Sarcasm with a Silver Lining -- "Just a Pig's Rambling..." by Yoko Sano

1. Rabbits

Each and every one of the rabbits' residences had a frame on the wall: "Happy Family," under which a large family dined.

Crunching the cabbage, the father said "amend your own behavior at the sight of others' misbehavior." The boys chomped on their cabbage. The mother said "you don't do things that make others laugh at you," and laughed at the clumsy jumps of the next door neighbor's youngsters. The children laughed, their voices in sync, their ears lined up at the kitchen window.

"It ain't mellow out there, the real world." Grandpa Rabbit dropped a nut for his funeral in a jar, and counted 84.

"We've never let anyone point fingers at us."

Grandma Rabbit had a heart attack at Grandpa's funeral and was put in the same hole.

They didn't get along with other families, so rabbits were good and loyal to their own families.


"Just a Pig's Rambling..." (『ほんの豚ですが』中公文庫)is a wonderful bag of various human truth. The little book (about 4X6 inches) with crookedly cute charcoal illustrations by the author doesn't appear to be nothing more than a children's stories with anthropomorphized animals. Yet, a worrysome goat, a haughty fox, and a smitten giraffe (to name a few) all reveal something of our pathetic but oh-so-human conditions. Some stories are bitter, even biting. With the author's hidden, loving, encompassing embrace of humanity, the book take turns to present soft-hearted mellow stories as well. This rare mixture of bitterness and naivete is what makes the book and the author unique among many.