Book Review: More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa

Book Review: More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa

Read: 04 - 08/08/2024

My rating: 3 / 5 stars

Book of 2024: 7 

I wonder if this love of books is hereditary. I sometimes think that might be why I’m still coming so often to the shop on my days off from work. 

“This is a bookshop,” my uncle says. “How are we not going to look at books? Right, Takako?”

“Right,” I agree with a laugh. 

This is my beloved Morisaki Bookshop. It’s been an inseparable part of my life since the days I lived here. In its own modest way, it’s a place that holds so many little stories within its walls. Maybe that’s the reason I keep coming back. 

It was my cousin’s birthday and I wanted to get him Days at the Morisaki Bookshop since I loved it so much, and I wanted to underline all my favourite lines and gift it to him. I went into WHSmith and low and behold, there’s a new one ??? A sequel!! I picked it up right away. 

I read this one in Mallorca. Lying in the sun, on a boat (!!), on the plane on the way home. I don’t really know how I felt about this one. I liked it, because it was set in the same place as the first one. 

The first book enraptured me so much though, that when I came to this one, I had high expectations. Perhaps that was my downfall. Read my review of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop here. 

I enjoyed revisiting the bookshop, I enjoyed returning to the characters, the world, that street in Japan with all the second hand bookshops. But, I found Takako irritating this time round. I found the uncle irritating this time round. I found the interpersonal relationship frustrating. Maybe that is the point. 

I think this novel serves to remind us that the things we do and the way we treat people has an impact. Takako has to learn to let people in, to be vulnerable, to show people her belly (Read my review of Bellies, by Nicola Dinan here). We see her navigate jealousy within a relationship, difficulty being loved and showing love. She does it all in a messy, at times unkind, and odd way, but we see her learn and make changes and ultimately it improves things for the better. 

Just when I was thinking this novel may be a bit meh, it took a turn. We see Momoko tackle cancer. We see them all tackle the fact Momoko has it. We see uncle Satoru battle with the love of his life fading away. We see him try to hold himself up, which is making him even worse. Then we see him collapse fully.   

We watch a family be torn apart, and struggle how to stitch themselves back up. They have to do it together. This part was particularly heartbreaking. 

The way Momoko talks to Takako, the way she treats her like her own, the love she showers onto her. It spills right off the page. It warms your heart and fills you with a glow. It broke my heart and mended it all at the same time. 

I’m accidentally reading lots of books on grief, and death, and it’s such a part of life, something that’s come so much closer to home this past year. I’m glad I read this sequel. It doesn’t hold the same space in my heart as the first novel. I’m glad it exists though. 

I didn’t underline anything in here, mostly because I just wanted to get lost in it, and because it was less elegantly written than its former part, and also because I was on the beach, penless. I did fold down one page corner, though: 

“Thank you for crying over me,” Momoko said. “When you’re sad, don’t try and hold it in. It’s okay to cry a lot. The tears are there because you’ve got to go on living. You’re going on living, which means there’ll be more things to cry about. They’ll come at you from all sides. So don’t ever try to hide from the sadness. When it comes, cry it out. It’s better to keep moving forward with that sadness; that’s what it means to live.”

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