46 pages • 1 hour read
Michiko Aoyama, Transl. Alison WattsWhat You Are Looking For Is in the Library
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Masao, 65, Retired”
When Masao Gonno turns 65, he retires from his job at the company where he has been working for 42 years (241). His coworkers throw him a small party on his last day and Masao leaves feeling relieved that he won’t have to spend so much of his life at the office anymore. However, he soon becomes lonely and bored in his retirement.
A few months after retiring, Masao considers going to see the cherry blossoms, but doesn’t have the energy to do so. He remembers taking his daughter Chie when she was young, but she doesn’t live at home anymore and is constantly working at the bookstore. He sits at home and thinks about everything he’s learned since his retirement (243). He doesn’t feel old, but he doesn’t have any hobbies and feels invisible to society now that he’s not working (243).
Masao spends the day watching television, which annoys his wife Yoriko, as he hasn’t done any household chores. Yoriko is 10 years younger than Masao and still working. Noticing his mood, she suggests that he take “a Go class at the Community House” that one of her computer students, Mr. Yakita, is teaching (245). Masao doesn’t know anything about Go, but agrees. On Monday, he reports to Hatori for the class. Mr. Yakita is thrilled to have Masao and talks fondly of Yoriko. He also talks at length about his divorce, which he attributes to his retirement. His wife started getting more annoyed with him once he was home all the time. He warns Masao to take care of himself or his wife will start badgering him, too.
Masao visits the library for some books on Go, because he doesn’t understand the rules. Inside, Nozomi directs him to the reference desk where he meets Komachi. He’s delighted to see the Honeydome cookie box on her desk, as he worked for the cookie company Kuremiyado for years. The cookies remind him of his job and retirement. He and Komachi chat about the cookies and sing the company jingle together (255). They agree that everyone loves Honeydome cookies and Masao hears himself opening up to Komachi about his time at the company. Afterward, Komachi gives him some book recommendations, including Genge and Frogs, a poetry collection. She also gifts him a felted crab.
That night, Masao tries reading Genge and Frogs in Chie’s old room. The book suggests transcribing the poems so that he can connect “with the poet’s soul and their attitude to life” (260). Masao tries the exercise, but feels confused by the poems and gives up.
The next day, Masao and Yoriko go shopping at Eden together. Yoriko bumps into Mr. Ebigawa and starts chatting. Afterward, Yoriko runs into Tomoka, another one of her computer students. Masao realizes how many people Yoriko knows. While she goes into the fitting rooms, Masao and Tomoka chat about cooking and Tomaka suggests that he make rice balls for his wife.
In the grocery department, Masao gets distracted studying a tank of crabs. His mind wanders back to his old job. Finally, Yoriko interrupts his thoughts and suggests that they visit Chie at her bookshop.
Chie works at Meishin Books. Masao doesn’t often visit her, because he doesn’t want to get in her way. The couple arrives at the shop and chats with Chie, who tells them all about the POP displays for new books that she’s been making (269). Then Masao asks her about Genge and Frogs, and she gives him some tips on how to read the poems. Before leaving, Masao gives her the felted crab, too.
After dinner, Masao returns to Genge and Frogs. He transcribes more poems. Remembering Chie’s advice, he reads the poems differently and starts to understand them.
Masao returns to the community center for his Go class. He gets distracted outside, watching the children play in the adjacent schoolyard and remembering Chie’s childhood. A policeman apprehends him, and demands to see some identification. Masao forgot his ID, and Yoriko has to come and rescue him. Afterward, she scolds Masao for lingering outside the schoolyard in ragged clothes and scaring the children.
A few days later, Yoriko’s relative sends the Gonnos a box of pomelos from their orchard (278). Yoriko suggests Masao take some to Mr. Ebigawa to get him out of the house. Masao takes the fruit to the superintendent’s office where Mr. Ebigawa now works. The men spend the afternoon chatting. Mr. Ebigawa tells Masao all about his different jobs and career paths, admitting that he lost his antique shop years prior because of his debts. He’s never made much money, but he’s enjoyed all of his endeavors. Moved, Masao shares his frustrations with Mr. Ebigawa about his own retirement. Mr. Ebigawa encourages Masao, reminding him that any interactions with other people make him part of society (285).
Masao visits Chie at Meishin. They go out for lunch and speak openly for the first time in a while. Masao is moved listening to Chie talk about her passion for books. They also reminisce about Chie’s childhood. They recall a time they participated in a crab race together and a time Masao told Chie to try examining the world from the side like a crab (292). Masao feels heartened afterward.
A few days later, he returns to the community center with a box of Honeydome cookies. He’s decided to bring the cookies to the people he loves to connect with them. Not long later, he and Yoriko take a drive together. Masao brings the rice balls he made and the couple has a picnic. While out, they reminisce about the past and Masao makes up a new poem about himself.
Chapter 5 Analysis
Chapter 5 creates new narrative, formal, and thematic connections between all five of the novel’s chapters. Each chapter can function as its own independent short story or vignette, as each chapter has a complete narrative arc. However, all five chapters possess narrative threads that foster bridges between the primary characters’ distinct lives and worlds. In Chapter 5, Masao Gonno’s storyline unites Tomoka, Ryo, Natsumi, and Hiroya in new ways. He also creates new throughlines between the four primary characters’ and Nozomi and Komachi, as he has worked for the Honeydome cookie company Kuremiyado for his entire career. The Honeydome cookies have recurred throughout the novel, inspiring an atmospheric link between the characters’ individual worlds. In Chapter 5, Masao becomes the proverbial face of the company, and thus the inspiring force behind the cookies’ renowned name and the characters’ historical attachment to the brand. In turn, when Masao realizes how important his “work for [the] company” has been to the members of his wider community, he begins to understand that he is indeed still “acknowledged by society at large” (243). At the start of the chapter, Masao feels obsolete and invisible after he retires from his job at Kuremiyado. Leaving the company makes him feel irrelevant to society, because he has lost his sense of meaning and purpose. Once he understands that his former job still connects him to the people around him, he regains his sense of self-worth.
Masao’s interpersonal relationships foster his growth and transformation over the course of the chapter. Conversing with Komachi at the library, interacting with Mr. Yakita at Hatori, reconnecting with his daughter Chie at Meishin Books, dialoguing with Tomka at Eden, and chatting with Mr. Ebigawa at the superintendent’s office are experiences that connect Masao to a wider network of people. Each of these interactions contributes to Masao’s gradual growth in unique ways, but his conversation with Mr. Ebigawa particularly transforms Masao’s perspective by the end of the novel. Masao respects Mr. Ebigawa’s point of view, because he is of a similar age and has had parallel experiences to his own. As a result, the way that Mr. Ebigawa talks about meaning and purpose, passion and people shifts Masao’s outlook on his newfound circumstances. He helps Masao to understand that his company was not “the whole of society,” and that “every kind of contact between people makes them part of society” (285). Masao ultimately adopts Mr. Ebigawa’s outlook, and is in turn able to see himself as an important member of a larger network of interconnected lives. Indeed, all of the characters in What You Are Looking For Is in the Library are part of the same narrative community, even if they’re unaware of their connections. Like Masao, once they recognize these connections, they feel less alone and more purposeful. Their community grants them both meaning and encouragement. Indeed, Masao learns to renew his relationships with his family, while also applying this same love and care to his extended relationships. Through these personal connections his life gains new meaning.
