Book Review: The Friends
The Friends by Kazumi Yumoto tells the story of Kiyama, a tall and skinny sixth-grade boy with a tendency to daydream. It follows his life and his adventures with his two friends from school, Kawabe and Yamashita. Kawabe is a short-tempered boy with glasses who tends to be driven by his emotions and his ideas. On the other hand, Yamashita is a chubbier and timid friend who has just lost his grandmother at the beginning of the novel and attends her funeral.
After hearing that Yamashita saw his dead grandmother in the casket, Kawabe begins to think a lot about the funeral and the idea of death, and he wants to see what a dead person looks like. Driven by the crazy desire of wanting to see a dead person, the three boys set off to spy on an old man that lives alone in hopes of seeing when he dies. This old man wears the same brown shirt and gray baggy pants each day and eats read-made lunches. They hang around spying until one day when they intended to take out the trash for the old man, they are caught by the old man who notices that they have been hanging around a lot. He is grumpy and tells them to leave. Despite the warning, the boys continue to spy on him bringing upon an unlikely relationship with the old man when he attempts to splash them with water and then fakes his death in front of the boys to see if it will get them to go away. The boys take the actions of the old man as a “declaration of war” (Yumoto 51).
An unlikely friendship begins between the boys and the old man. They first begin by helping him to complete different chores around the garden, such as hanging the laundry and weeding. After, when the old man suggests planting flowers in the newly weeded garden, the boys jump at the idea to plant flowers. At the flower shop, the boys are even willing to give up their lunch money in order to buy seeds for the garden. We see the old man begins to have joy and laughter brought back into his life when he accidentally sprays Kawabe in the face with water (Yumoto, 79). The boys start on repairing the house for the old man in order to make it look entirely new. By the time they finish, there is nothing left to be done for the old man. However, when a typhoon strikes their city, they go to check on the old man, and it becomes a place that the boys gather.
The relationship between them grows to where the old man tells them stories of the war. As a result, the boys attempt to find his ex-wife in another attempt to bring the old man happiness. Although they find Yayoi Koko, she seems to believe her husband died a hero. Instead, they get the old woman from the seed shop to come and talk to the old man. The old man and woman end up talking for hours on end. At the end of the story, the initial reason the boys approached the old man’s house transpires, as the old man has died, and the children mourn for him.
This book shows the ability of friendship to transcend age. Although initially intending to see something morbid, the boys learn to appreciate the old man and become attached to him as if he were their own grandfather. The first act of kindness when Yamashita decides to bring sashimi to the old man, brings upon opposition from Kawabe, who complains that they should not be feeding the old man healthy food in order to see him die sooner (Yumoto 38). However, by the end of the story, we see that Kiyama and the other boys cry for the old man (Yumoto 159). Besides that, the book goes to show that a friendship can begin naturally. When the old man dies, the policeman ask why they came to the old man despite not having a relation to the man. The answer is that they “wanted to” (Yumoto 159).
In addition to the theme of friendship, the book portrays aspects of the Japanese culture, which emphasize the values of the Japanese and add to the story. An example of the culture is shown with punishments in the classroom. An example of this punishment is telling children to stand at their desks for the rest of class due to talking (Yumoto 6). Another one discusses the simplicity of the Japanese, such as Kiyama’s father eating a simple meal of rice with hot green tea poured over it (Yumoto 29). We see that the old woman who owns the flower shop likes the idea of them planting a garden that she tells them they do not need to pay (Yumoto 75). This is very different from American culture that they rarely will give away their goods for free.
As a tale that shows a timeless tale of friendship mixed with aspects of the Japanese culture, I would recommend this book. Yumoto did an excellent job at moving the story forward and having intentional scenes chosen to tell the story. The theme of this book is one that is able to reach audiences outside of the Japanese culture as it deals with friendship and respect.
Works Cited
Yumoto, Kazumi. The Friends. Translated by Cathy Hirano, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1996.