Impressions of the Creative Awards: Kagami the Civil Servant

The first thing I fell in love with wasn't a person, but the town.

I had the pleasure of reading Aruron-san's "Kagami the Civil Servant."

For a while after I started reading the story, I wasn't looking at the protagonist, Seiya, but at the town of Meguro.

A room where morning light streams in. A supermarket that closes early. A town hall without air conditioning. The smell of charcoal from an izakaya visited on the way home from work. None of these are flashy. But as each one piles up, you can feel that, "Ah, people are really living in this town."

What was strange was that as I read, Meguro began to feel not like a stage setting, but like a character itself.

People with intense personalities appear one after another in the story. Yet, what wraps around them is the atmosphere of this town, which is vast in every way. The spaciousness typical of Hokkaido, and the closeness that comes from being a rural area. Someone knows someone else, can't leave them alone, and sometimes gets too involved. That sense of distance felt strangely real.

Now that I've finished reading, what comes to my mind first isn't anyone's dialogue. It's the white morning light and the glow of the red lanterns.

There aren't many works where I've thought, "I'd like to live" in the setting of the story. But for Meguro, I felt like I wanted to live there, even if just for a few days.

Being a "good person" is surprisingly exhausting.

The protagonist is what you would call a "good person."

He doesn't refuse requests. He puts others first. If someone is in trouble, he puts himself on the back burner. People like this exist in reality, too. And I feel that those kinds of people are the ones who think of themselves as "not much of a person."

What I felt many times while reading was that he is a protagonist to whom I hesitate to say, "Do your best."

The people around him see him. They acknowledge him. They care about him. But he himself cannot accept those words honestly. That disconnect is very painful and very human.

What left a particularly strong impression on me was the phrase, "You shouldn't become a 'good person.'"

It's a kind phrase, yet somehow earnest and just a little painful.

We tend to think that being a "good person" is a virtue. But this work quietly teaches us that it can sometimes be a way of life that wears you down.

Before this is a coming-of-age story, it might be "a story about a kind person learning to live for themselves." That is how I feel about it.

Memories of tofu salad.

After finishing the book, as I looked back on the content, I was a little surprised myself.

For some reason, what remained in my head wasn't a work scene or a famous quote, but the tofu salad.

Of course, it is not just that. Toast and coffee, a beer after work, steaming fried rice. Looking back, this story depicted many 'times of eating'.

Perhaps people remember what they ate all the more when they are feeling weak.

The scenes where the protagonist returns home hungry are permeated with his exhaustion and loneliness. The scenes where he shares a table with someone hold an unspoken salvation. And in the food one casually chooses, their true self peeks through.

That is surely why I remember the 'tofu salad'.

It is not big incidents or dramatic developments, but 'what I ate with that person at that time' that remains in one's memory. That is a little like real life.

After finishing the book, I found myself remembering the scenery of his dining table, rather than his resume.

I believe this work is not a story of watching someone's life from afar, but a story like sitting in the seat next to them and eating a meal together.

There are quiet mornings, unreasonable days, and nights saved by someone's words. In the repetition of these, people move forward little by little.

Encountering a work that depicts such ordinary things with such care was, above all else, a delightful reading experience.

<Introduction to Aruron-san's article>

In addition to novels, they have also entered in the essay and all-category sections!

Also, they are helping to liven up the Creative Awards at the 'Creative Awards Excitement Plaza' (Creative Awards Impressions)!

Please enjoy these as well!