"When they tell him that everything looks to be in order - great shape for his age - he feels, along with relief, a secret disappointment... Now, what is he supposed to do?" Without anything to dwell on - and his wife always at some class - he is at a loose end, walking around town by himself. Perhaps he has developed RHS (Restless Husband Syndrome). There is always the homeless man to give something to - the act of giving and the warm acceptance a transaction in the day, making each participant feel needed.
What's the point in walking anyway, and what do you do with your hands?
Fellow co-worker Ito retired right, telling him when they meet of his motorcycle adventures, while he tells Ito about their trip to Paris - just white lies to fill the conversation, playing the part of satisfied retiree.
When he meets Mie walking in the cemetary, she sees through his loneliness and speaks plainly with a bright smirk - perhaps he wants to work with her at Happy Family, a small company providing needed people for short periods - the daughter who wants her son to have a grandfather for the day, the wife who yearns to tell her husband she wants a divorce, the man who needs a sister who can talk about his childhood at a gathering. Business is non-stop for people who are confidential but not familiar, and would offer him the feeling of being needed. After some thought, he agrees, and is named Mr. Kato.
Sometimes they work together, as in the wedding where a bride creates the event she actually wanted where both the guests and family were actors.
Mr. Kato is lightened by his experiences, but begins to see how everyone in life is playing a part for mutual benefit. His wife notices his change, as if he has returned from an ocean voyage, but perhaps too much of life has slipped away for her to change as well. There is an underlying melancholy throughout of individuals false their roles. Does it matter that Mr. Ito did not go on motorcycle adventures, and Mr. Kato never visited Paris, if their interactions and stories they fabricated uplift and enrich daily life? And what of the couple who want to spend one more day with their deceased daughter, even if aware she is play acting.
It is both a heartwarming story of discovering connections we have had all along, and the disconnect of humans playing a performance in their own history, yearning for relationships they may never have.
Milena Michiko Flaser is an Austrian author whose 2012 book I Called Him Necktie won numerous awards, and despite being a literary fellow with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts, and Culture, this is a very Japanese novel in tone.
2018 (translated 2023) / Tradeback / 208 pages
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