I Want to Eat Your Pancreas : A Tale of A Life Cut Short
When I first learnt the title of the book, I thought it probably involved monsters or some supernatural being. However, 'I Want to Eat Your Pancreas' has nothing to do with monster. It's a story about high schoolers, slice-of-life or drama type - no fantasy.
The book opens with the narrator talking about a funeral. He talks about it in such a nonchalant tone that you will wonder whether he even cared about the fact that the person died or not.
A boy who was indifferent to the world other than reading books accidentally ends up learning about one of his female classmate's secret - she was going to die soon (her defective pancreas was the reason behind it, which explains part of the title). Indifferent as he was, he couldn’t care less. However, the girl wouldn’t leave him alone. Since other than family, he was the only one who knew her secret - she held onto him.
You think this is going to be a simple tragic romance story with terminal illness troupe? No. A book written by Yoru Sumino cannot be that simple. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is very much character-driven, like all of the other Yoru Sumino books. It's also the writing style that'll keep you engaged. Yoru Sumino has a distinct way of writing, which makes stuff seem more complex and unusual than it actually is. And I like this style. Maybe it's the result of being alone for too long or the result of reading too many books - the boy, who narrates the story, doesn’t seem to think straight and see things straight either.
When it comes to their relationship, you cannot label with words like 'love' or 'friendship'. Even the characters themselves couldn’t reach the conclusion. This book once again proved my point how a lot of times we humans feel comfortable confiding in complete strangers instead of close ones. We don’t want to burden ones closest to us, but with strangers we got nothing to lose.
This book is bittersweet and by the time you end it, it'll give you melancholy. From the very first page, you know what's coming. But at the same time, you don’t. Nevertheless, you stay to watch their silly little adventures. You stay to see how things unfold. You keep following their journey to see how their feelings change, how they grow alongside each other, how they influence each other. The journey is worth it. After you finish the book, I hope that you'll look at the title in a different way, like I did.