What a weird book. I'm writing this at a time when I haven't really wrangled my feelings about it. It's very well written/translated and it took me very little time to finish it. It's also a really well realized dark comedy in the sense that its exaggerations and caricatures all scratch at something real, whether it's the weight of societal expectations, the way people give themselves to the capitalist machinery or the need for structured behavior in general - and I didn't know whether to feel bad or laugh. It's argument is also complicated further by the existence of Shiraha, someone who, to me, represents the person who can kind of see the system for what it is but reacts to that by seeking to bypass it or benefit from it, and connects it to an extremely toxic worldview as a result. I think I liked this?