HOW DO YOU LIVE? - Genzaburo Yoshino


 Copper is a fifteen year old boy coming to understand how much his life is changing (or will need to change) after the recent death of his father. Copper's uncle provides the moral lessons and life guidance for Copper, generally through writings in a notebook.

This is a very simple book and, as many other reviewers on Goodreads have noted, it is possibly overly didactic. The uncle's notebook entries (which are more like letters) are full of "this is how a good person behaves" kinds of lessons and almost as directly as that. A modern reader will likely roll their eyes at the directness of this. But ...

1) This isn't so much for the adult reader, interested because of either Neil Gaiman's name on the cover (he wrote the foreword) or because it is named as the favorite childhood book of a noted anime master.  This is for very young readers. And ...

2) Is there anything actually wrong with getting these messages across to young readers? Yes, it's didactic to many of us, but for some readers, subtlety flies over their heads.

3) The lessons and morality here are worth striving toward.

The translation is (presumably) really good because this is very easy to read. In many ways it doesn't feel specifically Japanese at all - it is universal in its themes - and even the setting only occasionally reminds us where we are.

This is a very easy read and I really appreciated getting a look at a 'classic' children's book from another culture.  What would be the equivalent for American readers? Mexican readers? Swedish readers? Kenyan readers?

Looking for a good book? How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino is considered a classic children's book in Japan and it's a powerful morality tale, sometimes a bit overt, but modern, adult readers need to remind themselves who this is written for.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

* * * * * *

How Do You Live?

author: Genzaburo Yoshino

translator: Bruno Navasky

publisher: Algonquin Young Readers

ISBN: 9781616209773

hardcover, 288 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in...
Read more

THE WALLED CITY - Ryan Graudin

Image
  Jin and her sister, Mei Yee, were taken and sold and then sent to the lawless Walled City to serve as prostitutes or slaves to anyone willing to pay. Jin managed to escape her captivity, but not the Walled City and she now lurks about, disguised as a boy and is trying to track down the brothel where her sister is still captive. Jin will work odd delivery jobs to earn a small bit of money and hopefully have a legitimate means of coming in contact with her sister's captors.  This is how she meets up with Dai, a mysterious boy who has somehow managed to avoid running with any of the gangs in the city but he seems to have his own unusual connections, which Jon could desperately use if she has any hope of finding Mei Yee. But Dai has his own desperate needs.  The story is told from the different perspectives of each character and we do bounce around quite a bit as the chapters are generally short. This never bothered me, which is slightly unusual as often I find this techni...
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - ...
Read more