I see this as a very vivid portrait of Suzuki's mindset at the time she wrote it. The stories read as a tragedy, especially when you know the ending of the author's personal story, but there was nothing I found compelling. The pedestrian stories make blatant and unsuccessful attempts to sound interesting while ultimately going nowhere. It felt as if the author tried to include things that she knew make critics and scholars swoon. Unfortunately, the heavy-handedness with which they were forced into the narrative makes them fall flat, and they are ultimately lacking the very things she was trying to achieve.