Ms Ice Sandwich

mieko kawakami wrote a deceptively simple and wonderful novella.⁣ i read this before picking up breasts and eggs, but now i'm even more stoked for that one.

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we follow our main character, a 4th grader, being raised by his mother and grandmother. he comes off as an introvert, sometimes quite lonely, and thus becomes obsessed with the woman who works at a supermarket in his neighbourhood. she sells sandwiches and has striking blue eyes, so the boy gave her the name ms. ice sandwich.

as the story continues, the boy is preoccupied by school, and finally making some friends his own age, and having movie nights with a girl who also seems like a loner in his school. he slowly forgets about ms ice sandwich and hasn't been to the supermarket to visit her for months. he tells the girl about his infatuation with ms ice sandwich and in order to describe what she looked like, especially her eyes, he attempts to draw a portrait. as he tries time and time again to draw this portrait of her, he becomes instead, obsessed with getting the perfect rendition of her face from memory, but is he going to miss out on the life that’s passing right in front of him?⁣

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