Review of The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami

*The Nakano Thrift Shop* by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Allison Markin Powell (2017). Published by Europa Editions.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

This blog post is interesting to me because lately, I’ve been struggling to get in my reading time. I was working for the longest time as a freelancer and contractor, but recently pivoted to an 8-5 job where I’m in an office. It’s not hybrid, so I’m always at home trying to put the puzzle pieces together of how I’ll get my reading done. I also continue working on this blog when I’m not at work, so the Instagram reels I’m fed about a 5-9 feel too real right now.

I keep going to the library though, despite all of the chaos of my life right now, and that means my TBR list has been continuing to grow on the floor next to my bed. While I have been reading when I can after work or early in the morning, when I wake up with enough time to do this, I also have been looking to sneak in a few pages here and there during my lunch breaks.

On Labor Day weekend we ended up booking a house in Ocean City, Maryland, and I wanted to use this time in order to read as much as I could. That didn’t go as planned because I definitely came down with a fever and was sick for a large portion of the trip, but I did still have a good time despite being vaguely delirious half of the time.

The one book I did finish while I was down by the ocean was The Nakano Thrift Shop. It had been sitting on my TBR pile for quite a bit of time at this point, so it was with the stack of books I brought with me. It’s a fairly quick read, and it was the first book I picked up during this trip, so it’s probably fitting that I ended up getting through this one considering the circumstances.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to keep rambling in the introduction, as I feel like I have a tendency to do that lately.

At a small Japanese thrift store, the employees live rich and fascinating lives.

The premise of this story is that it largely takes place at the Nakano Thrift Store. I feel like from the first paragraph synopsis that this book gives that you might think this is self healing or self help fiction, which has become quite popular in both Japan and South Korea. I keep finding myself the accidental owner of self-healing fiction and have learned again and again that I don’t really care for it.

But in this novel, the main focus is the protagonist Hitomi. Hitomi is someone who works at the thrift store, is relatively young, and often can be found at the cash register checking out customers. Or, as we see throughout the novel, pining for fellow employee Takeo.

She doesn’t know how to express her feelings or affections for him, and Takeo is someone who is deeply reserved, leaving some questions whether he actually likes her at all, let alone from a romantic standpoint. In her quest to find out the love and affection of her coworker, Hitomi enlists the help of her boss’s sister Masayo.

Masayo gives advice on love and life, leaving Hitomi to wonder whether she should apply the wise lessons she’s getting from her friend. As she learns to live her own life and navigate these kinds of situations, not only do we learn more about the thrift store and its workers, but we also see how she’s growing as a person.

Mr. Nakano is someone we especially come to learn more about. I would roughly describe him as a bit of an interesting and eclectic guy, as well as a bit sleazy in the sense of how he comes onto women romantically. I think the novel sets you up to still have some affection for him, especially as we see him from Hitomi’s perspective, but my personal take is I would be uncomfortable with someone like that in real life.

Anyways, some things in life you need to be able to figure out on your own. Advice might be great at the end of the day, but some lessons can only be learned when you actually have the experiences to make judgement about it.

A lot of what pieces this novel together is simple gossip and how we frame other people through the stories we hear, which felt realistic in different ways when it comes to how a workplace is depicted. I could really vibe with that aspect of the novel.

Overall Thoughts

This is a fairly short review on my end because, while I tend to like Kawakami’s work and how she depicts people and real-life situations, this novel wasn’t my cup of tea. It didn’t click with me as a reader and felt a bit clunkier than her later work—perhaps, after writing this, I’ll do some research to see how she has progressed as a writer.

I think there was a lot of promise in this kind of story for me, but the way the characters were and how the story itself unfolded and was told was the reason why I couldn’t fully immerse myself in this world. About eighty or so pages in I found it really difficult to keep going, but I still read through it because I knew this was a shorter book.

I could see someone really liking this novel though, so if it interests you, definitely give it a chance. Taste is so incredibly subjective, and what might be my least favorite book might be your favorite book. And guess what? Neither of us are wrong for what we believe in.

Anyway: pick this up if you’re interested in it, but maybe don’t come into it with very high expectations.

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