I knew very little about this book before reading it, and I think that served me well.

Throughout the first half of this book, the whole thing felt very minimal and contained. More slice-of-life than anything else, albeit with a more introspective tinge than I usually find in a slice-of-life story. There were many times during the first half where I didn't feel compelled to continue reading. But I am very glad I did.

The second half of this story hits like a ton of bricks. The rapid unraveling of the steady routine the characters and reader alike have become accustomed to made it hard for me to stop reading. By the end, I thought "Wait, that's it!?" because I'd wanted to see more of these characters; how they'd react to such significant change in their lives, if they'd find some level of comfort in each other. I unknowingly became attached to them, and that signaled to me that I was really grateful to have read this book.

In regards to my scoring: I knocked some points off my enjoyment and the book's overall rating for some of the ways the male characters speak about the women around them. That said, given that the book is over a century old, I had braced myself for things like this, so they did not totally tank my enjoyment of the novel.

Despite my attachment to some of the characters, I have also had to dock points in this category for a similar reason as above: the women in this book are one-dimensional, like their complexities have been wholly unexplored by the male characters whose perspectives on them we're privy to.

The audiobook was great, with easy-to-follow narration. My only gripe is that certain Japanese words were pronounced in a way that grated on me, and briefly took me out of the story.

Altogether I am glad to have read this book. I will certainly continue to think about it for a while. It seems like the sort of book I would like to revisit when I'm older.