【Literature】When Ordinary Lives Unravel: A Psychological Mystery Without Tricks

Hello, this is Frank.

At the end of this short story collection, I’d like to share my impressions, quoting some insightful reviews. Spoiler Alert!

The story opens with the phrase, “Hajime Hironaka works at the city hall’s family registry section,” immediately inviting readers to imagine the protagonist’s character.

You can pretty much picture the type: a man leading a predictably dull life.

But one day, Miyuki Tada, a high school classmate of Hajime’s wife Shizuko, suddenly visits the Hironaka household. From that moment, Hajime’s monotonous yet happy days begin to unravel.

Unable to bear it any longer, Hajime kills Miyuki. He thinks this will allow him to return to his ordinary life, but Shizuko, who had grown tired of their dull life together, has already fallen in love with her cooking school instructor.

“If you don’t agree to a divorce… I’ll go to the police,” Shizuko declares, bringing the story to its epilogue.

This work proves that you don’t need elaborate tricks; the movements of the human mind are far scarier and more surprising than any contrived plot device.

That said, from a female perspective, Hajime is the “ideal boring man,” and as someone who expected some twist from his job at the family registry, I didn’t find the mystery element particularly shocking.

While I disagree with Koshi Kurumizawa’s review, which describes the story as “a sharp, stunning blow that leaves you defeated,” I do think the psychological portrayal was quite impressive.