The Miracles of the Namiya General Store

Keigo Higashino's The Miracles of the Namiya General Store is an odd novel, and one that came recommended by a friend and without any other context (I think I was told "it's very famous and popular in Japan" and "I think you'll like it"). I would not have found it on my own, but it is a perfect little self-contained dumpling of a novel.

The novel centers on the titular general store, whose proprietor accepts letters asking for advice; some replies are posted in the front window, and some are left for private pickup and review in the back of the store. The letters start as lighthearted pranks from local schoolkids but in the course of the novel we see a wide variety of people, in moments of vulnerability, turn to a stranger for advice. And the advice is mixed! Sometimes good, sometimes bad, always trying to meet them where they are.

What struck me reading this book was the subtle ways that it became clear that the cultural expectations were not what I expected. Whether because of the author's background, the setting, or the writing style, people kept being set up for climactic scenes or decisions and then... juddering to a different point. Sometimes I thought one path was clearly signaled and the characters (and narration!) didn't even seem to think it was possible; other times, something momentous happened out of nowhere. Conversations careened in ways I didn't understand; characters made silent assumptions about each other that I didn't have access to. It was a curious experience.

Overall the book was good, quite varied in its stories and never predictable. Is this modern fiction? Fantasy? Magical realism? I didn't know what to expect, the plot didn't follow any threads for too long so no one person was actually the focus, and incidental characters were shifted into and out of the spotlight all the time. It was tied up in a tidy way, but not a happy ending.

I liked it.

This post's theme word is alterity (n), "otherness; the quality or state of being other or different." The stories were interwoven with each other in a style that highlighted their similarities explicitly and left the overall alterity for the reader to find.