Pathway to Japanese Literature
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Daylight DreamAuthor: Toyoshima Yoshio
| Original Title | 白日夢 |
|---|---|
| Author | 豊島 与志雄 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | In late spring, a family of four settles into a modest new home, its cramped garden and identical neighboring house sparking both hope and quiet discontent. The narrator’s fleeting optimism fades as eerie occurrences emerge: phantom gate openings, shared walls amplifying mundane routines, and an uncanny mirroring of lives next door. A drunken mistake—barging into the neighbor’s identical residence—unravels a surreal thread. The two households, down to their salaries, children, and struggles, seem interchangeable, their routines bathed in the same sunlight. Conversations with a friend deepen the unease, revealing a world where faces blur and identities slip like smoke. As the narrator’s fixation grows, so does a gnawing dread—of being observed, replaced, or dissolved into the sameness. What begins as domestic comedy twists into existential disquiet, where walls feel porous and the self threatens to vanish into the ordinary. A haunting meditation on conformity, belonging, and the fragility of individuality unfolds beneath the veneer of everyday life. |
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