The most striking literary device in this story is the first-person narration of Kiyama, a twelve-year-old boy in contemporary Japan. Yumoto has been much noted for her portrayal of three interesting boys, all a little strange when measured against their peers, but all lovingly drawn through Kiyama's descriptions of their appearance and their actions. The boys are each characterized by some physical feature that makes them feel odd, and their families possess problems they compelled to resolve. So Kiyama is growing too fast and has an alcoholic mother. Yamashita is overweight and his parents disagree about his future, while his desire to work with his father is ignored. Kawabe has very poor eyesight and a bad temper, and is ashamed that he doesn't have a father. They are all regularly portrayed as outsiders in their school groups, but this is also why they stick together.

Kiyama's...