Coming of Age and Family

Although the novel only takes place on a single night, Mari and Takahashi both experience growth that resembles a typical bildungsroman coming-of age story, and both of their adult lives are shown to have deep and direct relationships to their childhoods.

In the opening and closing scenes of the novel, we float above the city with the narrator and he tells us the city is made up of singulars that make a whole: “In our broad sweep the city looks like a single gigantic creature—or more like a single collective entity created by many intertwining organisms” (3). And at the end: “Commuter trains of many colors move in all directions, transporting people from place to place. Each of those under transport is a human being with a different face and mind, and at the same time each is a nameless part of...