すべて真夜中の恋人たち（2011）／川上未映子 "All the Lovers in the Night" (2011) by Mieko Kawakami

A lot of commentators like to compare Mieko Kawakami with Haruki Murakami. One can see why - Kawakami confessed to have been influenced by Murakami and they published a collection of conversations together. "All the Lovers in the Night" has all the Murakamian qualities - mood-driven narratives describing the lives of lonely people in a cosmopolitan setting; classical music decorating the scenes, which, in this case, Chopin's "Berceuse" is the recurring theme; and the slow burn. Fuyuko Irie is a 34-year-old freelance proof-reader who works remotely, lives alone, has almost no social interactions with anybody, has no goals, interests or purpose in life and starts to develop a habit of heavy drinking. One day she meets a 58-year-old man at a community centre and starts to develop romantic feelings towards him. Because ultimately it is a story of little plot and no resolution, a lot of online reviews dismiss this book as a mere "sad girl book". This was the first Kawakami book that I read and I only appreciated it more retrospectively after reading her other works. I think the primary focus of her works are people who quietly suffer in society, those who might not be able to articulate their suffering or even recognise that they are suffering at all. The protagonist obviously falls into this category, but the limited number of characters she interacts with, no matter how outwardly confident or supportive they are, with or without family life (as women), knowledgeable or not (referring to the single male character here), they are insecure one way or another, and some people are even suffering from long term traumas. They bluff, they lie, they put on masks to socialise and it forms an intriguing contrast with the protagonist - are any of these actually better than living a quiet life alone (a question of personality, I'd think)? It's too real a novel and I can immediately think of a couple of friends who might be devastated by it. It might be more rewarding to read as part of a(n unrelated) trilogy. A winter book, definitely, if you enjoy that solitude feeling.