"I'm disappointed. I've been a fan of this author since the English translation for The Memory Police was published, and quickly made it my business to read everything of hers I could get my hands on (sadly, the number of Ogawa's translated books is a small fraction of her overall output).

Mina's Matchbox is a quiet novel, which is fine, but for me, this is too quiet, and too uneventful/mundane to inspire my interest. It's set in the early 70s, during the time when our protagonist is sent to live with her mother's sister and family, which includes cousin Mina, and also a pet pygmy hippopotamus.

Initially there's some tension in regards to the uncle (Mina's father), who is charismatic and handsome but who mysteriously disappears for unpredictable periods of time. There's tension in regards to Mina's delicate health. There's tension in regards to Mina's mother, who smokes and drinks and barely ever cracks a smile.

The tension is never relieved in a satisfying way, though. When we find out about where the uncle spends all his time away from the house, it's revealed in a rather forgettable phlump. Same with any of the other tensions the author teases. When something does happen, it's small, and it's resolved, almost effortlessly. Oh, there might be a fire, but no, it's far away and everything's fine.

Added to this, there is a LOT of volleyball talk, which was skim-worthy.

In the end, I had to accept that the novel isn't really about any of those things. Instead, it's about this particular time, a time that was meaningful to the protagonist, a time that she preserves in her heart and mind, despite the fact that she can't go back and everything has changed. I can't exactly say why this time is so important and special and why it stands out so meaningfully for her, though.

While I still truly enjoyed and admired Ogawa's style (she's one of my favourite contemporary writers, and she's a pleasure to read), this is not at all my favourite of her work. It's hard to believe this is the same person who wrote Hotel Iris. I'm still reading whatever of hers comes next, though."

"Deeply disappointed by Ogawa who chose to publish the translation of the book she wrote about defending israeli occupation of Palestine at a time where israelis are actively genociding Palestinians in Gaza.
She mentions the Munich olympics where a Palestinian group took 9 israeli hostages to free 200 Palestinians detained by israel; and not only did she call them terrorists, but also drew an imagery of how the hostage taking equates putting people in gaz chambers during the holocaust?! Seriously? She goes on to justify the occupation of Palestine as a right for a country for the descendants of the holocaust..
This is the last time I read for Ogawa, I cannot shake the idea of how she spun the story into a zionist propaganda. I stopped reading at chapter 29, and just forwarded ahead to see what happens - which wasn’t much really - I just couldn’t read any further and I stopped giving a damn about the characters anymore.
What a shame!"