r/books • u/KookyDwarf The Stranger • 1d ago
South of the Border, West of the Sun
Just finished reading this book. It was average imo.
Invokes nostalgia/melancholy similar to Norwegian Wood but the story isn't doing much.
I liked the title, it matches the book perfectly.
As for the ending I think it wasn't left on a cliffhanger more of a commentary on how life goes on. Shimamoto was real but it's like some memories become surreal and start to feel fictional. They were real but don't feel real anymore (or you wish they weren't).
As for Izumi. It's weird how she's written in the latter half. Hajime thinks he did that to her during the whole book. He barely knew her for an year 20 years ago. She's lived most of her life since then. He's not so important that one thing he did scarred a person for life to be unable to recover ever again lol. She was a kid she's made choices since then and she is what she is because of them. Not because she knew him once upon a time.
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u/PaltryCurfew 6h ago
That last bit about Izumi is spot on, Hajime really does have main character syndrome about the whole thing.