The Catch and Other War Stories

Too bad I couldn’t finish the book.

There are 4 stories in the book, The Catch by Kenzaburõ Õe, Sakurajima by Haruo Umezaki, Summer Flower by Tamiki Hara and Bones by Fumiko Hayashi.

The Catch was a great story but when I get to Sakurajima, I couldn’t keep myself awake hence I stopped reading it and took another book to read. I make this review because The Catch really impressed me. Sakurajima left me with boredom as the character was really not fun at all, just a boring middle-aged soldier trying to cope with what about to happen to his life as he entered the service. I am not saying it’s a bad story, it just didn’t appeal me…sorry.

Now, let’s move on to the first story in the book, The Catch by Kenzaburõ Õe. The Catch has unusual way of sharing the life in war.

A village far from the city where people were still helping each other to fulfill their life suddenly had an unexpected visitor. They saw the enemy plan crashed down near their village. The children who were the main focus of the story were wondering about the enemy plan. Soon afterward, their parents went to hunt the plan down. The children were waiting impatiently. To their delight, their parents brought a wounded big black man…they had never seen a black man before.