Botchan

“To get a genuine apology from somebody, you’re going to have to keep beating them until their regret is genuine too.”

― Sōseki Natsume

Why I’m Reading this Book?

For those who play ‘Word with Friends’ , they would know that every level you achieve in this game, is labelled with a classic book name. First and second level were ‘Great expectations’ and ‘Moby-Dick’ and third one was ‘Botchan’. And I was surprised to learn that I’ve never heard of this book. For a person, who boasts of reading or atleast knowing about books a lot, this was a major blow. So, I started with the intention of rectifying this blunder. 🙂

Synopsis

Story of a Tokyo lad, who is trying to find his footing in this world. He accepts a teaching position in a rural area and find himself in the midst of local and sometimes petty politics, hazing from student and fellow teachers alike and is somewhat baffled by it. But his moral compass is strong and he comes out of it victorious. It’s a humorous, feel good, small read.

My Review…

Its a very small book. I read kindle edition. When I finished it, it gave me a sort of ‘Forrest gumpy’ vibes, like the story of a character who is a little light in head and that’s why a straight arrow and doesn’t understand the nuances of society and constantly get puzzled why people behave the way they behave. And I liked the story a lot, in some places, it had laugh out loud moments.

But then I read other people’s reviews and about the author and I realized that some of the story essence was lost in translation. Protagonist was not a simpleton or an arrogant, but a person who holds himself to very high standards and his action and words are in sync. He doesn’t care what other thinks about him, if he thinks what’s right, he will follow that path even at the cost of personal injury. Due to his nature, he is constantly the target of pranks of students and scorns of fellow teachers, and the story is how he navigates these difficult situation.

I myself had a small stint in teaching and have a first hand experience in how precarious of a situation of a teacher can be w.r.t her students and thus this story had a somewhat nostalgic quality to me. So I might be bias in concluding that this was a great read.

Botchan means ‘Young master’ and story of this young master is very beloved and kind of a classic in Japan. I’m just glad that I came across it and I intent to read other books by the author in future.

My Rating — 4

On the scale of: (1- Hate , 2- Neither like nor dislike, 3- Like, 4- Love, 5- Gaga)

Why anyone else should read this Book?

It’s a very small book, can be finished in a day or two.

It’s good to read about other culture perspective. When I first read it, I had entirely different sentiment about protagonist but when I read reviews and about importance of this book in Japanese’s culture, I was surprised to see my views were entirely different. It was kind of refreshing.

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“From the time I was a boy the reckless streak that runs in my family has brought me nothing but trouble.” – Natsume Soseki

Love, Richa