I loved this book. Not quite as cohesive (narratively or character-wise IMO) as "Out" but a startling page-turner none the less. Haven't checked your read list but if you love either of her "translated" works, you're going to also love "In the Miso Soup" and nearly everything else by Ryu Murakami. I happen to love both Murakami's (Ryu and Haruki,) for very different reasons - I guess "obviously" once you've taken to their styles - or if you take to their styles I should say. "Wind-up Bird Chronicle" is the populist choice for best of Haruki, but his subtler stuff like South of the Boarder West of the Sun and Wild Sheep Chase among others are incredible as well.

Love the titles of your (own) books by the way... which one should I start with given our shared taste in Natsuo (so far in your case anyway... I've pre-recommended a couple of books that for me evaporated in my hands... one very quickly "Life of Pi" and one very painfully at the finish line "Aunt Julia & the Scriptwriter".)

Also interested in what you think of Banana Yoshimoto if you're into the Japanese authors. I really adore her novella collections Kitchen and Asleep. She reminds me (just a bit) like a Japanese Capote in her clean yet jarring prose (maybe jarringly clean?). Now that I've blathered on end, I'll go through and check out your recommendations / reviews.

On a last note, click on my friend "Yulia's" profile and become her friend if you're not already and she didn't send you here... she's my much younger, much better read girlfriend in actuality - who also happens to be an incredible writer (and damn good reviewer). She writes a heck of a lot more reviews than I do - and she adores Natsuo as well. You'll find that we share a 5 Star / 1 Star mentality, quite often... perhaps over-singing the praises of our personal favorites and giving no quarter to shiterature (as I like to call it.) I think it was either John Banville's The Sea or Yulia's Indian friend's undergrad mango-ridden thesis that inspired the term.


Bukkakeland - did I get it right? sounds like my cup of odd-brew. Where can I pick it (or your other books) up?

I'll shut up now. Take care,
Frank

Frank,
I've read quite a few books by Ryu Murakami, Haruki Murakami, Taichi Yamada, Natsuo Kirino ... I've tried to want to pick up a Banana Yoshimoto (and scanned one or two titles in the book shop) but I've just never got round to it. Blame inertia.

My (old) books? Do a www.amazon.com book search for "Red Hedz" or "Mike Philbin" or "Hertzan Chimera".

My most recent novels, "Bukkakeworld" and "Planet of the Owls", are both coming out in paperback this summer from Silverthought Press of New York. I'm sure the world will be in flames shortly after their publication.

;)

Do take note: The American publisher changed the ending (and I don't know how much else) of this book due to its prudery over conveying certain "crimes" and not others. I was tres pissed off when I learned this and found there didn't need to be a notice in the book on altered content.

Yulia,
a worse crime for me (for Japanese-novel translations) is the translating of all Haruki Murakami's novels from THE AMERICAN EDITION ... worse still is Murakami's insistence that this practise is 'all right by him".

If I was a German or Italian reader, I'd expect my Japanese novels to have been translated FROM JAPANESE into my native tongue.

:)

That is awful. I never heard of that being done with his books, though I had heard his works were also censored by American publishers. It makes me so curious if the narrator in "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" ever did sleep with May Kasahara or fantasize doing so. . . .

A famous author (I forget whom) translated from Spanish by Edith Grossman said her translation was better than his original, which was also outrageous to read. Grossman has the audacity to say she rewrites books rather than translates them, from what she imagines the author wants to convey.

Yulia wrote: "Do take note: The American publisher changed the ending (and I don't know how much else) of this book due to its prudery over conveying certain "crimes" and not others. I was tres pissed off when ..."

That is awful and pisses me off too. Why the need in a book like this? And with such a lame result. I wonder if the narrator slept with her nephew? I was half expecting things to go that way....