Customer Reviews

Socrates In Love (Novel-Paperback)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are a few different types of romance books. In some books, there's an initial attraction between the boy and girl but the initial attraction is all you see. This book is very different in that the inital attraction almost wasn't there in the beginning. It was more like, 'Boy sees girl- boy acknowledges girl- boy sees girl for what she really is- boy falls in love with girl'. This is the base of the whole plot for this book.

The thing that I liked the most was that, while there was interaction between Aki and Sakutaro, you could also see into Saku's mind and feel what he was feeling. He didn't automatically just yell out "Aki I love you!" but instead he takes the time to contemplate everything and with Kyoichi Katayama's writing, you can clearly see and feel the conflicting emotions.

Intertwined with the love story between Aki and Saku is story of how Saku lived after Aki passed away. The relationship that they had was a very special one and after she's gone it leaves him quite lost. Katayama did an amazing job of describing Saku's feelings of loss, disappointment, and anguish by using simple words and adding in long, in-depth conversations between Saku and his grandfather. These conversations make up the most touching parts of the book.

All in all, this book deals with the type of relationship that everyone hopes for but not everyone find, and what happens when that amazing relationship comes abruptly to an end. The tragedy intertwined with love makes for an enduring tale. I'm so glad it was translated for us here in the US!

From the first chapter, even the first page, this book leaves a heavy weight of sorrow on your chest. The relationship of Saku-chan and Aki is rare, which makes the story even more heart-breaking. The background of the story is as follows:

Boy gets elected to class officer. Boy meets girl, no feelings of attraction. Boy befriends girl. One day boy falls for girl, and they evolve into a caring relationship. Girl gets sick. Really sick. Boy stands by her side. (And you can read it to find out the inner details and ending. It's worth the $12.23.)

Katayama has a way with words that vastly surpasses most writers of this current time period. The scene descriptions draw you in simply because you get a better sense of how the characters are feeling and what is really going on behind the words they speak. You know what happens almost as soon as you read it, but the point isn't how it ends- it is how you get there and what you do after the ending that matters.

I own this book in both the original japanese text and in english. Though there are some slight errors in translation, the book manages to keep the same feelings. I have never read a book that leaves such a lasting impression of sadness.

It's a wonderful read, I highly recommend it. It is also a fast read so you can get through it on a short plane ride.

SOCRATES IN LOVE is a book that I seriously took for granted. I saw it advertised everywhere and figured it was probably your average romance novel. I didn't even bother to think about ordering it in to read it for myself.

Then I stumbled upon a summary and it piqued my attention. I ordered it, finished it the day it arrived, and couldn't stop crying.

In this short story, Matsumoto Sakutaro (otherwise known as 'Saku-chan' as Aki calls him that), an average junior highschool boy falls in love with the much more popular Hirose Aki. And for some inexplicable reason, they grow closer and closer until they're together. So infatuated with eachother, they talk about marriage and having children together, while they're not even legal adults yet.

Everything seems bright and brilliant, but Aki is diagnosed with leukemia, and Sakutaro is forced to stand by and watch, his hands tied up on his back as the world reclaims the girl that he has grown to love so much.

He simply cannot comprehend what it will be like to live in a world without Aki. She was born before him; he does not know a world that doesn't have Aki in it.

Kyoichi Katayama easily beats a lot of authors of this time. His writing is consistently beautiful, whether it's writing out how Aki's illness is affecting both her and Sakutaro, or just simple landscapes. He has a way with words that pulls on your heartstrings and makes you open your eyes to reality.

Read this book. It's the most beautiful and most realistic book that you'll ever read.

This was the most tear jerking books I have ever read. The pure love between the characters and the tragedy will hit you like a ten ton hammer. As a cytotechnologist (I study and identify cancerous cells and pre-cancerous cells (dysplasia). ) I hate when someone dies from a typical curable cancer (like leukemia, lymphoma, and Hodgekin's Lymphoma) because of that 1%-5% rare population that is physiologically special. As in Aki's case her leukocytes (white blood cells) were a different shape aka rare and needed a rare bone marrow. Sorry I could go on and on about this subject. As a guy this book had me in tears in the end. The pure grey doom that hangs over Hirose as he thinks about is lost love is so empowering. Kyoichi Katayama really has a way relaying the character's emotions to the reader. You as the reader is right there experiencing the pain with Hirose. I have never had a book or short shojo stories reach me like this. Nevermind Grave of the Fireflies this is even more gloomy than that story. For those weak at heart don't read this story it will rip you in two and force you on Lexapro or some other anti-depressant. However a perfect book for whoever need inspiration for a true emotional doom song. Don't read this book while listening to My Dying Bride.

This book was actually written in Japan and was first published in Japanese. It has only been available in English for a few months, but SOCRATES IN LOVE is the best-selling hardcover of all time in Japan. This book is like the Japanese version of The Notebook.

In this story, Sakutaro, an average high school boy, falls in love with a girl named Aki. They grow into an inseparable couple and they do everything together. Aki and Sakutaro have some wild adventures, and fall into true, head-over-heels love. They plan to get married and have children together until Aki is diagnosed with leukemia. They don't know what they will do without each other when she is gone. These are the kinds of characters that you want to see succeed and be happy.

I liked this book because it has such an amazing storyline and the characters are so well introduced that you feel like you know them. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to read about true love, whether they are male or female, as everyone can truly enjoy this book.

Reviewed by: Taylor Rector

This novel has a philosophical way of seeing death. I recommend it to anyone who has lost a loved one. We see death as a sad thing, but it's another phase of love.

The protagonist loses the person he loves, at first, he doesn't know what to do. One thing that made an impact was something that his grandfather told him, they were talking about Heaven, that it didn't exist, and people made it up. He told the protagonist, it doesn't matter in what you believe in, it's how strong those believes are.

We need to believe that there is a place where souls go after dying, God is taking care of them for us; what a relief!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As a student of Japanese language, I feel the authors were consistent in their editing. The English flows well, but the isolation and other elements that are easily conveyed in the native language carried over well in this translation. The story itself was a good read, however, maybe a bit more juvenille, rather than sophisticated. If one is interested in the Japanese popular culture, than one must read this book, since it was a record-breaking best seller.

I never got particularly enthusiastic about this novel in the reading of it; however, the afterword by the author did cause me to consider with some renewed interest what he'd hoped to accomplish in writing the novel. Katayama's claim is that we've become somewhat self-absorbed and that the only time we break out of that self-dominated world-view is when we fall in love. The novel is an attempt to observe how, being in love, we can make the well-being and happiness of another person greater than all of our concerns.

Having read Murakami's "Norwegian Wood," it was hard to ignore the parallels between the two stories. Both deal with relationships between young men and women who are seriously ill (one mentally, the other physically), both deal with mortality and love, but Murakami finds a tenderness toward the universe that I never experience with Katayama. In "Socrates in Love," no matter how much I follow the relationship between Sakutaro and Aki, and as much as the author claims it is his theme, I never quite see that one has changed the other. It may have something to do with the translation, but I have my doubts.

It is a readable story, somewhat predictable in its unfolding, with occasions of beautiful imagery. But for me, it felt like an exercise in an idea and not an organic development of two characters whose worlds were changed because they chanced to encounter. The afterword made me reflect for a moment on people who'd made my own life richer -- and then it was on to Starbuck's and the morning coffee, like Saku-chan not much changed for having lived through the story.

This book was actually written in Japan and was first published in Japanese. It has only been available in English for a few months, but SOCRATES IN LOVE is the best-selling hardcover of all time in Japan. This book is like the Japanese version of The Notebook.

In this story, Sakutaro, an average high school boy, falls in love with a girl named Aki. They grow into an inseparable couple and they do everything together. Aki and Sakutaro have some wild adventures, and fall into true, head-over-heels love. They plan to get married and have children together until Aki is diagnosed with leukemia. They don't know what they will do without each other when she is gone. These are the kinds of characters that you want to see succeed and be happy.

I liked this book because it has such an amazing storyline and the characters are so well introduced that you feel like you know them. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to read about true love, whether they are male or female, as everyone can truly enjoy this book.

Reviewed by: Taylor Rector