Summary: After the death of his father, fifteen-year-old Copper must confront inevitable and enormous change, including the aftermath of his own betrayal of his best friend. Between episodes of Copper’s emerging story, letters from his uncle share knowledge and offer advice on life’s big questions. Like his namesake Copernicus, Copper looks to the stars and uses his discoveries about the heavens, earth, and human nature to answer the question of how he will live.
First published in 1937 in Japan, Genzaburō Yoshino’s How Do You Live? has long been an important book for Academy Award-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki. Perfect for readers of philosophical fiction like The Alchemist and The Little Prince, How Do You Live? serves as a thought-provoking guide for young readers as they grow up in a world both infinitely large and unimaginably small. (Summary and Pic from goodreads.com)
My Review: This is a book I read for my book club. As you might remember, my book club is comprised of women in my neighborhood (although some have since moved out and we go to their houses outside the neighborhood) and they are all older than me. They are some of my dearest friends. They range in age from about five years older to up to 40 years older. You would think that since they’re mostly older women in the same neighborhood they might choose the same type of books, but that is not true at all. We are a surprisingly diverse group of women who have grown to love each other over these past 17 years.
That being said, sometimes there are books that I normally wouldn’t choose, but I will read them because I love the ladies in my book club and I love being part of the book discussion. Sometimes these books I wouldn’t necessarily choose surprise me and I actually enjoy them a lot!
The women in my book club really loved this book. They found that it was a sweet story, the characters were cute, and they really loved the wisdom imparted to the main character, Copper, by his uncle. We had a good discussion about it.
I have an 11-year-old boy currently (he is the age of the boys in this book) and so I feel like I was able to look at it a little more realistically than the other ladies did. I did think the boys were cute. I enjoyed their friendship, and there were lots of small moments that had fun little parts of the boys playing together that reminded me of my son and his friends. I don’t think I will have him read this book, however. I actually think it’s more of an adult book. I’m not saying the content is adult content, because that is certainly not the case. However, the writing is somewhat old-fashioned, and it is translated from Japanese and so old-fashioned Japanese writing seems like a stretch for my son, and I think for others as well. It is somewhat slow moving, although I read it quickly.
The main reason I say it is an adult book is because the uncle is always writing very long letters for Copper to read. There is a little bit of action, and then a lot of lecturing by the uncle. In the book, Copper and his uncle are very close and Copper goes over to his house quite a bit to share his life and get some insights. I cannot imagine a day in which my 11-year-old would sit and read a very long letter from his uncle pontificating about life and the things that happened in his life. It just isn’t really a thing. I can’t really see any JFic/middle grade reader relating to this, so I think that it’s not really their kind of book. It definitely feels like an old book.
If you love books that examine life in a philosophical way, especially books that are easily accessible to read and understand, I think you’d love this book.
My Rating: 3 Stars
For the sensitive reader: This book is clean.
