Plot: 4/9. The plot was bland because of the passive narrator who didn’t do anything but accepting the status quo.

The narrator finished his story embodying no practical meaning other than entertainment. On his way to post office, he met a stranger feeding a dog pillar, which was made brutally from the living creature and still held some original properties before they completely transformed into the plant. That gentleman confessed mournfully that he used to be a writer but now he didn’t have any courage to continue his writing in an era when even a casual conversation here between two strangers might be reported, because two writers gathering together would be deemed as an illegal assembly.

After bidding farewell to the elderly writer, the narrator gave his mail to the pillar of a postman who was made solely because his complaint of low wage was heard by his boss.

Eventually, the narrator visited the pillar of his wife punished owing to her criticism on the government in order to promote the narrator’s fame. Her wife begged him to forget about her and never check on her again so that she could turn to a complete tree as soon as possible and he either didn’t took the risk of being reported for his illegal behavior of calling the old name of a pillar.

In a small coffee bar, students were talking about a critic and his adolescent supporters who were just transformed into a bunch of pillars by the government.

Core: 6/9. I thought the writer used the love tragedy between the narrator and the standing woman to make a subtle innuendo about the brutality of Japanese government in his era. I indeed resonated with that sentimentality of powerlessness in doing anything to save people you cherished including your wife from the cruelty of the autocracy.

Character: 7/9. I was impressed by the elderly writer that abandoned his beloved craft out of fear, the postman who fulfilled his duty even after the involuntary mutation, the overseer who silently withdrew from the lovers’ reunion, the students who couldn’t help talking about another tragedy in the public and the star-crossed couple topped the bill. Tsutsui succeeded in capturing the behaviors and mentality of individuals living under autocracy through an absurd yet compelling premise.

World and Others: 4/9. I would give a higher score if the cause and the structure of the government and the technique were depicted in greater detail.

Overall: 5/9. Tsutsui was worth noting despite my distaste towards an incapable protagonist.