South of the border, West of the sun

Somehow I liked this novel more than Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart. I never thought I'd like it this much because it seems like it's just another love story, and it is. But there's this thing about the choices Hajime did that really made the story more appealing. 

Hajime met his first love when he was 12 years old. They were both an only child and that somehow makes a connection between them and it helped them grew closer. But his first love, named shimamoto has a bad leg. Time passed, they both went on with their lives without each other. Hajime married Yukiko and had 2 daughters whom he really loves. He was successful. One day Shimamoto appeared in his club and the affair started from there. At first it was just reminiscing but then certain feelings of the past got involved until Hajime decided he was ready to leave everything behind if it would mean being with shimamoto. They made love passionately in his cabin one night, the next day he was all alone. Shimamoto left him without anything to keep him hanging. But he did for awhile--Yukiko already sensed this affair and instead of being angry, she decided to let him choose if he will leave her or be with her. As the agony of Yukiko prolongs, the realizations came to Hajime and he decided to stay with her. 

The best part for me is the part where he decided to stay and Yukiko welcomed him still. It's very rare that after a storm like this, one can still find a place in one's heart to forgive and forget. It's very hard. But maybe it's because of her love for his husband and for their family that helped her decide to forgive him after all. 

What I love about this is the realization that sometimes we held onto something for so long that we thought the feeling is still there. That we always think we're incomplete and that someone tends to complete us. But we are already complete, we just think that we're not. We also need to value the people that sticks with us through hardships and the good times. Sometimes we were just being overwhelmed by our feelings but we forgot to notice the most important things in our life. This novel has taught me that.