A story about loss and the weird ways that each of us deal with our own personal grief. This story stayed with me not only because the loss suffered is so huge, but because of the detached, almost analytical way the main characters think about it. The weeks of rituals and customs surrounding death in Japan further compound the sense of oddity and alienation. And although the characters appear detached the prose is elegant and poetic.
Memory sometimes makes hours run side by side for us, or pile one on another.
From Death in Midsummer and Other Stories, Penguin, 1966, download it here
A Personal Anthology 
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