46 pages • 1 hour read
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
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Themes
Search for Meaning and Direction
The five main characters of the novel are all motivated by their search for meaning and direction in life. Each of their respective chapters begins with one of them in a state of crisis or flux. At the start of their storylines, Tomoka Fujiki, Ryo Urase, Natsumi Sakitani, Hiroya Suda, and Masao Gonno all find themselves in circumstances that do not satisfy them and long for something different. The longer they feel unhappy or lost, the more desperate they are for answers and for guidance. Each of their chapters thus traces their attempt to locate newness or to regain stability. For Tomoka, working job at Eden is dissatisfying and numbing, because it is “the only job offer [she] received” after college, and the work doesn’t feel purposeful (12). For Ryo, working his office job feels incapacitating, because there’s “never any escape from the petty frictions and irritations of dealing with other people” (94). However, he can’t quit the job and follow his dream of opening an antique store, because he doesn’t have the financial stability to do so. For Natsumi, life feels entrapping, because her job is unfulfilling and her domestic duties are time consuming. For Hiroya, life feels mundane and stale, because he’s 30 years old and has yet to “becom[e] anything at all” (187). For Masao, life feels unstable, because he’s retired from his job of 42 years and lacks any connection to society outside the context of his former office circle. In these ways, all of the characters feel as if their lives lack meaning. Their sense of meaninglessness in turn makes them feel immobilized and without direction.
The characters garner meaning and direction from their time at Hatori Community House, their personal readings, and their intimate relationships. The community center connects them with the librarian Sayuri Komachi who challenges them to see themselves and their lives differently by recommending them books and giving them felted gifts. Before meeting Komachi, the five main characters feel as if they’re “merely going around in circles, marking out time, day after day, and going nowhere” (135). Once they read Komachi’s book recommendations, seek out new relationships, or renew their private hobbies, their life gains value. In turn, Tomoka, Ryo, Natsumi, Hiroya, and Masao derive a newfound sense of self-worth from these experiences. They are all driven by their desire for new jobs, new friendships, or new dreams. Once they open themselves to alternate opportunities, relationships, and stories, their lives become more expansive and their senses of self become less insular.
Importance of Community and Connection
Creating community and personal connections grants all of the five main characters a renewed interest in life and a more realized sense of self. All five characters are connected by their mutual longing for friendships and support. Tomoka is happy to be in Tokyo, but her closest friends still live at home in the country. Ryo loves his girlfriend, but doesn’t get along with his coworkers at the office and has few friends outside of this vocational sphere. Natsumi feels landlocked at home and at the office, because she’s new to the information resources department, her husband is rarely home, and her time is occupied by her daughter Futaba. Hiroya has always felt that comic book characters were “[m]ore real to [him] than [his] classmates ever were” (187). At 30, he has no job and no artistic or community outlet beyond these more imaginary realms. Masao feels as if he no longer exists in society after he retires from his job of over 40 years. In these ways, Tomoka, Ryo, Natsumi, Hiroya, Masao all feel disconnected and estranged from others. They want close relationships but are unsure how to seek them out or foster them in light of their otherwise unhappy or entrapping circumstances.
The Hatori Community House brings the characters together and creates alliances between them. The community center not only offers classes, but has a library where members of the wider Tokyo community can gather, talk, and read. Furthermore, the community center is a symbolic representation of community and connection, as it is the setting that draws Tomoka, Ryo, Natsumi, Hiroya, and Masao out of their insular spheres and into a wider network of people. Many of the characters feel as if they have no “link to society” because of their isolating jobs or home lives (265). The community center disrupts this notion and welcomes them into a society of individuals who have different backgrounds and interests, but share a common need for connection. Through the characters’ experiences at the community house, the novel illustrates the ways in which close personal connections can heal and motivate the individual. The conversations that Tomoka, Ryo, Natsumi, Hiroya, and Masao have at the center help them to rethink their circumstances and to reconsider their futures. They soon discover how interconnected their lives are. In turn, they begin to understand that they are not as alone as they once thought. By the end of each character’s respective chapter, Tomoka, Ryo, Natsumi, Hiroya, and Masao have created connections that have changed their outlooks on life.
Transformative Power of Literature
Tomoka, Ryo, Natsumi, Hiroya, and Masao are all changed by their interactions and connections with the works of literature that they read. None of the characters has a rigid private reading practice before they visit the Hatori Community Center. They seek out Komachi’s book recommendations, because they’re interested in ancillary topics or hope the titles will give them direction in life. However, all of the characters end up being moved or motivated by the most unexpected title on Komachi’s list. For example, Tomoka wants to learn about computers, but is most drawn to Komachi’s Guri and Gura children’s book recommendation. Ryo wants to learn about opening a store and quitting his job, but is most moved by Komachi’s How Do Worms Work? recommendation. Natsumi tells Komachi that she is looking for picture books, but ends up learning important lessons about motherhood from Komachi’s astrology text recommendation, Door to the Moon. Hiroya is looking for manga books, but ends up connecting with Komachi’s Evolution: A Visual Record recommendation. Masao asks Komachi for books on how to play Go, but is moved by her Genges and Frog poetry book suggestions. Each of these recommendations is unexpected and thus takes the characters by surprise. They don’t anticipate learning from the books, but the books speak to them.
The books that the characters read infuse their lives with meaning and change their outlooks on their circumstances. Tomoka, Ryo, Natsumi, Hiroya, and Masao all read Komachi’s unlikely recommendations, but not with any specific intent in mind. Therefore, the books are able to take them unawares and to teach them unexpected lessons. The ways in which each of their reading experiences changes them conveys the powerful nature of literature to speak to the individual’s heart and mind. As Chie tells Masao in Chapter 5, books “will always be essential for some people” and “bookshops are a place for those people to discover the books that will become important to them” (288). The same is true of the library at the community center. The library brings the characters into a common, safe space, while also granting them access to literature they otherwise might not have found. When the characters read in private, they derive personal and intimate revelations from their books. When the characters discuss these books with others, they find new points of connection. In these ways, literature broadens all five of the characters’ worlds and grants them new perspectives on themselves.
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