Hase Seishū

The Boy and the Dog, translated from Japanese, is a straightforward, sentimental story about the loyalty of a dog, the connection that dogs have with humans, and the support dogs provide to people. The dog is the character who unites the novel's six different stories. The dog, who wears a tag with the name Tamon, has strayed from home after a tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear meltdown. The Japanese characters who find Tamon recognize that his name derives from a guardian deity. Tamon, the dog, is a guardian angel in various ways for the people who find him in each story segment.

In the first tale, Kazumasa, a man who drives thieves away from their heists, finds Tamon outside a store. Tamon brings great joy to his failing mother and warns about the man's risky endeavors. However, when he does not heed the warnings, one of the thieves ends up with Tamon in the following story. As any reader can surmise from the chapter titles, the dog presents himself next to a young couple, then a prostitute, an old man, and finally, a young boy for a satisfying end of the novel.

Most characters who find and adopt Tamon bring him to a vet. The vets recognize that the dog's microchip originated in Iwate, an area of Japan that had been greatly affected by the tragedies. The location indicates that Tamon has traveled far from his owner; therefore, he was not a stray, but the owner doesn't respond to notices of Tamon's whereabouts. Thus, the reader assumes that the dog's owner has perished in one of the tragedies that have taken place. The dog, however, brings pleasure and comfort to each of his found owners in different ways. The common thread is having the dog for support, friendship, and connection when the circumstances of their lives seem desperate.… (altro)

Uhhhh che lettura. All'inizio non ero molto convinta, poi mi sono detta che sicuramente nell'ultimo capitolo/racconto (che da titolo al libro) recupera e infatti così è stato, ma non è bastato. Le storie sono tutte molto belle, soprattutto l'ultima. Le vite dei personaggi raccontate sono tutte molto diverse tra loro anche se hanno punti in comune: la morte, il lasciarsi dietro delle preoccupazioni non da poco, avere rimorsi. Se avete letto la saga sul Café in cui si può viaggiare nel tempo di Kawaguchi, allora questo libro potrebbe piacervi (niente viaggi e riparazioni qui però), ma è decisamente su una nota più cupa.… (altro)

The Boy and the Dog by Seishū Hase (馳 星周) was my selection for my local bookstore's reading club, which was a book by a Japanese author. The book is the story of Tamon, a dog who is trying to make his way back to his family after the events of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that hit Fukushima, Japan. Through a series of encounters with people who take him in, Tamon goes on a multi-year journey to find his family. As each person who takes him in realizes that they need to make changes in order to improve not only their own lives but Tamon's as well, the dog becomes a symbol of hope for each person he encounters.

Told in the typical sparse, direct writing style of most Japanese authors that I have experienced, Tamon's adventure home is not without its perils, and Hase is very straight to the point in detailing that not every positive thing that happens in this world is without its own series of struggles.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Tamon does eventually find his family, but as most books that deal with dogs, Tamon dies at the end. However, he does die a hero. The level of suspension of disbelief needed to make the jump to how Tamon found his family might be too much of a stretch for some readers, but for me, this was still an enjoyable book.… (altro)