Tag: Asian fiction

Set my heart on fire by Izumi Suzuki

~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

Set my heart on fire by Izumi Suzuki

Japanese fiction

Original title – ハートに火をつけて! だれが消す

Translator – Helen O’Horan

Source – Library book

Well, on to the third of this month’s Women in Translation Month, I move to Japan and a writer whose other books in English so far have been a short story collection, and the novel by Izumi Suzuki is her first to be translated into English. Izumi died young and, like the women in her book, lived at night in Tokyo, where she moved as a hostess, nude model and actress. When she was young, she had a brief marriage to an avant-garde saxophonist, the sort of chap who played in one of the jazz clubs in her book.I had read the short story collection by her and not really connected, but this felt more real-life than her stories did to me. I may reread her short story collection after reading this.

I’m more of a Gibson man myself. I mean, the Green Glass guitarist used an SG. I guess different Fenders sound different, too. You’ve got Telecasters, Stratocasters … The Tele’s nice and tight. Stratocaster’s more bluesy?

He took out a Hope cigarette and a little sleeve of cardboard matches.’God, what should I do!’ I lay back and writhed about on the bed.You just never think ahead? He plucked off a match and lit his cigarette. ‘Oh no, I just set my Hope on fire!’ Look, if it works out in the end, it’s all good to me. I take it as it comes.’

This reminded me of friends I had when young into guitars and how they sounded !

 

The main character in the book a woman in her twenties living her best well a life at night on the back streets of Tokyo is a thinly veiled version of the writer herself it captures a wom an stuck in the night time world of Tokyo of the mid 1970 bars full of yoi8ung men like the wooman in the book just trying to escape there world wether through playing music, drinking having affairs of  r drugs these are the dark side of Tokyo nights. Obviously culled from her own short marriage, and then shortly after her husband divorced, they lived together. He died of an overdose. This world is full of mirror images of him and many of the men she must have met during those years. It is a doomed life of men and a woman making three wrong choices. all to a backdrop of seventies rock, jazz, and Japanese psychedelic bands of this time. I felt it needed a Spotify playlist of the bands.

I thought he’d have left long ago.

We’d arranged to meet at eleven o’clock by the Honmoku bus stop. Thanks to the mental retardation I retained from my childhood, I’d taken the Tokaido Line instead of the Toyoko Line and gone to Yokohama Station, and then the train was delayed. By the time I arrived it was past twelve-thirty.

Joel was standing there, serene. Looking like he’d walked straight out of the photos on that album sleeve. Slender and tall like a tree without leaves, not moving an inch.

I wondered whether he might be an idiot. I quickly parked my own blunder and looked down on him incredulously.

What man waits nearly two hours for a woman whose face he’s never seen? If it was in a café, perhaps – I suppose he’d have found ways to amuse himself, but even then he’d have to be a guy with nothing much going for him.

In the club and a man she had seen lioved the descrition of how he looked

I like this book; it is almost auto-fiction. i read it is a nod the the tradtional I novel a japanese form of bildsroman. IT captures what must have been the young Izumi Suzuki years in the jazz bars and her marriage to one of those men that played in a band in those bars at the time, a doomed relationship rather like her own life, which was far too short 1. Still, It also captures the world of the early Murakami novels but from a female point of view as she drifted through the Japanese Jazz bar, and this is a world where the women would eat the men in Haruki Murakami’s novels alive. There is no evidence she knew Murakami, but this is the same nightlife he portrayed in his early novels. In particular, this could almost be a third novel alongside his first two novels, which are both set in the Tokyo nightlife and Jazz bars, but it is a darker version of that. She actually lived those nights of men drunk, drugged, cheating on their wives as they shared her bed and moments of passion. Have you read any of her collection, or this novel?

Do you have a favourite book set mainly at night ?

 

 

People from Oetimu by Felix Nesi

~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

People from Oetimu by Feix Nesi

Indonesian fiction

Original title – Orang-Orang Oetimu

Translator – Lara Norgaard

Source – Personal copy

I moved to Asia and the third book I have reviewed from Indonesia. This time, it is published by one of my favourite publishers, Archieplago Books. Their books are just lovely. So, when I saw this a while ago, it was one I had to buy from them. Felix Nesi is from West Timor. The book looks back at the dark history of his part of Indonesia, and he has conducted research on this period, particularly focusing on slavery in the past. He is also a writer from the Iowa Writing Programme. He also has a bookshop, library and runs a book festival. I always love it when writers give back to their community by encouraging reading and writing.

The armed men kept their distance as they walked behind her, fortifying their courage with the few fragments of prayers to their ancestors they’d managed to memorize. Women and children hesitantly trailed behind the men, curious and afraid. Since the stranger lurched forward without so much as a glance to her surroundings, more and more town residents joined the crowd. Some men were still unsure of themselves and would rebuke the others for getting too close, wary of the possibility that the creature might radiate witchcraft. When the throngs reached a storefront – one of the few thatched buildings in town that proudly displayed its slogan, “Stay Steadfast and Prosper” – the appalling woman collapsed to the ground. The moment her bottom hit the rough, broken pavement, she started to cry intense, loud sobs; she reached both arms to the sky and then punched her bloated stomach. It was the first time Laura had cried since her mother and father were killed, and it had been a very long time since she’d made any sound at all. Nothing could hold back her thundering wail.

The violence is hard to read at time

The book moves between periods of time from the Jaopanese invasion of the island the independence movement against Portugal in the seventies. But the book opens with a locals in village gathering in  the local police station to watch the 1998 World cup . The locals are all wanting the Brazilians to win against the french. This is a game I remember watching back in the day this is something I love connecting with a book over and event. Then we see how the independence movement was handed over from the Portuguese government. The book drifts through he years This shows both the brutal time of the seventies, but then also sees how the Japanese treated the locals back in the forties. It is a book that is dark and captures the brutal history of his homeland, but also contains a glimpse of human life, especially in the story of the 90s, which revolves around football. Additionally, there is a sense of uneasy nature to the locals and their world. It captures the brutal nature of the country’s history over the years through the story of one village and its locals.

That said, it’s not as though every officer took such delight in beating people up. There were other soldiers stationed on the southern edge of town; they also wore uniforms and went into the center of Otimu to buy cigarettes and razors at Prosperity General Store. These men were muscular and always seemed to be smiling, since they had slightly buck teeth (as was often the case with people from Java). If they passed by the mototaxi stop, they’d share a pack of cigarettes with the boys and ask if anyone knew of girls they could sleep with. Other than Neeta, that is, since she was a little crazy. She had a very big mouth and was famously good at sucking cock, but she also got a kick out of gossiping about how small Javanese soldiers’ dicks were compared to those of the Timorese militia, which made the men uncomfortable. Since the moto-taxi stop was right in front of Oetimu High School, the boys promised that the soldiers would be the first to know if there was ever a young girl who decided to become a prostitute.

The military and how it effects the locals

I feel this captured the brutal world of Timor, a country which, iunntile maybe the last twenty years, had seen so much violence from the Japanese invasion to the cruel end of the Portuguese rule and the first government of the country, and then the wanting of East Timor to be its own country. It connects the timelines well through the characters we meet in the book, but also it use the folk history of the place to weave into the brutal tales. I think this is a nod to people Marquez and the other Indonesian writer I have read Eka Kurniawan. It captures the post-colonial struggle in Timor, a place that was torn apart during this time. IT faces the past and doesn’t dwell on the violent aspects. Have you read any books from Indonesia?

Wildcat Dome by Yuko Tsushima

~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments

Wildcat Dome by Yuko Tsushima

Japanese fiction

Original title – ヤマネコ・ドーム

Translator – Lisa Hofmann -Kuroda

Source – review copy

I have meant to review another book by this writer, who is the daughter of Dazai Osamu and uses a pen name for her books. Her half sister is also a writer and a number of her other family members have been ninvolved in Japanese goverment this book came out later in her writing Career but also linked to the present of the Fukushima Nuclear disaster and also events in the war are all interlinking into this story one that sopans the decades and also crosses reality at times. I must admit that this is a book that lingers with you as a reader, but also requires a closer reading than I did. But i will giver you my take on the book.

Kazu’s thoughts drift back to Yonko, whom he is seeing for the first time in a long while. Though when he thinks about it, he realizes it’s only been about two years. But how long ago that seems now. The truth that Mitch and Hide had stumbled across was so frightening that Yonko and Kazu stopped talking, unable to look at each other or even talk on the phone. They tried to forget, since there was nothing they could do, no matter how much they wished otherwise. For two years, they tried to convince themselves:

I’ve forgotten, I’ve forgotten. All this time, enveloped in an unnatural silence. As they continued to avoid talking to each other, they hoped their connection might fade on its own. Though perhaps what they really wanted was to escape their own past.

Kazu imagines Yonko running through the city, livid.

She remebers her firend Kazu and later we find out what happened in the past

As I said, this is a book more about modern and post-war Japan than about the characters in the book and the loneliness between reality and dream, like a world that exists. At the heart of the story are two characters, Mitch and Yonko, meeting years after they were both in an orphanage. Alongside another boy called Kazu, the two boys were inseparable as kids. Something happened, and what the book does is link the past of post-war Japan and these feral children, kids of GIs and Japanese women. In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, the book presents the two characters facing past events in their present. What Yuko does as well is incorporate a lot of colour themes that recur in the book Orange, which in Japanese is Daidai, meaning the tree and generations. I’m not sure if this is what she meant in the book. It is one of those books, wonderfully written about a long-past tragedy, told through the eyes of a friend. Also, time spent in a dome in their youth, where they saw many things that may have been dream-like events, when they were told about there being a drowning of water and Japan vanishing.

Mitch has gone completely silent now, and there is nothing Yonko can do but hang her head and ponder what that “really bad” thing could be. The sandy mud is on her sleeves now. Her red coat grows heavier by the minute. As soon as they get to the station, she is sure her mother will yell at her for not being more careful. And then Yonko won’t be able to ask her anything at all. What were you all talking about last night, Mom, did something sad happen, she wishes she could ask. But children can’t just go around asking questions of adults— especially questions that might cross the boundaries of the innocent world that adults have constructed for them. Adults are always on guard against children, keeping them far away from their secrets.

Mitch has his own past

As I said, this is one of those books that is more about themes than characters, focusing on loss, loneliness, Japan’s distant past, and its post-war years. About growing up and always being an outsider. Having a secret. But also about the thin line between a child’s dream world and reality, and what that means now and then to those involved. As I said, this book may benefit from being familiar with her body of work a little more. This is the third book by her that I will have read. But perhaps also a little more knowledge than I have of post-war Japan and how being half-Japanese and American would have affected those born in those heady post-war years. There is the spectre of Nuclear war and also Nuclear disaster, as this was written in the aftermath and effects of the Fukushima disaster. Colour also plays a part in her writing. I was reminded of the Trois Couleurs films and the way they used colours to reflect a theme, and I think this has a similar thread running through the film. Have you read this book? What is your take on it?

Han Kang wins the Nobel

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments

Han Kang is a South Korean author known for her poignant and thought-provoking works that explore themes of identity, trauma, and the human condition. Born on November 27, 1970, in Gwangju, South Korea, she gained international acclaim with her novel “The Vegetarian,” which won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016.

Her writing often blends elements of the surreal with deeply personal narratives, reflecting the complexities of life in contemporary Korea. Other notable works include “Human Acts,” which delves into the Gwangju Uprising, and “The White Book,” a meditation on loss and memory. Han Kang’s literature is characterized by its lyrical prose and emotional depth, establishing her as a significant voice in modern literature. I love this winner. This book touched me so much. She wasn’t on my radar as a winner, and it is great to see an Asian winner and a female writer win. I am also pleased for Deborah Smith her English translator, that has done so much for Asian fiction over the last few years

The Full Moon Cafe by Mai Moochizuki

~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

The Full Moon Cafe by Mai Moochizuki

Japanese fiction

Original title – 満月珈琲店の星詠み

Translator Jesse Kirkwood

Source – Review copy

This is one of the books I read for Women in Translation Month. I have been a fan of the quirky Japanese novels we have seen a lot over the last couple of years. So when I was asked to review this, I said yes as I like a little light read like this occasionally. Mai Mochizuki Has written several books.  she had a series called Alice in Kyouraku Forest series. This is the first of a new series of books set around a mystical cafe that only appears on a full moon. Mai was born and raised in Hokkaido and now lives in Kyoto, where the book itself is set. This is the first of a series of novels. Following the ever-moving Full Moon Cafe as it moves around Koyto, it helps some souls in that city.

I was living in some absurd fairy tale. Maybe I’d fallen asleep? I mean, this kind of thing only happened in dreams. Yes, this had to be a dream. Once I had convinced myself of that, I began to relax slightly.

In response to my question, the three cats exchanged a series of glances, then nodded vaguely.

‘You could say so, yes,’ said the tuxedo cat.

‘Though this isn’t our real form, either. said the Singapura, scratching behind his ear. Just as he was about to go on, the tuxedo cat cleared his throat loudly. The Singapura hastily clapped a paw to his mouth.

‘The Full Moon Coffee Shop has no fixed location,” said the master of the café. It might appear in the middle of a familiar shopping street, by the station at the end of the railway line or on a quiet riverbank.

And at this café, we don’t ask for your order? He put a paw to his chest and bowed cermoniously

As the cafee first appears on a street in Koyto

This book has a bit of everything in it: Cats; of course, Cats are a symbol of good luck in Japan. So when, every full moon, a cafe appears around the Kyoto area that is staffed by Cats and helps someone who in the past has helped a cat, so in turn, they get help. Every appearance also sees them feeding the person they help these make up some of the chapter headings. We meet five people in need of the cafe and the Cat’s help. This involves astrology and sometimes just a little logic and being at the right time at the right place. As we see each person problems solved.AS those clever cats show each other the path they need to take, this is a book that is maybe a perfect autumn read.

I couldn’t forget the cats’ words. After the Age of Pisces came the Age of Aquarius. The age of spirituality – and the internet. A time when the individual was truly respected. In an era like that, maybe I was lucky to be writing game scripts. Maybe this was actually an opportunity – one I shouldn’t let slide.

Even if I wasn’t allowed to include any breathtaking love scenes, I could still write wonderful stories. Instead of just aiming for average, I’d create the best side characters I could.

As long as they made people feel as if they were edging closer to a blissful romance with the main character, then as a writer, I’d have done my job.

And what did I need in order to do it well?

The cats words help a writer think clearer

I like this sort of lighter read; I think we all need a palate cleanser of a book every now and then. This is that sort of book fun. What more could you want than walking and talking cats to a coffee shop they run as well and then throw in astrology? You have a mix of things many people can’t resist. Imagine if Russell Grant and the Baron from Studio Ghibli Cat returned to film (I know he was in another of the films from the studio as a model of the Baron in the shop), opening a magical cafe that appears overnight on a full moon, This would be the book. It is a fun read. I read it in the evening, and for me, that makes it the perfect autumnal read. Sit with some coffee and maybe a dessert like those in the book and over an evening, as the nights draw in, find out the going ons in the Full Moon cafe. Do you have a series or type of book you read that is lighter or as I say a palate cleanser of a book?  Do you like quirky cat books?

Winstons score – B solid book Walking Talking Cats a bit of coffee culture and a feel-good factor what more could you want for a nights reading.

The Bridegroom was a Dog by Yoko Tawada

~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

The Bridegroom Was a Dog by Yoko Tawada

Japanese fiction

Original title – Imumukori

Translator – Margaret Mitsutani

Source – personal copy

You know what? I am slow with my reviews for WIT month. The weather is hot here in the UK. I am going to try and catch up on some reviews the next few days. This caught my eye on holiday last month. I had read scattered all over the world by her. I am always amazed that Yoko Tawada writes in both Japanese /German. This particular story has been translated from Japanese. I think the US edition of this book has a couple of other stories thrown in. Still, we have just this one story by her in a nice little hardback book, one of those books that is perfect for reading on a summer evening, a novella about a teacher, a myth she makes up and what happens after that.

‘The Bridegroom Was a Dog'” Miss Kitamura began, and the children listened carefully until the end, but the tale was so long that the younger ones got mixed up when they tried to tell it at home, and the older ones were too embarrassed to repeat it,

so curious mothers were left to piece together the fragments they’d overheard for themselves, but, anyway, the story went like this. Once upon a time there was a little princess who was still too young to wipe herself after she went to the lavatory, and the woman assigned to look after her was too lazy to do it for her, so she used to call the princess’s favorite black dog and say, “If you lick her bottom clean one day she’ll be your bride “

Her weird myth after talking about The Crane Wife

Mitsuko is a teacher at the Kitamura school, which is a cram school, but she is a strange one with a weird set of rules and how she deals with her pupils. The tissues she has a strange habit with them, leading to her being talked about by both the pupils and teachers. But she is good at another job.But when one day, she decides to make up her own myth after talking about one of the most famous Japanese myths, the Crane wife. She twists this to a myth about a bride betrothed to a Dog. But what happens when, a short while later, a young man appears in her life with Cannine-like teeth? Has fantasy and reality crossed over in this tale? When he arrives and says did you get my telegram? I wondered if they still have telegrams in Japan as a small aside. Taro, the young man, starts to enter her world.

The town where all this happened was made up of two distinct areas to the north and south: in the north were the modern housing developments that had sprung up along the railway with the station at its hub, while the southern district that lined the Tama River had prospered since ancient times, and yet many people in the Tama region didn’t even know it existed, even though the public housing complexes that drew people to the north had only been in existence for about thirty years, whereas

the south was really old, with the remains of ancient pit houses discovered near the river-human dwellings that dated back farther than you could imagine –

The town described her

This is one of those weird, quirky books I love from Japan. It does have a bizarre storyline and some really odd sexual and hab it’s in it, but in a way that adds to the quirkiness of this story.Yes, it is bizarre, and maybe in a way, I feel the US edition may be better as it had a couple of other stories, but if you don’t fancy this novella, it means there isn’t anything else. I can see this as one of those books that can divide opinions. For me, the surreal ideas behind it actually brought the main character to life in her job as a cram school teacher, which in itself is a job that is intense and hard for the pupils attending the school. It is a book with little habits and things like that well observed, those quirky bits that can make a narrative, and we don’t always see a person do, but when we do, we can’t miss it if that makes sense. Then I did wonder if it was meant to be a tale set a long time ago with the mention of a telegram unware if Japan maybe still has telegrams or if this is to make it set in a certain time post-war Japan I’m not sure really but if you have a thought on this I’d like to know  I look forward to more books from Yoko. I know another one is due soon. Have you read this quirky tale ? Do you like a really short book you can read in the evening?

Winston score – B quirky, surreal sex may need a couple other stories.

ALI and Nino by Kurban Said

~ winstonsdad ~ 9 Comments

Ali and Nino by Kurban Said

Azerbaijan fiction

Original title -Ali un Nino

Translator Jenia Gaman

Source – Personal copy

I love it when Simon and Karen announce the year of the club every six months. For me, it is an excuse to go down a rabbit hole and find interesting and exciting books to read for the year. Anyway thuis was the first choice for 1937. It has a great story. First, Kurban said it was a Non de plume. But over time, who it was isn’t known for sure. There is a whole wiki page about this on my edition that points towards Lev Nussimbaum, a writer who escaped Azerbaijan and a friend of someone else, the Austrian countess Elfriede nEherfenfels, also thought to be the writer of this book at some point. Another writer put forward by his son is Yusif Mirbaba oghlu Vazirov, a writer also connected to Baku, where the book is mainly set. The book came out i n1937 uin Austria given its timing would been contirversal. The book saw the light of day for a second time when it was found and translated into English by the translator in the fifties. Since then, it has been translated into thirty languages. It is a classic take on the forbidden love story.

My father went for advice to the Mullah at the mosque, who declared that all this Latin was just vain delusion.

So my father put on all his Turkish, Persian and Russian decorations, went to see the headmaster, donated some chemical equipment or other and I passed. A notice had been put up in the school stating that pupils were strictly forbidden to enter school premises with loaded revolvers, telephones were installed in town, and Nino Kipiani was still the most beautiful girl in the world.

His view on his girlfriend Nino the most Beautiful girl in the world.

The story follows a couple of the titles from when. They are at a Western school in Baku as kids. The struggle this leads to as Ali, although he goes to the school, is from an Azerbaijani family of Persian descent and is Muslim. Where as Nino is from a Georgian family and is Christian. So what follows is their love and wanting to marry. Getting first his family and then her family to agree to the wedding. All this is against the backdrop of the Cosmopolitan Baku of the time. It was full of Oil money, and many different people lived together there then, but the oil meant it was eyed by the Soviets to the north. The book is told from Ali’s perspective and what I loved is how he captured the feel of the city at that time. The twenties near the world is destined for war, but in this desert city, this leads to the people wanting their own freedom to escape the fear of the hammer and sickle to the North and the Soviet forces. Add to this the families want the best for their sons and daughters. Ali’s family is well known, and her family are royal in their way, as some call her a princess. What price is happiness as they have to escape their world of wealth? This is a story of deep love between two people and how it can win out.

When the first excitement was over I sneaked to the tele-phone. I had not spoken to Nino for two weeks. A wise rule demands that a man should keep away from women when he stands at life’s crossroads. Now I lifted the grip of the unwieldy apparatus, turned the bell and shouted into the mouth-piece: ‘3381!’ Nino’s voice replied: ‘Passed, Ali?’

‘Yes, Nino.’

“Congratulations, Ali!’

‘When and where, Nino?’

‘Five o’clock at the lake in the Governor’s Garden, Ali.’ I could not go on talking. Behind my back lurked the curious ears of my relations, servants and eunuchs. Behind Nino’s— her aristocratic mother. Better to stop. Anyway, a bodiless voice is so strange that one cannot really enjoy

I love the way the love affair goes so old fashioned to these days.

This has it all an exotic setting a world on the bring of madness of the war. A pair torn by family, religion and race, he is Asian and Muslim, and she is European and Christian, but at the heart of this all is the love between them. One mind turns to incredible stories of love, Romeo and Juliet, or something like The English Patient, with its exotic setting, a cosmopolitan time in Baku before the Soviets took over the country. Or even Florentino and Fernina come to mind in Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera of how love sees through everything. I also loved the place, the Baku of the time, which reminded me of how someone like Pamuk Captures Istanbul in his fiction. There is an eye for the details of daily life that makes the prose in this book leap off the page. It also reminds me why I always read books for the club year week, and that is the voyage of discovery of books like this that would have passed me by. Have you read this book or any other book from Azerbaijan?

Winston’s score – A – the hidden gem of a book about a love affair, the power of love, set in the wonderfully cosmopolitan Baku before Soviet rule.

 

 

A perfect day to be alone by Nanae Aoyama

~ winstonsdad ~ Leave a comment

A Perfect day to be Alone by Nanae Aoyama

Japanese fiction

Original title – Hitori biyori (ひとり日和,

translator – Jesse Kirkwood

Source – Review copy

I take a side step from Booker International with today’s post. I look at a book from Jpan as one of the big missing things from this year’s list was the lack of a Japanese novel. Here we have a book from 2007 from one of the rising stars of Japan. Well, as this is the first Adult novel from this writer to be translated into English, it also won the Akutagawa prize when it came out in 2007. The writer has cited Francoise Sagan and Kazuo Ishiguro as influences on her writing. This book sees a young woman sent to live with a relative as she has just turned 20, and her mother has had to take a job in China, leaving Chizu living with the 71-year-old Ginko and the two cats that live in the ramshackle Tokyo home she has been sent to live at.

When I got back to the house, Ginko was sitting under the kotatsu blanket, doing some embroidery. The blanket’s unusual thickness was explained by the fact that it was actually a series of different blankets: a heavily pilled beige one followed by a brown one, and on top of that a red feather quilt.

“I’m back.”

“Oh, hello again, replied Ginko, pushing the reading glasses that had slipped down her nose into place. Trying to block out the memory of my pathetic exchange with Yohei, I flashed her a good-natured smile as I slipped my jacket onto a hanger.

“Fancy some yokan?”

“Oh, yes please.”

 

The two are in different worlds in a way

The book I read at the same time I saw Perfect Days, the recent Wim Wenders film, not that they have a lot in common, but the main character’s apartment in the film maybe felt like the sort of area the Chizu is sent to live. The book follows the young woman over four seasons as she takes lots of pointless jobs and she collects items from people, but at the heart of the book is a lonely woman making her way through a busy city living with an elderly relative and her cat pictures and her embroidery is a world away from where the young girl wants to be as we see her glimpse others lives, but her own life is lonely and that sort of weightlessness ine feels at that age not knowing where life will go but want it to go somewhere she does the mindless jobs but hasn’t found her path going home to a flat that rumbles as the trains go by. A female coming of age in a modern city.

Today’s event started at seven in the evening. That meant I had to be at the company’s office in Chofu by half five, where I’d get changed, do my makeup, attend a briefing, and then go and get the banquet hall ready.

I hadn’t told Ginko I worked as a hostess. I figured she wouldn’t even understand the concept, so I’d just told her I was washing dishes at a banquet hall. If I’d really talked her through everything the job entailed, shed probably conclude it was some sleazy operation. I didn’t want to have to defend my choices, and in any case I was planning on moving out as soon as I had some cash saved up.

In the meantime, I just wanted to enjoy myself and avoid rocking the boat too much.

Then she takes a job that maybe risky

This is the flip side to a story like Please Look After Mother of Ozu’s Tokyo story, about a younger person lost in the city. There is often talk about loneliness in this modern age with everyone so absorbed in ther smartphones and the world seemingly quicker than it was a few decades ago. What she has captured is the world just as this is happening, the first ripple of what is ahead it is 2007 so smartphones are just taking oiff this is the year iPhone appeared. We have a hint of a case for many a young woman or man in any modern city: loneliness. In fact, the title in Japanese is being alone. I mentioned the film Perfect Days. This is like the niece in that film, a girl lost in her world. Maybe we have a sharp comic, at times, looking at the world. Some great clashes iof generations between Ginko and Chizu. But as the year goes on, we see the character grow till, in the end,, we see a different girl, well a young woman really. I am reviewing this early as it is one of those books that I feel will be popular when it comes out. Have you a favourite tale of loneliness ?

Winstons score – A tokyo story for a modern age a girl lost in the city and lost in herself most of the time.

The Rainbow By Yasunari Kawabata

~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

The Rainbow By Yasunari Kawabata

Japanese literature

Original title- 虹いくたび (Niji ikutabi)

Translated by Haydn Trowell

Source -personal copy

In January, I read far more Japanese novels than I could review. This is a new translation from the Nobel prize-winning writer Yasunari Kawabata. He was the first writer from Japan to win the Nobel prize. He was given the prize for his narrative mastery, and his great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind. Is what the Nobel committee said about him as a writer. I have only reviewed one other book by him, and that was Snow Country. So when I saw this new translation of one of his works coming out from Penguin, I made sure I got a copy when I saw one. The tale of the two sisters in this book, having the same father and different mothers in postwar Japan, appealed to me.

Momoko hesitated, afraid of accidentally revealing the secret behind her new hairstyle. With her sister at home, it had become suddenly difficult for her to leave for her rendezvous.

Her emotions getting the better of her, Momoko’s voice turned brash. “Asako. Now that you’re back from Kyoto, there’s something you want to ask Father, isn’t there?” she asked, turning around. “I know. There’s no need to hide it.

It was a lie, wasn’t it, when you said you were going to see a newly married friend?”

“It wasn’t a lie.”

“Oh? So it wasn’t a lie. You went to see your friend, but that wasn’t your main reason for going, was it?”

Asako hung her head.

“Why don’t you tell me?” Momoko paused, softening her tone. “And did you find this younger sister of ours in Kyoto?” Asako stared back, taken by surprise.

The two sisters and the mention of the third out there

The book focuses on the two half-sisters living with the widow’s father. Momoko had lost her mother to suicide, and her m, mother never married after her father got her pregnant. Then n her half-sister Asako had lost her to illness. So, the pair both ended up with the architect’s father. But when Asako gathers from her father, there may even be a third sister, the daughter of a Gheisa in Koyto. In a way, the three of them are reflections of the world they are in post-war Japan. The struggles with Tradition and the future are creeping in as the traditional buildings are overshadowed by the modern city. The quest for this third sister in a way is the thread that runs through this book. The book captures the same world we see in OZus films. In some ways, the sisters could be from a film by the master himself. The two sister clash as Momoko has a boyfriend in many ways she is the most modern and this is a story of family secrets and sibling relationships.Also, how the world they have all known is moving on so quickly.

Since the end of the war, countless villas in the resort town of Atami—the properties of former princes, of former nobles, and of former industrialists—had been transformed into inns and hotels.

The Camellia House was one such villa, having belonged to a former prince who had held the honorary title of Fleet Admiral.

Asako’s father, Mizuhara Tsuneo, pointed out the window of the car as they passed by the entrance. “Do you see those two villas? They don’t really look like inns, do they? That one belonged to a prince, and the one over there belonged to a marquis. The marquis was descended from royalty, but I heard he was wounded during the war. His leg, you see.

Now they say he’s been sentenced to forced labor as a war criminal.”

The world ios changing as the villas change and become other things

I was a fan of Snow Country, and I connected with this book as well. I am a massive fan of post-war novels, wherever they may be, but especially in Japan, which in many ways saw the most significant shift in its world. This is from the same time as Tokyo’s story is set in a way. In fact, the way they all talk is similar to Momoko, who, in a way, reminds me of the son in Tokyo story caught up in the fast-moving modern world as the others are all trailing behind her and all lament the world they have seen gone more. In a way we see how Kawabata feared how quick his country was moving on this was serialised in 1950/52 a year before Tokyo story but his fear is the same as in the fear of the traditional Japan that the younger sister seems so far away from. I like his sparse still, and the world he described that is now gone, you feel. Have you read his books? Where would you go next in his book?

Winston’s score – +B Solid look at post-war Japan through two sisters and their father.

Masks by Fumiko Enchi

~ winstonsdad ~ 2 Comments

Masks by Fumiko Enchi

Japanese fiction

Original title – Onna Men,

Translator –  Juliet Winters Carpenter

Source – Library

I am bringing a new voice to the blog today. I had seen this Vintage cover just before Christmas; someone had posted it somewhere, and I liked it I then looked and found it was a writer I had missed. Privately tutored in literature. She began writing in the late thirties with a play and some early novels. and wrote during the war. Burt was bombed out of her house at the end of the war. She was married to a journalist. She had numerous health struggles in her life, and this novel came out in the fifties when her writing focused on female psychology and Sexuality. This book took its inspiration from the main character from the Tales of Genji.

Yasuko was the widow of Mieko Toganö’s late son, Akio.

Their marriage had lasted barely a year before Akio was killed suddenly in an avalanche on Mount Fuji. After the funeral.

Yasuko had not gone back to her parents but had remained in the Togano family, helping her mother-in-law edit a poetry magazine and auditing Ibuki’s classes in Japanese literature at the university where he was assistant professor. She was also involved in a detailed study of spirit possession in the Heian era, a continuation of research that Akio had left unfinished. Ibuki and others supposed she had chosen this as a way of staying close to her husband’s memory.

Yasuko introduced as her husband dide on Mount Fuji

The novel has a lot of nods to Traditional Japanese culture. It had been split into three sections, each named after masks from the traditional Japanese Noh. The book opens as a two men meet at the station and the y are both in love with a widow they know. Yasuko had lost her husband in an accident. The two men, Ibuki and Mikame, also mention her mother-in-law, an overarching figure in the book. One of them takes the daughter and mother-in-law to see a collection of Masks and costumes. When an incident happens, and they see a particular mask, Yasuko faints. She is torn between two men one is married she likes more but is maybe drawn to the bachelor. She lives with her. mother-in-law and her husband’s twin sister. Then she has nightmares about her husband. The is a lot of reference to classic Japanese text and works, and the mask was a lot of googling. The book has two other parts as the relationship between the widow and her two male friends is also affected by the mother-in-law of her late husband.

They’re at the Camellia House on Fuya Street, said Ibuki. ‘This afternoon Mieko is going to call on Yorihito Yakushiji, the Nö master. He’s showing some of his old masks and costumes, and she’s invited me along.

‘Really? How long has she known him?’

‘It seems his daughter is one of her pupils. Their storehouse is open for its autumn airing, and I’ve heard that some of the costumes are three hundred years old or more. Don’t vou want to come?’

‘Well, old masks and costumes aren’t exactly what I had in mind for today, but then again I would like to see Mieko and Yasuko. I had thought when I came in here, I’d just stop for a minute and then maybe go and look up a friend of mine in the medical school, but I think I will join you, if you’re sure no one will mind.’

They get invited to look at tsome old masks and she is shocked by one of them

This is one of those post war Jpaanese books that maybe deals with the big change in the country I was remind of this woman living with the in laws after her husbands death. But with two men one married the other a bachelor. But then having her mother-in-law sort of playing these all off together was interesting, and I loved the part of the book.I struggled that my knowledge of classic Japanese text and culture isn’t maybe as good as it shou,d be I am aware of the Tales of Genji and knew a little about it but haven’t read it. I may need to read more of these classic works over time and return to this book. I like the recurring theme of masks, which are influential in Japanese culture. I remember watching the Onibaba, a Japanese horror classic where a man in a mask played an important role. This would have made a great film by Japanese master Ozu, who made so many great films of the life of Tokyo’s everyday people and relationships this would have worked. I found I struggled just because I would have loved to have known more about the masks each section was named and how they tied into the story itself. But it is worth reading a story of a widow and a mother-in-law trying to move the piece around her daughter-in-law’s life. Have you read this book or any books by Fumiko Enchi?

Winston’s score of B was interesting and made me want to learn more about the masks and things mentioned in the book.

The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada

~ winstonsdad ~ 2 Comments

The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada

Japanese fiction

Original title – Kōjō

Translator – David Boyd

Source – Personal copy

I had decided to mix old and new fiction from Japan for my Japanese literature Challenge this year and this is a reasonable new book I think it came out in the US a while ago, but this edition that came out this year really caught my eye as it matched in with the other book by her they published and had what appears a crow on first sight but then seems like a raven or a darker blackbird. This actually was published in Japanese before the two other books that have been translated into English she had written. Oyamada had worked in several Jobs, one being in a large car factory, which inspired her to write this book. She is also a fan of Kafka and Llosa’s works. It is maybe near Kafka’s book, but it also reminds me of some other writers.

I DIDN’T WANT HIM ASKING WHAT KIND OF WORK IT WAS. I didn’t want to tell him. Fortunately, when I said I was going to be a contract worker at the factory, he didn’t bother asking anything else. He just gave me this look like I should probably report them to the Labor Standards Bureau. I told him I’d be going to work five days a week, starting Monday. “It’s full-time, though?” he asked, then told me to calculate my monthly rate.

“They’lI cover your commute, right?” They would, apparently.

The interview ended and Goto walked me over to the shredder station. It was also in the basement, but farther back. The Print Services Branch Office was a long rectangle with doors on the north and south walls, both of which led to the stairs. On the other side of the door to the north was the reception desk and the space where I’d had my interview.

When she finds out her job as a shredder.

The book is at a sister factory where we meet three workers who all seem to have random jobs in this place and seem to have no connection or idea of what is happening in the factory. This is all told in a flat tone that adds a sister edge to the work as it makes it seem odder and withdrawn in a way. Yoshiko she is an arty student that had been to the factory when she was a child. Goes for a job and is told the perfect job for her is just to be a paper shredder and make her own hours. This seems. odd but as she spends time we hear of washer lizards strange things going on in the main factory elsewhere . Then a moss specialist, as the roof is a living roof of most a nod towards environmental issues. Yoshiko is the moss man, and then his brother becomes a proofreader of factory documents, which are all a little odd. Then, add to these sinister blackbirds hanging around the factory. All ask what their jobs are, what the point of it all is, and what the factory is!

“What kind of work are you doing there?” my brother’s girlfriend asked. Goto warned me about saying too much to out-siders, but I hadn’t come across any document that was worth leaking, that I could possibly be paid for. Any secret worth protecting wasn’t going to end up at the shredder station. Departments would handle anything that sensitive internally. It’s obvious if you think about it. So why not tell her? When I said I work in print support, shredding documents, she jerked back and said, “Seriously? You mean you’re on your feet all day?” Well, I have a chair. I’m sitting most of the time. Of course our chairs are old hand-me-downs from who knows what department.

The factory has so many depatrments and jobs around it

I was reminded of Hrabal with his character in Too Loud, a solitude working with waste paper. Then even Wolfgang Hilbig Dark Factories, a sister, feels what the factory does. This is a huge place, and there is a sense I went around the old Ford factory in Liverpool, and it is like a town itself, and like this book, those in there can feel disconnected from the whole. The tone of the book and how it is narrated recalled Olga Ravn at times, the sense of the voice in her book The Employees, and the sense in that book where who was human and who wasn’t. Add to that a slight touch of dark magic realism. This is one chilling and odd little novella. This is how it feels to be a small cog in a factory. this isn’t the gritty social realism of Saturday night Sunday morning, not the mundane factory line; no, this is the darker side of a jobs that seems to have no meaning in the wider realm of things. Have you read this book?

Winston’s score – +B a solid novella dark and odd in places.

The Cake tree in The Ruins by Akiyuki Nosaka

~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments

The Cake Tree in The Ruins by Akiyuki Nosaka

Japanese short stories

Original title 戰争童話集（Sensi doca shū)

Translator – Ginny Tapley Takemori

Source – Personal copy

I looked for Japanese books that appealed to me when I went to York. This caught my eye. I loved the title , but I have always enjoyed the pocket-sized, more miniature classics Pushkin does. They are just pretty and easy to carry little books. I hadn’t heard of Akiyuki when I bought the book, but I then decided to Google him; I don’t know about you, but I would like a little background on the writer. It just helps me place them and why they wrote the book they did, etc. I was shocked to discover he was the man who wrote Grave of Fireflies, which, if you haven’t seen, was made into one of the saddest and most touching films that followed two children after the war had ended in Japan. This book is set actually on the day the war ended. That made his appeal to me, but he was also in the House of Councillors and a Chanson singer and TV star. I loved this nugget of information.

The whale had come of age in the winter spanning 1944 to 1945, when the war between Japan and America was drawing ever closer to the Japanese mainland. The humans who’d waved at him were Japanese soldiers on their way to defend Iwo Jima against the Americans and, aware of their impending death, they’d been envious of the peacefully napping whale. The small ship he’d swum alongside was a fishing boat there to detect the American planes as they headed for Japan, while the man in the clumsy little yellow boat was an American pilot who’d been shot down and was hoping against hope that he might be rescued. Far from wanting to kill the whale, they knew they themselves might die at any time and so they were friendly towards him.

The Whale came of age during a war it knew nothing about.

This is a collection of  12 stories all set on the 12th August the day world war two ended. I will mention a few of the stories. They all have a fable-like quality to them. But with that same underlying sadness and remembering what happened in the war, we saw in Grave of Fireflies. The collection opens with the tale of a Sardine whale a female of the species that has ended up alone at the end of the war and has just fallen in love with what it thinks is a male whale but in reality, is a submarine. This leads to shock when she discovers it is a submarine with little men inside not a whale. Then, we have the tale of a boy and his parrot hiding from the American bombers that are going over. He hides away after his mother dies, shocked and unable to talk. His parrot still telling a sad story. This reminds me most of Grave of Fireflies. In others, a mother becomes a kite to save her children. A zookeeper looks after his elephant. They all have fable-like turns in them. This is a touching but heart-wrenching collection.

His mother’s body floated up in the strong breeze that always followed an air raid. “Mama, where are you going?” Katchan called in surprise, but his mother merely smiled at him the same way she always did. Relieved, he ran after her, but then a strong gust of wind suddenly whipped her up and away, higher and higher into the sky. “Mama!” he called again and again, and each time she turned to look back at him. Like a kite her body was drawn up into thePost-blaze sky, and remained there dancing there like and angel until eventually she disappeared from view.

A mother changes to save her children in this fable like short story.

 

I loved this I think even if I hadn’t known he’d written Grave of Fireflies, I’d liked this collection he has a way of using a fable like style of tale with out it seeming to twee or losing its heartwrenching meaning this is a collection that reflects on a country broken and falling apart. At the start of the book, it says that since the early 80s, the 15th of August is now a day of remembrance in Japan. This collection is a remembrance of the war and the cost to Japan, from children losing their parents to broken men returning in a submarine to find a whale falling for the craft. This is a collection for both adults and children. I think he has written it mainly for children. There is nods to traditional folk tales like the wolf looking after the Girl is a classic tale. Have you read this collection or any other piece by this writer?

Winstons score – A this book should be better known.

This is Amiko , Do You Copy by Natsuko Imamura

~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments

This is Amiko, Do You Copy? by Natsuko Imamura

Japanese Fiction

Original title – こちらあみ子

Translator – Hitomi Yoshio

Source – Review copy

This is an early book from the Japanese writer Natsuko Imamura she has been nominated three times for the Akutagawa Prize one of the biggest book prizes in Japan. I have reviewed the third book she wasp for the prize for on the blog before the woman in the Purple Skirt which won the prize she has written aa number of other books and won several prizes for her fiction. She lives in Osaka with her husband and Daughter. This is a odd little novel around one odd little girl Amiko and we see her grow into a Teen

AMIKO GREW UP AS THE SECOND CHILD IN THE TANAKA FAMILY until the day she moved out at the age of fifteen. She had a father, a mother, and an older brother who became a juvenile delinquent.

Back when Amiko was in elementary school, Mother taught a calligraphy class at home. The classroom was small and simple, with three long rectangular tables arranged in an eight-mat tatami room where Mother’s mother used to sleep. Now the floor was covered with a red rug from corner to corner.Next to this room was the so-called Buddha room, where the butsudan was placed, and across the hall was the kitchen-dining room. The classroom was connected to a veranda, and that’s where the calligraphy

Her step mother taught Calligraphy this is where she meets the boy she falls for.

I said this is the story of Amiko. I was a few pages in and said to myself Amiko reminds me of some of the people I have looked after and supported she has some condition whether it is Autism or on the ASD spectrum or some other condition. She struggles to read the world around her. She has a trait of obsession early on in the book it is a boy that her stepmother is teaching Calligraphy too this is more than a childhood crush it is obsessive in its nature. That sort of obsession and inability people on the ASD spectrum can have to find it had to read social traits and ticks and emotions or even be unable to hold back their own emotional feelings. She has a walkie talk and this is another thing that makes you think she has autism the obsessive way she uses it is a portrait of a girl but a girl alone for none of those around her seem to see her as a person with Neurodiversity. Her view of the world is strange. Even the flat way at times the story is told it makes it seem like we are in her world at times there is a clinical nature at times to the prose style. A girl misunderstood it makes you wonder how people with Autism fair in Japan she is caught as a naughty bullied child and she isn’t it upset me at times.

But Amiko, who ate like a bird, couldn’t even finish the small bowl before her. With two or three bites left, she threw her pink chopsticks onto the table. Mother tried to offer her some kara-age fried chicken, another favourite of hers, but Amiko shooed away the plate, saying, “No more.” She then grabbed the box of chocolate cookies that Father had given her and placed it on her lap. “This is what I’m having!” she announced excitedly as she opened the lid with a big heart on it. After licking the chocolate coating off the surface of every cookie, she felt so full she could barely breathe.

I loved this description of her eating so many signs of her having some sort of ASD like symptoms

As you can see this girl grows in a third person description which is suited to this type of book it works well in the book The Incident in the Night. That flat way of viewing the world that Autistic way of not being able to see social traits and ticks but also struggling with your own emotions and how to show how you feel about people either seem distant or over the top and stifling at times was caught so well, I loved her little traits like the Walkie Talkies is just perfect and the sort of obsession some would have whether it was that all just talking via text as it is easier. This of course grabbed me as it is my job but I have a neurodiversity condition and can see in hindsight how it has affected me over the years so could connect with Amiko and how people just misunderstood her so much. If you like her other book The Girl in the Purple Skirt which dealt with Obsession really well you will connect with this book. It is also a perfect choice for next month’s January in Japan event it is part of a series of Japanese novellas that Pushkin has brought out by contemporary writers in Japan I have a couple more from the series to review. Have you read any of the books from this writer?

Winstons score – A solid little novella around a young girl growing up with an ASD condition.

Whale by Cheon Myeong Kwan

~ winstonsdad ~ 4 Comments

Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan

Korean Fiction

Original title – 《고래》

Translator -Chi-Young Kim

Source – Review copy

I had asked for a review copy of this before it appeared on the Booker longlist, as I had seen it doing the rounds, and it appealed as it sounded a little surreal. It It was selected as a youth-recommended book by the Korean Publishing Ethics Committee, the Korean Culture and Arts Committee as an excellent literature book. It was the debut novel by the writer and screenwriter Cheon Myeong-Kwan it was his debut novel when it came out in 2004 he has since written several books and also a few screenplays and has directed a film from his own writing. This book had been translated a few years ago as part of the DalkeyArchive Korean lit series, but we on the shadow jury were discussing if it did come out. There is a cover for it, but some have the same number in the series, and it is a different book and a new translation.

Every time the old crone’s eyes met her daughter’s, she was reminded of the halfwit, which tormented her. So she hit her. Not a day went by without a bruise forming on the little girl’s stick-thin body. Every time she was beaten, the girl would crouch in the corner, crying, and look up at her mother. Her wretched gaze reminded the old crone even more of the halfwit; it was as if she could hear his voice, his frightened look, and outstretched hands as he sank into the dark water.

I don’t want to take a bath.

The other main character is the old crone maybe harking back to the sotorytelling and surreal side of his book.

The whale is set ion a remote village and takes place over several years as the village, and the country itself see excellent changes. We are let into this village through a surreal collection of strange characters.the two main characters are a mother and daughter Geumbok, the mother wanders with a fishmonger in the aftermath of the Korean war. What we see is her journey to success from a moment glimpsing a whale’s tail which; later plays a part when she opens a whale shape cinema. As her life grows from those early days and her inventive ideas with the fishmonger, then moves on with the money she uses to build a life and see her empire grow. She has a way with men and manages to escape her violent father and eventually build a brickyard. This is where her mute daughter  Chunhui works her story forms another strand of this complex novel as does an old witch like a woman that has involvement with the family add some twins the ability to talk to elephants, and you have a unique book that mixes storytelling and surrealism.

By the time the fishmonger reached Geumbok’s village, the salted fish had long been spoiled and the musty smell made people pinch their noses, and the rancid flesh had become mush and disintegrated into fish sauce that flowed under the wooden chests. Not many whole fish were left, with many heads gone missing. Geumbok’s village was so small and so deep in the mountains that the fishmonger often turned back to the coast before he even got there, so the old folks–who craved anything fishy and smacked their lips when someone roasted a piece of mackerel that was so preserved as to be indistinguishable from a block of salt, even as they attempted to behave with dignity by saying “That stinks” or “That tastes like it’s turned”

-waited eagerly for the fishmonger despite his unimpressive wares.

She uses the fishmonger to futher her life

I am pleased I ask for this as I am maybe one of those readers that hasn’t 100% connected with Korean lit, and this isn’t [perfect, but it is known in Korea for being the bookshelf of one of the members of the group BTS (I’ve not listened to them but know they are huge in Korea and around the world. So this book is considered a cornerstone in the modern Korean canon. For me it has part of please look after mother, part Royanderson surrealism that grim odd world he conjures up, part Dickensian tale of a character’s world to goodness and part cinema Paradiso. Dickens as it is a story of someone escaping the worst and building a life ala Dickens, then it has a chunk of surrealism that is odd but believable. Then like PLease look after mother, another book that captures those whirlwind years in Korea that saw Korea shoot forward as a country. Have you read this how did you find it ? Have you a favourite book that uses Surrealism and Magic realism which this book does both?

Winstons score- A – the solid first book of this year’s Booker shadow Jury reading and the sixth book from the list I will have read and reviewed.