In an attempt to catch up with my growing pile of unread books, I have finished reading Yoshimoto Banana’s Hardboiled and Hard Luck. There are only two stories in this book, the Hardboiled and the Hard Luck chapters, but both deal with the topics of death, lost, sadness, love, and coming into terms with one’s issues.

I like the Hard Luck story more than the other, mostly because it is more realistic, so for me, the story’s treatment to the topics I mentioned aboved seemed more real and easier to relate to. In general Hardboiled and Hard Luck didn’t leave a very strong impression on me compared to her other books that I’ve read (particularly Goodbye Tsugumi) but this book still has that easy-to-read flair yet the texts still dealt with emotions and dilemma that most young people face.