I confess! I cheated!

When I read the part about Tengo’s childhood, I could swear I’ve read about it somewhere before. About the father who didn’t look like him. About the NHK subscription fee rounds every Sunday. About his math abilities. About being afraid of being seen by his classmates on Sundays. Even the part where Tengo thought his father envied him.

All of these details were in a folder in a drawer in my head somewhere I couldn’t retrieve because, my head, as most of you already know, is somewhat a mess.

I was guessing it has been written in one of Murakami Sensei’s vast collection of works. After all, writers do like testing their characters in short pieces, giving them a taste of life, letting them live their fates bit by bit.

I was tempted to google it, perhaps somebody felt the same peculiarity as me. I denied the urge. But couldn’t for long. As the details kept adding up to contents of that damned misplaced folder in my cluttered memory.

So I asked Uncle Google, “Why am I familiar with Tengo’s story?”

And his answer was, “Of course you’re familiar with him, Silly. You’ve read about his adventure in ‘The Town of Cats’.

*mati suri*

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/09/05/town-of-cats

Reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

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