At The End Of The Matinee by Keiichiro Hiranõ

Two adults, Yoko Komine and Satoshi Makino, well into their forties, one from the world of journalism and the other from that of guitar, can't possibly have anything in common, can they? Except for maybe understanding. Except for truly and wholeheartedly understanding and believing in "People think that only the future can be changed, but in fact, the future is continually changing the past. The past fan and does change. It's exquisitely sensitive and delicately balanced."

If that, right there, is not beauty, I don't know what is. Coming back to the forty-year olds with no similarities: adding to their vastly different professions is the distance of ten thousand kilometres between Japan and Paris. How, one wonders, did their paths ever cross then? They do and in the simplest of ways, some might even call it clichéd - but aren't that's what clichés are, things about life and love that have been repeated so often that even though haven't lost their charm, have become somewhat of a symbol - at a music concert. What follows this evening is love at first sight, the questions reality poses, commitments, personal and emotional baggage, and of course, life and it's hundred what ifs.

This was one book I did not intend to write about, not because it was too difficult, but because it was too simple. I loved a book, I felt irritated with some parts, I loved reading the philosophy in the story, I disliked some obvious characters and some obvious decisions, and I loved the warm feeling it left me with. Especially now, especially these days when any kind of warm happy feeling seems like a privilege, when the smallest bit of happiness screams to be held on to, when the chaos around you makes you want to have some sort of peace inside of you, at least for some time. And this book gave me that. I was immersed in its 307 pages for 48 hours and I'm glad I was. I know nothing of the world of music and hence the world of guitars, but reading about them through this book was a pleasure.

A book this short touched topics like love, obsession, war, refugees, belonging, music, philosophy, economics, business, movies, PTSD, artist's block, and what not and while the combination of it all might seem chaotic from the surface, it did not in this story and I think we have the beautifully simplistic writing and the brilliant translation to thank for that.

If I could give this book some other name, it'll be 'Out of sight, never out of mind' because how do you fall for a person like the protagonist did for each other in just one meeting? How do you have a relationship of three meetings and Skype calls for nine months and love each other even after years? Especially when things did not work out? How?

The author said that he 'sympathised with them, was disgusted with them sometimes, and yet admired them.' I'd say the same. Not so much as the disgusted, but angry. Truly angry. But now, in hindsight, I realize why I loved them and their story, albiet with fictional elements here, because they told me what I've realised after reading so many stories - that at the end of the day, all one wants is to feel understood. The pleasure of having someone look into your eyes and say what you've been meaning to say for years but haven't found the words for yet, is what love is in its truest form.

Some things in the book also did not work for me. The way a 40 year old badass woman who went to Iraq not once but thrice of her own accord was reduced to the life of just a woman with a kid and an unhappy marriage left me baffled. While the yearning for motherhood is an understandable and some might even say a desirable quality in a woman, the way Yoko's choices and decisions were ultimately based on that truly irked me. While her journey of what to be beside a mother enraged me at times, the final outcome made me love her the way I did at the beginning of the story.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that even with all of their faults and insecurities and problems, I loved Yoko and Satoshi, and I loved this book. If anyone has read it, let me know. I have a lot to discuss.

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