This is the main street in Yokohama, Nihon Oodori, and the bus stop is Yamashita Park. Ahead, we can see ginko trees turning yellow a bit. It's pretty cold today, maybe about 11 centigrade. I'm on the way back from a lecture on "The Family" by Shimazaki Tōson at Kanagawa Kindai Bungakukan.
By reading the book written in a Japanese male point of view around 1900, I can see how my mother had been rigorously critical of old immoral tradition. I love and respect her for it forever! Aside from that, I'm very impressed with Tōson's efforts creating a solid novel based on his real living life. Like "1Q84" by Murakami Haruki, Tōson wrote and published in four or so installments and later published "The Family" as one novel. Wait. I think the lecturer said that the first part of the book appeared on a newspaper which meant it appeared daily. Talking of the installments, I don't know how those Japanese authors write. It must be very hard to write novels driven by deadline while they have to feed their families. During he wrote "The Family," the lecturer said his three young girls died. I'm pretty sure it was related to his financial difficulty.
If the theme is about the life of certain character, I think we can keep writing any number of books and even after she or he die. Below is the photo of "1Q84" by Murakami Haruki from volume 1 through 6 in front of the bookstore at Sakuragicho station.
The pocket sized paperbacks range from 590 yens to 630 yens. I've read the first two hard-cover books out of three, so probably, if I want to finish the novel, I need to buy volume 5 and 6. But I haven't purchased them. If you have finished reading the novel, please let me know how you like or dislike it.
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