61 pages • 2 hours read
Muriel BarberyA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Renée meets the new owner of the Arthens apartment, a Japanese man that she can’t quite catch his name because the woman who introduces him speaks his name unclearly each time. Renée likes him immediately. He is attentive to Renée, and she senses that she doesn’t have to dumb herself down for him. When discussing the Arthens, Kakuro makes a comment about happy families all having their own forms of unhappiness, which makes Renée involuntarily shudder.
Renée shuddered when the Japanese man made his comment about families because his statement was a quote from Anna Karenina. The Japanese man’s assistant Paul Nguyen introduces himself to Renée and explains that they don’t want renovations in his apartment to make more work for her. He finally speaks the man’s name, Kakuro Ozu, clearly, and Renée is shaken because Ozu shares the name of the filmmaker of some of her favorite films. She speculates that he may be related to the filmmaker.
The neighbors in the building are all interested in Kakuro Ozu, their newcomer. Though she is also excited about him, the diarist is annoyed that such an interesting thing could happen only six months before she has decided to die.
Appearance Versus Reality
View Collection
Art
View Collection
Beauty
View Collection
Books About Art
View Collection
Books & Literature
View Collection
Coming-of-Age Journeys
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Education
View Collection
Family
View Collection
French Literature
View Collection
Friendship
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection
National Suicide Prevention Month
View Collection
New York Times Best Sellers
View Collection
Philosophy, Logic, & Ethics
View Collection
Popular Book Club Picks
View Collection