Goodbye Pyramid Hat (Rironsha1981)
Author: Yohiko Otsukotsu (1929-1980)
Illustration: Shuhei Hasegawa (1955-)
I read this book, which had just published, at the East Library shortly before I graduated from elementary school. It was very interesting. Looking at it now, it is quite a long book, and I don’t remember if I read it all the way through at the time.
Since then, I still recall it from time to time, and it has remained in my mind.
(The image of the book remained in me was of a boy with a pyramid hat on his head, looking at the light in a window flashing in the distance.)
When I was a child, the power of pyramids and the wonders of them were featured in magazines, books, and on television. I was very interested in such things as how things didn’t rot, how compass went wrong, and how it made you smarter. I recall that I made a pyramid model by myself and experimented with it.
Re-reading the book this time, I was still drawn into the story. The main character Yohei is a lively junior high school student who cares deeply for his mother, and his narration is very moving. On the other side, the girl in the story is sad.
There is a clear sense of reality and life in the atmosphere of the book, but this world and the other world intersect gradually, leading you to the underground world of Agartha.
For the first time, I learned about the author’s background and the fact that this book was an unfinished work.
She was born in 1929, so the war ended at the age of 16.
Why goodbye was said to the pyramid hat?
This is a story of teenage years and tries to convey the secrets of life and death in a way that isn’t just sad.
(finish reading 1/21/2024)