Hiromi Kawakami

Scarlett Thomas

"A bossy child who lives under a white cloth near a tree; a schoolgirl who keeps doll's brains in a desk drawer; an old man with two shadows, one docile and one rebellious; a diplomat no one has ever seen who goes fishing at an artificial lake no one has ever heard of. These are some of the inhabitants of People From My Neighborhood. In their lives, details of the local and everyday-the lunch menu at a tiny drinking place called the Love, the color and shape of the roof of the tax office-slip into accounts of duels, prophetic dreams, revolutions, and visitations from ghosts and gods. In twenty-six "palm of the hand" stories-fictions small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand-Hiromi Kawakami creates a universe ruled by mystery and transformation"--

Stories

People from My Neighborhood

sina (she/her) 

We can keep a constant to keep us grounded but we can also keep a constant so they can help us realize how we’ve changed. 

“He hasn’t changed in all that time. He continues to eat sparingly and to be a great listener. He still dances his funny dance after his shower, and he still disappears from time to time. 

I’ve come to realize that he can’t be human after all, seeing how he’s stayed the same all these years. 

I certainly have. I’ve aged and become grumpy. But I’ve come to love jinx though I didn’t at first.” 

“The principal still hated his class teacher. Said she'd made him stand in the school corridor for three hours straight. His crime was stuffing a girl's satchel full of chicken bones he collected for her. 

“Why would you do something like that?” I asked. 

“Every time I ate roast chicken, I licked all the bones clean and kept them for her,” he proclaimed. “How could that be seen as anything other than an act of love?”” 

“The death curse worked. But it was Yōko One, the one who had cast the curse, who died of a sudden heart attack, not Yōko Two. The two women were so similar that the for had mistaken one for the other.” 

Women are really getting innovative with their fertilizers 

“Many years later, when a mass murderer poisoned dozens of people across Japan, the princess was long dead and gone, but Dolly was in fine shape. Indeed, that was the year the branches of the fruit trees in the Kawamatas’ back garden were so laden with fruit they almost touched the ground.” 

“"In the end, a dog is just a dog," Kanae likes to brag. Nevertheless, nota single crack mars the walls of the shack of joy. There can be no doubt—dogs' emotions are pure too.” 

lily

Now and then, though, a small part of the tunnel would collapse, and Dolly would cry out,

Kanae and I were amazed-we'd never heard the word oops before.

It was the first time I'd heard him say anything other than his three phrases. Then he walked away without waiting for my reply.

Kiyoshi and Hachiro had always been surprisingly close. Maybe it was because both were labeled pests by their neighbors.

People from My Neighborhood quotes

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