قصة الكتاب :
Shinchōsha (Shinchō Bunko), 2012. 384 pp. ¥630. ISBN 978-4-
10-103626-7.
Originally serialized in Shinchō, Sep. and Nov. 2008 and Jan. and
Apr. 2009.
Yamada Amy
Born in 1959. Won the Bungei Prize in 1985 for her debut novel
Beddotaimu aizu [trans. Bedtime Eyes] and the Naoki Prize for her
1987 work Souru myūjikku rabāzu onrī [Soul Music Lovers Only].
Received the Yomiuri Literature Prize in 2000 for A2Z. Also won
the Tanizaki Jun’ichirō Prize for Fūmi zekka [Incomparable Flavor].
Other works include Musen yūga [Penniless Elegance],Tainī stōrīzu
[Tiny Stories], and Jentoruman [Gentleman].

Despite its scholarly sounding title, this work is in fact a novel set against the
backdrop of a Shizuoka Prefecture city. The central characters are a group of four
friends born in 1962. Each of the four chapters focuses on their lives at four different
points in their school lives—the second and fifth year of elementary school,
the second year of junior high school, and the first year of high school. Their growth
from childhood to adolescence and their experiences with love and sex are described
over the course of their approach to adulthood. Readers will be especially charmed
by the nostalgic atmosphere of the city setting and the author’s tender portrayal
of the protagonists. In an interesting approach, each chapter begins with a magazine
article announcing the future death of one of the characters, save for the last
chapter, which concludes with the article. The lives of the characters shine all the
brighter for the knowledge that none of us is destined to live forever.
The English translation for the Japanese title—Gakumon—to some extent
fails to convey the stricter, harsher nuance of the Japanese term. Ordinarily it would
be unthinkable to use it as the title for a novel. No doubt the author uses this
unusual yet memorable heading to describe the characters who grow up as “favorite
pupils” of that mysterious concept of yearning, and it stands as an apt description
of the complex mingling of the lyricism and sensuality of their determined
lives. (NM)