![]() ![]() ![]() The Nakano Thrift Shop is Hitomi’s rough interpretation of the things that were happening around her. Narrated through the perspective of the naïve but transcendental narrator, Hitomi, the novel chronicles these day-to-day travails in the suburban shop. Even though everything that is happening around them seem mundane, the characters formed a unique and special bond. In this shop, an unusual set of characters has converged. When one looks beyond the ordinary, one can see the undertones of many secrets embedded on every item. However, there is more than meets the eye. To the naked eye, the thrift shop and its offerings look ordinary. In a commercial street of suburban Tokyo lies the quaint thrift shop, not an antique shop, owned by the idiosyncratic Mr. Renowned Japanese novelist Hiromi Kawakami tries to simulate this intimate knowledge through her work, The Nakano Thrift Shop. This intimacy gives a different sense of knowledge, a subtle form of ecstasy. We are secure in this knowledge, so loose yet so intimate, because it bears no consequence on both parties we are strangers after all. As we carefully observe them, there are nuances that we notice which they might have missed. Some leave an imprint, some stir a memory, while some create quite an impression. In our quotidian existence, we encounter a lot of people. The Different Levels (and Anxieties) of Intimacy ![]()
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