It shows how the stigma of Hansen’s disease had long-lasting and often tragic repercussions on patients who were forcibly removed from their families and made to live in state-run sanatoriums for decades - often long after being cured. Sweet Bean Paste then morphs into a melancholic, deeply thoughtful rumination on what it is to be an outcast and survive. She’s no longer infectious, but rumours have spread and now the confectionary shop’s booming business is on the slide. To temper the risk of the story becoming overly cloying (and sickly sweet) at this stage, the author delivers a sucker-punch about half way through: we discover that Tokue’s hands became deformed when she contracted Hansen’s disease (once known as leprosy) as a young girl. She’s hired, but on one condition: she must not be seen by the customers because she has severely deformed hands that might turn people off.īefore long, Sentaro is selling more and more dorayaki thanks to Tokue’s delicious bean paste, while Tokue, desperate to help out in the increasingly busy front-of-house, ignores Sentaro’s rule and begins spending time with the customers - mainly schoolgirls who love her tendency to chat and offer kindly advice. He doesn’t want to do anything to rock the boat or put his job in jeopardy.īut when Tokue not only offers to work at a vastly reduced rate but happily prepares a batch of sweet bean paste that tastes incredible, he can hardly say no. He’s got a troubled past and is only working in the shop to pay off a gambling debt. Initially, Sentaro is skeptical of Tokue’s offer. Written in gently nuanced prose, the book focuses on two main characters -Sentaro, who runs a Doraharu shop selling dorayaki (pancakes filled with sweet bean paste), and Tokue, a 76-year-old lady who enters his shop and offers to work for him - and a subsidiary character, school girl Wakana, who is a regular customer. The result is a bittersweet tale about finding friendship in the unlikeliest of places, living your best life, no matter how humble or difficult that might be, and the importance of doing what you love and making a contribution to society. Hot on the heels of my thoughts on Convenience Store Woman, here are my thoughts on another rather delightful Japanese novel in English translation.Īuthor Durian Sukegawa says he wrote Sweet Bean Paste as an attempt to explore “the meaning of life with a fresh perspective”.
Translated from the Japanese by Alison Watts. Fiction – paperback OneWorld 224 pages 2017.
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