages but I probably still missed quite a few details.
Just managed to finish chapter 6 in time for the end of the week – I still find it a slog to read more than 10 or 15 pages at a time from this, so I was reading a little bit most evenings…
I think the aim was firstly to give us a more sympathetic outside view of 静子 from her friend, and secondly as a setup and explanation for how the “interviewer” got in contact with 静子. The style of the book does seem to be very much that it spirals in to things starting with external details and guesses from one person’s viewpoint and then moving in closer, constructing “bridges” of human relationships between one witness and the next.
Interesting that for the interview with 静子 we get a lot more “interviewer voice” – Miyabe seems to be using that here to make it clear to the reader that 静子 is spinning her account in her own favour. But even so her husband seems like a guy who’s spent most of his life making a whole series of bad decisions…
Also, finally we get a name dropped that wasn’t an entirely new one – the buyer at the auction was 石田直澄, who is the suspect who gives himself up to the police in the prologue.
amazing. I am so bad with remembering names, I did not even realize. maybe I should write down cat’s list and keep it in the book to check, when a name comes up, whether it’s new or known.
Thanks! I split them up into one details dropdown per chapter, so people can just look at the chapter they’re interested in; I think it makes it a little easier to navigate.
(Not webnovels or anything like that; I want the Charles Dickens experience without cluttering up my apartment with 200 issues of a magazine, haha.)
I feel bad for the kid, he seems decent despite his parents.
in this chapter… 
maybe I should write down cat’s list and keep it in the book to check, when a name comes up, whether it’s new or known. 
