"Ochibo hiroi / Inu no Seikatsu" (The Gleaners / A Dog's Life) by Koyama Kiyoshi. This is a combination of two books, each containing a collection of short stories. Honestly, none of the stories were particularly memorable. They were not bad at all, just that they did not leave a particularly strong impression either. The characters were average everyday characters, and the plot appear to be excepts from an average person's diary.
The story that left the most impression was probably "Yasui Atama" (Cheap Head), which describes the life of a newspaper deliveryman in a small town. The plot very much fits the "average everything" rating, but at least for this one the character relationships were vividly written and interesting to follow.
Another story that left a strong impression was "Inu no Seikatsu", which describes how the narrator became the owner of a stray female dog, and gradually came to see this dog as a member of his family. I particularly liked how the narrator gradually came to see a human-like personality in this dog and other dogs, and the line from the veterinarian explaining how dogs bite due to "fear, hate, jealousy, and love" was particularly memorable.
That said, the next thought after reading "Inu no Seikatsu" was how it compared to "Chikukendan" by Dazai Osamu. Whereas "Inu no Seikatsu" had a lovable dog and a loving owner, "Chikukendan" had a poorly shaped, short-tempered, fearsome dog, and an owner with an innate fear and disdained for dogs due to traumatized past. Dazai's dog story has more personality and more plot development, in fewer pages.
Readers should not expect works of two different authors to be the same, although even Koyama knew how he compares to Dazai. This was made obvious in the last story, "Mefist" (Mephisto), which included quite a bit of commentary regarding Dazai and other writers of that era, presented in a dialog between Koyama and a journalist. The commentaries here were enough to make this story worth reading. Overall though, I did not feel that I would have missed much if I didn't read this book.
Previous (2013-08-08): "Edogawa Ranpo Kessakusen"
Next (2013-08-29): "Biburia Koshodou no Jiken Techou" volume 3 by Mikami En