I read "The Cat's Oracle Under the Tree" #AutumnReading2022 [Book Introduction]

When I had Nanako Hanada, author of "The Year I Met 70 People on Dating Sites and Recommended Books That Seemed to Suit Them," select books for me, I told her, "I love Michiko Aoyama's books!" so...

I wanted to read a Michiko Aoyama book again, so I read "The Cat's Oracle Under the Tree," which I had previously given up on halfway through.

When I read it before, I had just had a lot of books arrive from the library at once, and I was in a state of "I can't possibly read them all!" (There were many reservations after mine, so I couldn't keep them for long.)

Why is it that when you reserve books at the library, they all come in at the same time...?

This is also a series of linked short stories. Even though it's fiction, there were still so many things I realized!

I think it's a story about characters struggling with something who, after receiving an oracle from a cat, notice the thoughts and presence of people who had been by their side all along, and their own way of thinking changes.

Although receiving the oracle was the catalyst, I thought that if you try to look, the catalyst is right there nearby, and it is you yourself who moves forward.

I thought it was wonderful how being influenced by someone else changes your own way of thinking, and that people really do stimulate and help each other.

And, I was wondering if it would be there, and sure enough, it was! The connections between the characters!

For example, one chapter is about a young man struggling with job hunting, and the grandfather who is the protagonist of the next chapter makes a brief appearance, and the young man sees him—that's the extent of the connection, but...

He thinks of the grandfather,
"He must be spending his days in a relaxed way."

He thinks that.

But when it gets to the grandfather's story in the next chapter, the grandfather has his own worries and regrets, and he is constantly being dragged around by his daughter-in-law, so he isn't relaxing at all.

Ah, people really do make assumptions about others so easily, even though we don't know anything about them at all. I thought I should be careful about that too.

It's also fun to find those kinds of connections between the characters.

Moreover, when I saw the name of a person who appeared briefly and it clicked, I looked it up and found out it was a character from "What You're Looking For Is in the Library!"
These kinds of connections that transcend individual works are also exciting.

What left an impression on me was the story that compared life to a train.

A person's life is like riding a train. Up until a certain point, you are on the same train as your family, like your father and mother, but at some point, you get off the train and board a different one from your family.
Then a partner boards, and children board.
Eventually, the children get off the train and transfer to another one.

Family members are just people who happen to be riding the same train as you right now.

My son will also transfer to another train someday, won't he?

I want him to transfer, but until then, I want to stay on this same train together as much as possible and cherish the time we have together.

I felt that the way I have spent my time until now—wanting to spend this precious "childhood time" together before he eventually leaves my side—was not wrong.

And Mikuji the cat who appears in the story is so cute😍

I love Aoyama-san's books because they are truly heartwarming and make me feel warm inside.
I recommend her other books as well!

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