BOOK REVIEW: Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami (courtesy of Pansing)
Japanese stories are cute and short and to me, they hold enough essence to make you feel what the author is trying to tell without overdoing things. This is one such story by Mieko Kawakami. What attracted me at first sight was the cover which was oh-so-cute and attractive.
Ice Sandwich here is not ice cream sandwich though, don't be fooled. It means sandwiches kept in a cooler like chilled egg mayo sandwiches and cold chicken salad sandwiches. Ms Ice Sandwich seems to lack social graces, but our young narrator is totally smitten with her. He is in awe of her aloofness, her skill of slipping sandwiches into bags, and most electric of all, her ice-blue eyelids (no prizes for guessing where part of the title is from).
Every day he is drawn to the supermarket just to watch her in action. But life has a way of interfering - there is his mother, forever distracted, who can tell the fortunes of women; his grandmother, silently dying, who listens to his many musings; and his classmate, Tutti, no stranger to pain, who shares her private thrilling world to him.
Most of the young urchins today can relate to this story: preoccupied parents, loss of a dear family member and infatuations for people who normally aren't accepted by others as normal. It actually made me shed a few drops of tears as the young narrator spilled his feelings all over the pages of the book.
Tender, warm, yet unsentimental, this book is a tale about new starts, parents who have departed, and the importance of saying goodbye. I loved this book and highly recommend it to those who want a fresh read besides those from Western writers.
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