It’s a weird thing to read a memoir by a friend. Like, is it really okay for me to know this much about you? Obviously, they are telling the whole world by putting it in book form, but the whole world are strangers, and as anyone who has ever tended bar can attest, it’s far easier to unburden yourself to strangers. The strangers will read your memoir and take what they want from it, and none of that will ever come back around to you, the author of said memoir. Except maybe in the form of reviews, but you don’t have to read those. (And you are probably going to have a better mental health day if you do not read them.) But your friends, they’re going to read your memoir and then sit down across from you at lunch. They are going to have personalized feelings about your feelings and experiences.
In this particular case, the friend is Torikai Akane and the memoir is actually her second one. Her first memoir is a diary-style record of her developing relationship with fellow manga artist Inio Asano. Which dovetails neatly with Konseiki, which is at least in part about the dissolution of that relationship. But in the broader context of the absurdity of Japanese law and societal norms when it comes to the institution of marriage itself. The title literally translates to “the greatest absurdity of the century”, with the subtitle “But I still wanted to get married anyway.”
Continue reading “Konseiki Saidai no Rifujin: Torikai Akane”
Brain Vs. Book 
