Ramen, Existential Crisis - Roie Oknin - A Short Summary and Review
Ramen, Existential Crisis - Roie Oknin - A Short Summary and Review
By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures
A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review
A Short Summary:
Koji is twenty-seven, works in a tiny ramen shop, and has been there for roughly six years. He almost completed his degree in Politics and Government, but one final module remained unfinished: Political Crisis Management. The irony is not lost on anyone, because Koji has spent the years since university becoming very skilled at avoiding the unresolved crisis of his own life.
The ramen shop gives him everything procrastination needs: routine, familiarity, useful work, people who rely on him, and endless reasons today isn't quite the right day to change. He works, sleeps in the back room, helps even on his day off, and repeatedly comes close to addressing his unfinished degree without quite managing to do it.
As the people around him move forward, Koji is forced to confront a difficult truth: staying still is also a choice. Eventually, responsibility stops being something he can postpone indefinitely, and the life he has avoided deciding upon demands an answer.
My Favorite Quote from the Book:
Questions to ponder while reading:
My Review:
I loved Ramen, Existential Crises. It is funny, quiet, absurd, and remarkably perceptive about how procrastination actually works. Koji is not lazy. That is what makes the story so good. He works constantly. He is useful. He handles all sorts of things. He simply cannot quite face the particular responsibility that might force him to decide what he wants his life to become.
That distinction made the novel work beautifully for me. Procrastination is often presented as doing nothing, but Koji demonstrates the much more dangerous version: doing plenty while avoiding the one thing that matters. The ramen shop becomes a perfect refuge because there is always another bowl to prepare, another shift to cover, another problem that can legitimately take precedence over sending one email.
The humor is wonderfully understated. Koji's almost-degree is missing Political Crisis Management, while the man himself can barely manage an email about finishing it. He spends enormous amounts of thought deciding how and when he might eventually act. Even time becomes flexible when action is inconvenient, which is why the line about a few days lasting until Tuesday or six years struck me so hard.
Under all of that humor, though, this is a genuinely thoughtful story about responsibility, fear, routine, and the strange comfort of an unfinished life. Finishing something means something else has to begin. Oknin understands that sometimes we stall not because we do not care, but because choosing a direction means surrendering all the other directions we might have taken. I found Koji enormously relatable, and I loved watching the smallest act of forward movement become something monumental.
If you liked Ramen, Existential Crisis, you may also like:
What's Eating Gilbert Grape - Peter Hedges
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She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
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