Book Review: What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

We’ve already discovered the wealth of novels about bookshops (see Bookshop Reads post), but just as popular are books about libraries. Here’s a book where a library pays a pivotal role in the lives of five people living in Tokyo for a different kind of feel-good read.

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library starts off with Tomoka, a twenty-one-year-old sales assistant at a department store who is unsatisfied with her job. And frankly she’s not looking after herself either. She lives on snacks from a convenience store and never cleans her apartment, let alone cooks.

A visit to the community centre near home for a course on Excel so she can apply for a better job leads her to the community library. Here the librarian is a large and strangely insightful woman, her hands busy creating small, felted gifts for her customers. A random book added to the list of books on excel, leads Tomoka to try something new.

And so it is for four more characters: Ryo, 35, who works in accounts for a furniture company, but who dreams of having an antiques shop. And Natsumi, a former magazine editor whose company has shifted her sideways into archives since she had a baby. Not only is she unhappy with her new role, she is also overwhelmed with the responsibility of managing her home and looking after a child.

Then there’s Hiroya, who’s 30, unemployed and living with his mother, who failed to find a job after he completed his degree in graphic design. He also lives in the shadow of his more accomplished brother. And finally there’s Masao, recently retired and worrying about how to fill his days and feeling more and more marginalised by society.

All five find their way to the community centre for one purpose or another, and then discover the library.

What I loved about this book was its focus on the importance of work in people’s lives, about finding a job you can feel passionate about. We spend such a lot of time at work over our lifetime, but this isn’t often a topic for fiction. In this story work issues ripple out into other parts of the characters’ lives - their relationships, their sense of purpose and wellbeing.

 At the same time there’s a gentle humour throughout the story.  The reaction each of our unhappy characters has when meeting the reference librarian at the library, and the often absurd nature of the wild-card book that the librarian adds to their pile of books. It all adds up to a feel-good read that is charming and absorbing. 

Posted by JAM

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