Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World
Laura Imai Messina
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World
Laura Imai Messina
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, by Laura Imai Messina, is the story of Yui, inspired by a real place in Japan. Yui’s dark hair has blond tips because she stopped dying it when her mother and daughter were swallowed by the sea. On this day she is wrapping plastic around the bench and the telephone booth to protect them from the typhoon almost upon her. Suzuki, the custodian of the gardens, is in the hospital and not there to defend the place.
Yui loves the telephone and dreams of talking to her three-year-old daughter and the grandma who held her until the end. Yui has a radio show and listens to sad stories. One woman says she cooks when she feels sad. Another says she goes to pet shops and pets the animals, especially the ferrets. Another woman studies French after losing her best friend in a car accident. A tsunami had taken a listener’s wife and he talks to her on a telephone in a garden where his voice is carried by the wind. He gives directions to the phone location, and after work, Yuri drives there. Later, Yui and Fujita-San eat his wife’s favorite éclairs together. Yuri longs for the sea and dreams she conceives another child. It’s not the same. Fujita-San also dreams
She meets a man who carries a map and they know they are there for the same reason. He instructs his mute three-year-old daughter in the importance of good manners. He wonders how to make a child happy to be alive. The author describes how to do it and tells the story of a fisherman who brings home crabs that are delicious.
Yui, in the days after the tsunami, lay on a canvas sheet in the gymnasium thinking of the faces of her mother and daughter. Thousands of people came every year to Bell Gardens to talk to people they had lost on March 11, 2016. The wind blows faster and faster and guides the voices into it. We hear the conversation between the old woman and her dog. A young boy, Keita, goes into the phone booth and emerges talking about his conversation with his mother. He’d always argued with his mom. Fujita-san argues with his dad too. Keita talks to his mother and we hear his love for her. He tells her about his sister being in love. Yui opens a book of fairy tales and reads them aloud. This book is like a fairy tale and the author’s voice is sincere.
Yui calls Fujita-san by his true name, Takeshi, and they go there once a month before dawn. They become more alike; Yui finds things she’s bought her daughter but never gave her; Takeshi had things he didn’t want his daughter, Hana, to have but gave things he wanted her to have. He learned there is no tomorrow.
Yui took videos of scenes to remember. Takeshi recorded her radio shows. A man tells them about two boys, one his son who drowned when they threw themselves into the river during a tornado. A third friend killed himself over the grief of having survived. Just bad luck, the father says. Bad luck of doing stupid things when you’re young. They watch the video and agree that hugs are important. Yui doesn’t have the courage to talk to her mother and daughter in the phone booth. Takeshi always goes in quickly and speaks on the phone. He encourages Yui, but she can’t do it. They meet Shio at the Bell Gardia when he goes to talk to his father. Shio hates the smell and color of the seaweed his father had harvested, dried, and sold. Shio is an intern at the hospital, and Takeshi asks what kind of doctor he wants to be. Later they learn what happened to his father. Shio is ashamed of him because his boat was destroyed with another woman in it. He might win a scholarship to university but will never go.
On the anniversary of their Bell Garden meeting, Yui feels strong enough to tell of her mother and daughter’s deaths. In a photo, she saw them holding each other as if asleep and tender. She vomits as she stops the car and Takeshi rubs her back. He thinks he’ll take Hana, still mute, to Bell Garden. When they get to there, Hana wants to go the phone booth alone. Her father agrees. She looks small in the booth, her lips are moving. Yui wants to hug Takeshi, because she’s so excited. Hana talks all the way home, and they buy a lot of chocolate to share. Not projecting her own daughter onto Hana is Yui’s biggest challenge.
When school starts for Hana, her father wonders how he will explain to the teacher that her mother has died and Hana has been mute for two years. Yui says Hana will tell it in her own way. Yui helps with Hana’s homework often. When the typhoon reaches Bell Garden, Yui grabs the bench for support and the phone booth sways dangerously. Yui is struck violently by the typhoon, but she believes her love protects her.
Does Yui survive the typhoon? Does Hana continue to speak to her mother on the telephone? Find out in this loving story of hope and family on the new fiction shelf of your local library.
Yui loves the telephone and dreams of talking to her three-year-old daughter and the grandma who held her until the end. Yui has a radio show and listens to sad stories. One woman says she cooks when she feels sad. Another says she goes to pet shops and pets the animals, especially the ferrets. Another woman studies French after losing her best friend in a car accident. A tsunami had taken a listener’s wife and he talks to her on a telephone in a garden where his voice is carried by the wind. He gives directions to the phone location, and after work, Yuri drives there. Later, Yui and Fujita-San eat his wife’s favorite éclairs together. Yuri longs for the sea and dreams she conceives another child. It’s not the same. Fujita-San also dreams
She meets a man who carries a map and they know they are there for the same reason. He instructs his mute three-year-old daughter in the importance of good manners. He wonders how to make a child happy to be alive. The author describes how to do it and tells the story of a fisherman who brings home crabs that are delicious.
Yui, in the days after the tsunami, lay on a canvas sheet in the gymnasium thinking of the faces of her mother and daughter. Thousands of people came every year to Bell Gardens to talk to people they had lost on March 11, 2016. The wind blows faster and faster and guides the voices into it. We hear the conversation between the old woman and her dog. A young boy, Keita, goes into the phone booth and emerges talking about his conversation with his mother. He’d always argued with his mom. Fujita-san argues with his dad too. Keita talks to his mother and we hear his love for her. He tells her about his sister being in love. Yui opens a book of fairy tales and reads them aloud. This book is like a fairy tale and the author’s voice is sincere.
Yui calls Fujita-san by his true name, Takeshi, and they go there once a month before dawn. They become more alike; Yui finds things she’s bought her daughter but never gave her; Takeshi had things he didn’t want his daughter, Hana, to have but gave things he wanted her to have. He learned there is no tomorrow.
Yui took videos of scenes to remember. Takeshi recorded her radio shows. A man tells them about two boys, one his son who drowned when they threw themselves into the river during a tornado. A third friend killed himself over the grief of having survived. Just bad luck, the father says. Bad luck of doing stupid things when you’re young. They watch the video and agree that hugs are important. Yui doesn’t have the courage to talk to her mother and daughter in the phone booth. Takeshi always goes in quickly and speaks on the phone. He encourages Yui, but she can’t do it. They meet Shio at the Bell Gardia when he goes to talk to his father. Shio hates the smell and color of the seaweed his father had harvested, dried, and sold. Shio is an intern at the hospital, and Takeshi asks what kind of doctor he wants to be. Later they learn what happened to his father. Shio is ashamed of him because his boat was destroyed with another woman in it. He might win a scholarship to university but will never go.
On the anniversary of their Bell Garden meeting, Yui feels strong enough to tell of her mother and daughter’s deaths. In a photo, she saw them holding each other as if asleep and tender. She vomits as she stops the car and Takeshi rubs her back. He thinks he’ll take Hana, still mute, to Bell Garden. When they get to there, Hana wants to go the phone booth alone. Her father agrees. She looks small in the booth, her lips are moving. Yui wants to hug Takeshi, because she’s so excited. Hana talks all the way home, and they buy a lot of chocolate to share. Not projecting her own daughter onto Hana is Yui’s biggest challenge.
When school starts for Hana, her father wonders how he will explain to the teacher that her mother has died and Hana has been mute for two years. Yui says Hana will tell it in her own way. Yui helps with Hana’s homework often. When the typhoon reaches Bell Garden, Yui grabs the bench for support and the phone booth sways dangerously. Yui is struck violently by the typhoon, but she believes her love protects her.
Does Yui survive the typhoon? Does Hana continue to speak to her mother on the telephone? Find out in this loving story of hope and family on the new fiction shelf of your local library.