After reading Days at the Morisaki Bookstore, Amazon recommended that I read Sweet Bean Paste next. The book looked short and Hoopla had it available so I checked it out and read it.
At first, the book read like the typical sensei teaching student mastery novel. You had a guy who was lackadaisical about his job, when a master shows up to teach him how to make really good bean paste, and how to pay attention to every detail in order to master the process.
Then midway through the book we get a sudden change as we realize the identity of the sensei isn't what we think it is, and the book suddenly goes into a history of Hansen's disease and its stigmatization in Japanese society. This in itself is not bad.
What annoyed me, however, is that the book ends in a place that leaves all plotlines dangling. That does'n't mean that there's no closure. The closure is all about one of the main characters, but I'm wasn't very satisfied by it. That makes it hard for me to recommend the book.
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