Mr. Katō Plays Family (2018) by Milena Michiko Flašar #WITMonth2026 #20BOS26

 

👴🏼 Milena Michiko Flašar, who wrote of Mr. Katō Plays Family, is a Japanese-Austrian author who currently lives in Vienna. She was born from A Japanese mother and an Austrian father. This book is originally written in Germany, and is translated to English by Caroline Froh. This would be my second and last book for #WITMonth2026. Mr. Katō Plays Family tells the story of a recently retired Japanese man in his sixties, who lives with his wife in a suburban town of Japan. The story opens with our protagonist on the way back from hospital after his routine checkup for his heart - the report is good - but nevertheless, he wished there's something wrong with his heart, so that there's something to talk about with his wife. From then on, we learn how Mr. Kato's marriage has been going sour for sometime. He's been turning a bit curmudgeonly of late; his wife wants him out of the house; and there are Mr. Kato's unfulfilled dreams, like having a dog - a Pomeranian whom he would have called Shiro - which idea disliked and dismissed by his wife. We learn that there are so many regrets on things unsaid and undone, and Mr. Kato is at lost how to repair it or begin anew. 👴🏼 On that fateful morning, when Mr. Kato took a rest at a cemetery, during his walk, he met an extraordinary girl. She is called Mie, and she appreciates Mr. Kato's ingenuity and improvisation skill which he inadvertently shows when he thinks nobody's looking. Mie turns out to be owning a business called Happy Family, which specializing in providing people whom you can hire to act and play roles in real families. Intrigued, Mr. Kato was hired by Mie, and his first assignment is to be a grandfather to a little boy who misses his own who never shows up. Apparently Mr. Kato did very well in his role-playing - a natural, you might say. However fluent he communicates with families who hired him, still, he fails to communicate either important or mundane things he wishes to say to his own family. 👴🏼 The idea to describe the RHS (Retired Husband Syndrome) that affected either the wife or Mr. Kato - the retiree himself - through the contradictory condition between real and acting lives, is a clever idea. Add that with the writing structure of alternating real dialogues with stream of consciousness, makes this story feels more poignant. In the end, although the idea of people wanting 'stand-in' people to act as their relatives is both rather implausible (someone is bound to realize that they were not the real person, isn't it?) and disturbing (are human beings have become that pathetic that we need actors to play our roles?) I really-really wish this phenomenon is just the actor's imagination, and not the real condition. Because if it is, the human race is nearly doomed! As a reading experience, this book is neither wonderful nor bad; it provides, at least, some funny scenes and quite heartwarming in regard of the family-and-love theme. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

#WITMonth2026 hosted by Meytal @ Biblibio

20 Books of Summer 2026 hosted by Annabel @ AnnaBookBel

When the Cranes Fly South (2024) by Lisa Ridzén #WITMonth #20BOS26

 

Admittedly, it was "the cranes" that had first attracted me to this book. As you might know, I have become a nature enthusiast lately - I even managed a nature journaling blog besides this book blog. Birds is one of my favorite subjects for nature journaling, and so I was keen to know whether this is a book about cranes. It's not, but nonetheless, it is a wonderful book, and I am glad I have picked this as one of two books I've intended to read for #WITMonth2026. It's penned by Lisa Ridzén, a Swedish author, and translated by Alice Menzies.

This turned out to be a heartrending - beautiful yet bittersweet - story about an elderly man of 89, who is nearing the end of his life. After his wife, Frederika, was brought to a care home for dementia, Bo has been living alone in his house in Swedish countryside, only accompanied by his beloved dog, Sixten. While the story progresses, we get to know Bo's past and present life through Bo's dreams - you might realize that elderly people of nearly 90s sleep a lot - and the entries of the care-taker's log book. Everyday there are care takers who work on shifts to take care of Bo - preparing food, helping him washing, cleaning, and in general making him comfortable. Through these mediums, we learn about Bo's difficult childhood - especially his bullying father. The anger and injustice he felt throughout his adolescence had hardened him to adulthood, and made it difficult for him to be easygoing in his own relationship with Hans - Bo and Frederika's only son. 

Now Hans is insisting to take Sixten away from Bo, as with his own condition, Bo would be unable to take proper care of a dog. While to Bo, apart from his pal Ture, Sixten is the only company he has in his near nonexistence. I was so mad at Hans' stubbornness in taking Sixten away. Can't he see that his father is extremely lonely - the loneliness that only elderly people and those who directly care for them understand? That Sixten provides company, comfort, and the last 'pillar' Bo could cling to? So what if it's not ideal for Sixten; the dog is happy living with Bo anyway. I always believe that, in regards of elderly people after 80, it is best to just let them have what they feel are most important. It won't change anything anymore, but it would at least make them happy, comfortable, and peaceful when their days are numbered. That's what I am doing for my 86-years-old mother. And that's what I would want others do to me when I have myself reached the same age.

I loved how Bo talks to his wife all the time in his mind: "You won't believe what our son is doing today"... It's the only way to lessen the painful fact of things (that Frederika is 'no longer there' due to dementia), so that we can better accept the reality. I think it's not a wrong way to put our loved ones always on our mind - to make them always alive, in spirit, if not in flesh. I talk to my late Father in my mind every now and then, letting him know what had happened to my Mother, news of our acquaintances, and general news of myself. He is no longer with me, but it's just temporarily. One day we will meet again; and in the meantime, I will put him up to date with my life. Anyway, my favorite Bo's caretaker is Ingrid - she knows how to treat elderly people as a human, not merely a subject. She put what Bo wants into consideration, not just insisting on what she thinks best, or what the doctors ordered. 

On the whole, this book is not for lighthearted readers. It talks about the painful, uncomfortable business of getting older and/or dying; about the importance of saying what you need to say to your loved ones before it is too late; and about love, family, friendship, and forgiveness. Most importantly, it inspires us on how to treat elderly people; that is compromising between doing the best (we think we can) for them and letting them have what they want most - if the two are contradictory. But also, not less importantly, about what elderly people's feeling and desires - that they can't communicate better and just do what we tell them, doesn't mean they are happy with our arrangement; it's that they are too tired to argue or complain. Elderly people needs peace and comfort, but also to be treated as human being, not as accessories, workload, or a burden. We just need to listen when they talk (though sometimes repeatedly or incoherently or boring), and spare them their (last) dignity. We need to be with them more often. Stocking their favorite food in the refrigerator doesn't help (well, it helps a little), but what they want most is to be with their family, to feel they are still important and to be loved by the family. I wish I could do all for my Mother before her end. In the end, what an inspirational and touching this book is!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

#WITMonth2026
hosted by Meytal @ Biblibio

20 Books of Summer 2026

hosted by Annabel @ AnnaBookBel