The Nakano Thrift Shop

A Novel

By: Hiromi Kawakami, Allison Markin Powell - translator

Narrated by: Alexandra Bailey

Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the author of Strange Weather in Tokyo comes this funny, heartwarming story about love, life, and human relationships that features a delightfully offbeat cast of characters.

Objects for sale at the Nakano Thrift Shop appear as commonplace as the staff and customers that handle them. But like those same customers and staff, they hold many secrets. If examined carefully, they show the signs of innumerable extravagancies, of immeasurable pleasure and pain, and of the deep mysteries of the human heart.

Hitomi, the inexperienced young woman who works the register at Mr. Nakano's thrift shop, has fallen for her coworker, the oddly reserved Takeo. Unsure of how to attract his attention, she seeks advice from her employer's sister, Masayo, whose sentimental entanglements make her a somewhat unconventional guide. But thanks in part to Masayo, Hitomi will come to realize that love, desire, and intimacy require acceptance not only of idiosyncrasies but also of the delicate waltz between open and hidden secrets.

Animating each delicately rendered chapter in Kawakami's playful novel is Mr. Nakano himself, an original, entertaining, and enigmatic creation whose compulsive mannerisms, secretive love life, and impulsive behavior defy all expectations.

©2005 Hiromi Kawakami (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Entire book is a dialogue of he said she said

Almost the entire book is a dialogue of he said she said. Any description of the surroundings is through first-person impression that only conveys shallow information.

A third into the book, I got so bored that nothing ever happens and everything is just he said she said, with quite unrelated stories. The book seems to have no coherent story line but is simply a collection of events happening at the thrift shop.

Personalities of Mr Nakano and Takeo are portrayed okay, but only from an external view, as how you would know someone if you work with them. Internal thoughts of the main character is never portrayed, so we don't learn about what kind of a person she is at all. We can only assume that she is an average city girl.

Different from the author's previous book, Strange Weather in Tokyo, this book does not have any internal reflection of the characters, nor depiction of scenes that entice the reader into the culture. The events are just everyday things that could happen anywhere.

The narrator's voice and tone don't help either. Although she uses a different voice for each character, her change of tones is too dramatic. It could be because all the dialogues in this book are so meaningless that it is difficult to narrate. Unsure whether I will finish this book. Too many good books in my wish list to waste time on a meaningless one.

A Series of Awkward Moments

The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami is an offbeat collection of vignettes and scenes that are presented as remembrances. This work lacks the depth of the author’s previous novel, Strange Weather in Tokyo. This is unfortunate because I believe that this book had the potential to take the author’s writing to a new level. There are story elements contained in the first part of the book that provide the structure for the story to turn quite dark a la Haruki Murakami. However, at the pivotal moment, the author chooses to bring the reader back to her original simply sweet, quirky, somewhat romantic story instead. This would have been fine if the book simply ended there. Unfortunately, the book loses focus and meanders for several additional chapters. I seldom criticize authors for what they did not do, but in this case it is necessary to acknowledge the hard work that must’ve gone into crafting an alternate storyline only to have it be partially removed and never brought to fruition. Hiromi Kawakami is a very good writer who brings a touch of romance to the mundane. This is a unique and precious gift to readers. While it is always important to honor their existing gifts, it is also the obligation of talented writers to continue to grow and expand the boundaries of their gifts. The narration performance provided by Alexandra Bailey was adequate to the task and included a wide range of distinct character voices. I would recommend this book only to existing fans of the author.

Pleasant . . .

I enjoy stories with odd characters, and pretty much everyone in this novel is an odd character. Lightly humorous, mildly romantic episodes throughout.

They all sort of bounce around doing odd things, getting involved with one another, becoming uninvolved, then later involved again.

It was a strangely pleasant way to spend 6.9 hours.

My one complaint: You would think that one of the first things the narrator would do is learn how to pronounce the name of the character, which comes up fifty times in the book. I'm pretty sure Nakano is pronounced nah kah noh--3 syllables equally stressed. To hear it pronounced NOK uh noh again and again and again was sort of distracting. It was also odd because she pronounced the other names (e.g., tah-kay-oh and mah-sah-yoh, NOT TAH-kay-oh, MAH-sah-yoh) properly.

It was sort of like a narrator of Don Quixote saying the main character's name "QUICKS oat" throughout the novel.

A book about nothing

Really, like binge watching Seinfeld- without the comedy. (Spoiler) A character is stabbed in the street, and still I found myself desperately waiting for something to happen.

Cute, simple story to listen to.

The beginning of this book was hopeful, but as it reached the end it died down and would have a simple ordinary ending. Cute story, and well brought up characters. It did a good job on making you feel like a friend in the group, characters were very lovable and witty