Lonely Woman by Takako Takahashi

This is a wonderful book of short stories about several interconnected female characters in Tokyo. I would recommend Lonely Woman by Takako Takahashi to anyone that loves short stories, novels, and well-written character studies.

Sakiko is living alone in a rented home. One night a school is burned down near her home. A police officer investigating the fire asks Sakiko if she has any information about the man who did this. Sakiko tells the police officer that it is not a man, but it is a woman. The police officer thinks that she might have clues about the crime and meets with Sakiko several times. Is Sakiko describing herself to the police officer and did she commit the crimes? Or can she imagine that a person like herself is capable of the crime? Sakiko is seen as an outsider because she has defied convention and is a single woman without children, working full-time and living by herself. If men invite her out on a date, instead of meeting them she likes to watch them from afar and record how long they wait for her and enjoys seeing their impatience. Sakiko feels that watching them wait for her would be more interesting than talking to them and eating with them. All of the following stories consist of characters that are linked to Sakiko directly or indirectly.

Yoko is mourning the death of her husband Gokichi. Gokichi seemed like the perfect man and was always attentive, loving, and respectful to Yoko, but Yoko begins to doubt his intentions. She wonders if he was acting overly kind to hide that he was having affairs. Each night, she has a different dream about her husband, and spends the following day investigating the details of the dream and her suspicions about her husband's infidelities. She visits her mother-in-law who is Sakiko's neighbor, a woman in a department store, and Haruyo, Gokichi's sister. Haruyo reveals that their father had several affairs, and her mother's favorite way to deal with her pain was to buy a bird that represented each mistress and ceremonially strangle it. Yoko never finds out if her husband was cheating, but begins to suspect this more and more. She looks for a woman that was overly friendly to him at a department store, Ichiko, but Ichiko is not there.

For Ichiko, a normal day at work turns into an extraordinary day when she encounters a young girl that is shoplifting. She is surprised that the girl is unashamed and courageous about her crimes and even flirts with the security guard. The girl feigns illness, and when a doctor is called she also flirts with the doctor. Since the girl has removed all the tags from the items she stole, it is difficult to prove that the items are stolen. The security guard asks Ichiko to escort the girl home. Ichiko learns that the girl gave a fake name and address when she returns to the home the next day. The name she gave is for an old woman named Ruriko that lives alone and has never heard of the girl.

Haruyo, Yoko's sister-in-law, lives with her husband and two children and seems to have a normal and happy life. She runs into an old college classmate who tells her a former lover is in town and she should call him. She calls her former lover but he is not available and she is told to call back on another day. She still feels love for her old flame and recalls how he would treat her like a princess in private, but in public would insult and shame her. A few days after she tried to call him, she reads in the paper that he jumped off a building and killed himself.

Ruriko came to Japan after her husband, sister, and entire family passed away. She frequently goes for walks, and by chance has crossed paths with several strangers as they are attempting suicide. She witnesses the death of Haruyo's lover as he jumps to his death while she is going for a walk one day. She visits an old friend at the hospital and finds that someone from her past that she has been searching for years for is also at the same hospital. She is about to visit the man from her past, but decides that she no longer needs to speak with him. As she is walking out of the hospital, in an unrelated event, Sakiko is entering the hospital on a stretcher after a suicide attempt. It is not revealed if Sakiko will survive.