PEOPLE WHO TALK TO STUFFED ANIMALS ARE NICE

A story collection about the complications of coming-of-age in modern Japan.

One way or another, all of Omae’s young, introspective characters grapple with questions around gender expectations, social performance, and the idiosyncrasies of romantic love. In the title novella, Nanamori is a university student in Kyoto who struggles with belonging. He feels at odds with the prevailing notions of masculinity and the trappings that come with dating in young adulthood. He finds a kindred spirit in Mugito, another gentle soul who has an experience that changes the way she sees the world. Together, as new students, they explore the various clubs their university offers and find one that revolves around talking to stuffed animals. The Plushie Club ultimately helps them understand people in their orbit and open up to each other. The development of their friendship is fascinating; indeed, the story is at its best when it’s tracing the mental and emotional gymnastics its characters enact to avoid burdening others and what it means to truly connect. Social media adds a layer of complexity to common, but still confusing, human interactions in each story. In the novella, the president of the Plushie Club, a secondary character, seems unmoored by news of a shooting taking over his feeds. While the narrator doesn’t say where this shooting occurred, he says that a more recent one was livestreamed by a perpetrator spewing White supremacist rhetoric. It’s a relatively small but potent point for an American audience: an illustration of the ways in which our choices and their consequences impact a global community when we all share a timeline. The author excels in using simple but surprising scenarios to capture a range of emotions, especially anxiety, fear, ennui, malaise, disillusionment, and alienation. While the stories examine serious and often heartbreaking aspects of daily living, Omae injects them with just enough humor and tenderness to provoke thought and inspire curiosity rather than despair.

Nuanced and moving explorations of the intricacies of interpersonal relationships.