So, I read this because it is the first English translation of an author I genuinely respect. How do I respect him if this is the first English edition of one of his books? Adaptations. In Japan Morimi’s work is very popular, and has been made into several movies and TV series. In fact, the recent adaptation of his novel “The Night is Short, Walk on Girl” is one of my favorite anime films in recent years As such, I was greatly looking forward to checking out an actual copy of one of his novels… I was extremely disappointed (Note: a translation has also been announced of “The Night is Short…” Despite my negative reactions to this, I will probably give that one a shot as I liked the movie so much).
This book is so overly sentimental as to be infuriating. Every page tries so hard to be nostalgic and heartwarming, that it only frustrated me. Now, I’m not against nostalgia and sentiment if it is done well, but it requires a proper execution and that it requires us to give a damn about the characters, and that is not the case for me. Our lead is in the fourth grade and he’s way too smart to be a fourth grader. He’s infuriatingly smart; a little know it all that praises himself every other page. Maybe this is meant to be charming? I don’t know. He tries to be calm and adult to such an extent that he doesn’t really feel like a child. Even his “charming” (quotation marks due to I think that was the author’s intention, but honestly it’s somewhat baffling) quirk to keep calm is to think about breasts. I’m not joking. Everything becomes associated with breasts to him… mountains, candy, clouds, everything. I don’t know if this was trying to be a joke for a future anime adaptation or what, but it comes off bizarre and unfunny in context with the novel.
Side characters are a little better than our lead, but are mostly forgettable. There’s responsible adult 1, responsible adult 2, the bully, the best friend, the possible crush. For the most part they are fine and accomplish their intended goals in the novel (and frankly I would have much rather read about ANY of them). The only side character of any interest is the Lady, who interestingly, despite my joke of giving characters fake titles, is actually nameless and just referred to as the Lady throughout. She’s a bizarre one, who comes off a touch on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope side, but actually has strange abilities such as creating penguins out of coke cans… yeah, the plot goes some weird places.
Speaking of, for a book with such a fantastic plot (and I mean it in terms of fantasy, and not in terms of being good) it’s a shockingly dull read. In fact, I found myself around the half way point getting bored every ten pages or so and putting it down. At first I attributed this to jet lag as I had just gotten off a 30+ hour series of flights and having traveled from an 11 hour time zone difference, but upon trying another book, I realized that I was able to finish 60+ pages easily, so nope, it was just boredom with this one.
I debated on the 1 or 2 star rating for some time and decided to go with a 2. Despite my complaints, it started off well enough and had me interested at the start. It carried on well for about 1/3 of its length before falling flat. I honestly think that this book isn’t extraordinarily awful; it’s just nothing I would want to read. I can easily imagine others reading it and being charmed by its sappy leads and nostalgic wonder. Perhaps I’m just too much of a grouchy old man, but this is just not for me.
เห็นปกน่ารักๆ กับชื่อเรื่องน่ารักๆ แบบนี้ จริงๆ แล้วเนื้อเรื่องเป็นแนว Sci-Fi นะคะ ถ้าจะให้เห็นภาพว่าประมาณไหน ก็ประมาณ Your Name กับ Weathering with You ค่ะ คือมีเหตุการณ์ประหลาดเหนือธรรมชาติเกิดขึ้นในเมือง
2.5 stars. The narrator of the story is a 4th grade boy who is sure he is exceedingly smart. He takes notes on everything and loves to research problems. Everything is fine until a group of penguins show up in the middle of town. This started out really cute and then just got too surreal for me. I'm sure there was probably a deeper meaning in here somewhere, but I missed it. I wanted to love this, it has penguins after all -- but in the end it was just okay.
I don't think I am going to leave a rating for this book right now because I don't honestly know how I feel about it. I couldn't tell if it felt surreal because I was reading it in Japanese or because the story dances with insanity. (Probably both) I would not recommend it to most readers because it is repetitious, tedious, and bizarre. When it breaks through these tendencies, however, there is a stunning amount of honesty and innocence that went into the smaller interactions between the characters. I especially love the main character's relationship with his father. I would say that this book is the closest version of a slice-of-life anime that I've experienced in a novel-format. Whether the subtle moments and deeper themes will stick over the ocean of penguins and jabberwockies that overwhelm this book is for a future me to find out.
Supposedly this book is for 13 year olds however the writing style is definitely for adults lol. Slow start but turns into a fun story about a town where penguins start magically appearing
Aoyama è un bambino che frequenta la quarta elementare, ama fare esperimenti e ricerche scrivendo poi tutto sui suoi quaderni. Un giorno, nella sua città, appaiono dei misteriosi pinguini, così decide di indagare per scoprirne l'origine e chiama il suo progetto 'Ricerche sulla Penguin Highway'. Aoyama scopre che Lei, la ragazza che lavora alla clinica odontoiatrica e con cui trascorre spesso il suo tempo libero, è la persona che fa apparire i pinguini. Ma come ci riesce?
Aoyama è un bambino molto intelligente, che ha tante passioni, ma la più grande è la ricerca. Infatti, insieme ai suoi amici Uchida e Hamamoto ne ha in corso varie. I bambini trascorrono il loro tempo libero insieme, leggendo libri e analizzando quello m che trovano di strano nella loro città e questo li porta a scoprire sempre qualcosa di nuovo legato ai pinguini e a Lei.
Anche se i protagonisti sono molto giovani la storia non è banale, il lettore viene trasportato nella quotidianità del protagonista, nella sua vita scolastica, nei suoi problemi con alcuni compagni, ma soprattutto vede il mondo attraverso gli occhi di un bambino curioso, che non si ferma alle apparenze e vuole svelare sempre più misteri. Pagina dopo pagina apprendiamo anche qualcosa in più su Lei, questa ragazza misteriosa che non sa bene come usare la sua abilità, anche perché la sua sembra una vita normale come tante altre.
È una storia che riesce ad appassionare grazie a un bel mistero e a un protagonista che stupisce grazie alla sua intelligenza e la sua voglia di esplorare. Il libro ricorda anche agli adulti la bellezza e l'importanza di fare nuove scoperte e quanto il mondo ne ha sempre di nuove da mostrarci.
Morimi hace algo extremadamente complicado solo para demostrar que lo puede hacer, pero también para colocarnos en una posición donde se nos plantea un dilema: ¿somos demasiado cínicos para soportar un libro sobre niños, que no para niños? Penguin Highway no es recomendable para nadie menor de doce años y, desde luego, ningún adolescente soportaría a Aoyama, el protagonista. Porque todo pasa a través de él. Aquí es donde Morimi nos obliga a estar atentos, a detenernos: no piensa tratar a este niño con condescendencia, porque el relato lo está llevando el mismo. No podría. Así que deja caer, de forma constante pero no repetitiva, acordes para que entendamos que Aoyama es un niño demasiado listo, repelente, pero un niño al fin y al cabo. ¿Qué niño no lo es?
Y luego está su ciudad y la gente que lo rodea, tanto adultos como niños. Todos trabajan a favor de Aoyama, pero también a favor del mundo. Con pequeñas pinceladas conocemos a unos padres amables y atentos, que entienden algo que el lector que desprecie al niño demasiado listo no entenderá: lo tierna que es la intención de hacerse mayor, de saberse pequeño, de querer crecer y evolucionar. Sobre todo si lo miramos desde nuestro punto de vista, ya adulto. Nunca se crece del todo. Nunca se acaba de aprender.
...The real is magical in Penguin Highway because the novel is a joyful celebration of the possibilities of life. It is rich with what Franz Roh, the art critic who coined the term magical realism, describes as, “the possibility of feeling existence, of making it stand out from the void.”
Our hero is only in the 4th grade. He takes exploring the drainage ditch behind his school as seriously as he does solving the mysteries of the lady and the penguins. To him, they are all marvels. His attitude reminds us that there are discoveries to be made in the realistic world—why shouldn’t some of those discoveries also be magical?..
An adventure made for intelligent and creative people a perfect book for anyone I am only 9 so it was a difficult read but it was the best book I had ever read
It’s not my first Morimi book but it was cute. This is like a high 3.5 rounded up to a 4 imo. I never saw the movie and I wonder if that helped my enjoyment of it. It definitely feels like Morimi’s writing, but in a way I liked from “Fox Tales”’s first half over its’ second half.
This is FLCL meets Roadside Picnic. Small boy going through a sexual awakening meets an older mysterious lady? Check. Weird time-and-space-bending artifacts and events threaten a town with no clear explanation? Check. And most of the time it even works!
2.5 I felt like the concept was there, but was losing me in every corner. I did enjoy the penguin mystery aspect of it. Aoyama is one of those intellectual on a high degree, that I've never read a character like that before. he was almost too smart to grasp onto and too mature for his age. He was however an interesting one. The words 'breasts' and 'cumulonimbus' we used way too often. A little repetitive. the last like 30 pages was quite confusing. not gonna lie. I did enjoy some moments spread out through out the book. The imagery was gorgeously used. I'm a sucker for good imageries.
I admit I do like breasts. But that’s unrelated to why I like the lady.
Aoyama is a giga chad of a protagonist, such a quirky and fun lead character.
The whole story exudes child-like wonder with an extremely silly yet entertaining premise.
Penguins started popping up, why? Who knows lets approach this using the scientific method and formulate a hypothesis.
Really liked this scientific aspect of the book, it emphasized the imaginative qualities that children have and it shows how important retaining this part of us really is as we grow up.
Idk man what the fuck the kid likes boob he just like me fr
I only finished this because it fit a prompt for a readathon and I am to lazy to fit something else. XD Why did I not enjoy it? Well this whole book is one train of thought of a teenage boy who is so smart has such a large brain he has to eat candy all day to keep up with his fantastic brain. What is the story? The dentist assistent can turn coke cans into penguins. Of course he knows this lady very well because he is at the dentist all the time, because he is too tired to brush his teeth because of his big brain. Now comes the centerpiece of this boy's thoughts: boobs. Paragraphs on boobs. Dolphin boobs, of course the lady her boobs because that is how he measures her well being and boob cake (does not look like it HE JUST CALLS IT THAT???!). I am so sick of random pages full of thoughts about boobs. I get that this is supposed to feel like a teenage boy genius his diary but COME ON. This is supposed to be magical realism but nothing feels magical, fantastical or cool. It just feels weird and in the end it was all about the boy realizing he loves an older lady. No thank you, never again.
Okay, so this is sort of like a Ghibli movie in book form, complete with a precocious child, cute animals and weird occurances.
The 9 year-old protagonist Aoyama is smart and he knows it, but is not one of those bratty know-it-alls. No, he is quite a sympathetic character, even though he's a little uncomfortably focused on breasts.
I was not at all surprised when I learned there is a manga and an anime movie based on this book, because I could vividly picture everything happening as if it were animated.
"I wondered what the penguins were doing now. Why had they suddenly come here? I definitely had to investigate this matter further. I locked my hands together behind me like Sherlock Holmes and began pacing the ground. I could see the windows of the dentist office across the lot. The lady's face appeared in one, grinning at me. She mouthed "Snot" at me. She was definitely underestimating me on account of my age. She didn't know how much the work I put in every day improved my mind."
Aoyama is a nine-year old smart(ass) boy. He loves to use the word "extremely", he likes breasts but doesn't really know why, and he ponders the big questions of the universe. Why are we here? How come it's so windy up in the sky but so calm on the ground? And why on earth are these penguins plopping up?
Seldomly have I enjoyed reading from the perspective of a child so much. Every dialogue was a joy, and the story made me feel like a child again, too. Penguins are a great way. Reading something alike "the penguins are waddling around making sounds like squishsquishsquish" is impossible to not make me happy. My hypothesis: maybe I love penguins. Thank you.
Just like when you're rooting with the kids of Stephen King's IT to build that tham, or when you have a great play evening with Michael Ende's Momo, you are set out to find out the mystery of penguins. It is a smart child protagonist, probably a cliché, but man, if I ever read a smart child as authentic and endearing as Aoyama.
I'm sure I'll revisit this world. At the latest, when I'm reading it with my nephew. And then, we're going to look at as much penguins as physically possible.