Dealing with Loss

The central theme of the novel, as far as Eiji is concerned, is dealing with loss. Eiji has lost his closest friend and family member, his twin sister, and is left with a massive hole in his life. Once he rejects his mother, who is distracted by serious problems of her own, Eiji can see no one and nothing with which to fill that hole, so he refuses to come to terms with his sister's death. She is all he has, and he cannot imagine life without her. As he gets older, Anju's absence is unmistakable, and Eiji begins trying to fill the void with other things, such as his obsession with the music of John Lennon. Later, his obsession shifts to the idea of finding his father. Eiji is displacing his emotions. When it begins to dawn on him that he will never have a...