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The Voice and Other Stories
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Six of the best detective stories from Japan's foremost master of mystery. The puzzle in these intriguing tales lies not so much in "who dunnit" but rather in how it was done.
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Una bella raccolta di racconti del Simenon nipponico, come lui prolifico e dallo stile fascinoso e intrigante.
Storie estremamente calate nella realtà quotidiana, personaggi che tutti potremmo incontrare come normali compagni di viaggio, di lavoro o peggio, di vita.
Qui non ci sono psicotici patologici ma "le brave persone" che potremmo descrivere ai media dopo un fatto di cronaca: niente spiriti magici o storie di leggende e tradizioni, solo persone con un passato che ha segnato una svolta nella ...more
Storie estremamente calate nella realtà quotidiana, personaggi che tutti potremmo incontrare come normali compagni di viaggio, di lavoro o peggio, di vita.
Qui non ci sono psicotici patologici ma "le brave persone" che potremmo descrivere ai media dopo un fatto di cronaca: niente spiriti magici o storie di leggende e tradizioni, solo persone con un passato che ha segnato una svolta nella ...more
Filo conduttore dei racconti, a parte quello che dà il titolo alla raccolta e mi è piaciuto meno degli altri, è il passato. Un segreto che riaffiora spezzando gli equilibri raggiunti e mettendo a rischio la vita attuale del protagonista. Da qui ossessioni, ansia, paure e il tentativo di evitare che quel fatto finora occultato diventi noto a tutti.
Al solito, passiamo per treni e stazioni del Giappone, dalle grandi città ai villaggi più remoti. Ci accompagna lo stile asciutto ed elegante dell’auto ...more
Al solito, passiamo per treni e stazioni del Giappone, dalle grandi città ai villaggi più remoti. Ci accompagna lo stile asciutto ed elegante dell’auto ...more
Wonderful stories by a literary mystery master. Good window onto aspects of Japanese life as well.
This author is cited as one of the first, if not the very first Japanese police procedural or mystery genre writer. These stories all take place within 15 years of post-WWII and most location placements are near Tokyo (using the transit systems as they existed then) but some are hours distant.
They are simple, simple criminal "stress" of crime and after crime thought patterns. So for me, there was nearly zero amount of guessing anything except in a minority of the cases "the how" the crime was ac ...more
They are simple, simple criminal "stress" of crime and after crime thought patterns. So for me, there was nearly zero amount of guessing anything except in a minority of the cases "the how" the crime was ac ...more
The stories in The Voice are all good, and probably better than three stars individually. In this case I think the collection is probably less than the sum of its parts. After reading a few, it seems like they're mostly reworkings of similar ideas.
For some people this may work; a back cover blurb refers to "ingenious variations on the theme." Personally, though, I found the result took away just a bit from the experience; I still enjoyed reading this volume, but the repetition did intrude enoug ...more
For some people this may work; a back cover blurb refers to "ingenious variations on the theme." Personally, though, I found the result took away just a bit from the experience; I still enjoyed reading this volume, but the repetition did intrude enoug ...more
Japanese women murderers and victims in the late 1950s, ordinary women, as ordinary as Sayaka Murata's Convenience Store Woman--and some men, of course, in finely plotted stories very well told. Translation a little stiff, but perhaps that helps give some flavor to the foreign work. Matsumoto is a master of the murder mystery and this is another of his best.
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Quite standard mystery stories. Entertaining, though none stand out.
Dec 12, 2021
Nawfal
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
crime-fiction,
japanese
I really enjoyed reading these stories. The writing style is exactly the sort I find very enjoyable. The stories themselves are crime/noir - particuarly crimes in everyday "mundane" life. Not too much coincidence or sneaky stuff. Characters make bad choices, get stuck in tunnel-vision perspectives, and make wild assumptions. Sometimes revenge. Nearly all the stories are characters suffering in unfortunate situations. (The last story is especially sad, but believeable.)
Very good writing, good det ...more
Very good writing, good det ...more
A selection of short mysteries, a few told from very different perspectives. Most mysteries are not told from the perspective of the villain with the possible exception of Moriarty, it's hard to get a large number of mystery books published if justice isn't served. A showcase of how much a good author can put into a small number of pages. I found these enjoyable but it may be an overreaction from reading an incredibly bloated and worthless book just prior to this one.
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First the positives. I really liked the author's premise: a previously undiscovered crime, a slow unraveling through either sheer coincidence, or a series of innocuous events culminating in discovery.
The prose was interestingly prosaic, a humdrum understated style that I really liked.
However, once I got past the premise, I felt like I was reading the same story multiple times. Most of the stories in this volume are variants of that theme and I felt myself losing interest after a while.
Possibly l ...more
The prose was interestingly prosaic, a humdrum understated style that I really liked.
However, once I got past the premise, I felt like I was reading the same story multiple times. Most of the stories in this volume are variants of that theme and I felt myself losing interest after a while.
Possibly l ...more
Friedrich Dürrenmatt scrisse che il giallo, o un certo tipo di poliziesco, è la letteratura dell’inquietudine e questa costituisce anche la cifra stilistica delle opere di Seichō Matsumoto che prima di intraprendere la carriera di scrittore era un giornalista e nella sua narrativa fa emergere una tendenza innovativa verso il realismo che supera gli stereotipi del genere tutti incentrati sulla figura onnisciente e onnipotente del detective per mettere in luce gli strani e decisivi effetti della c
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the stories are good, marred only by the "hey, here's what actually happened, in case any of you morons still don't get it" speech that they all seem to end with.
i did really like "the woman who wrote haiku." i never read a murder mystery where the protagonist was the editorial board of a literary journal before. ...more
i did really like "the woman who wrote haiku." i never read a murder mystery where the protagonist was the editorial board of a literary journal before. ...more
I prefer his longer novels to these short stories, but they were still good. Also, a little scary, but not in a traditional butt-clenching, suspenseful way. More in their depiction of the (often) mundane nature of crime, and the logic that might lead an individual to murder.
Mystery stories in general tend to suffer from expositionitis and an abundance of overly convenient plotting, and this one is no different. It's all very well thought out, though; the premises are simple and the resolutions pleasantly unexpected.
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engrossing. brilliant. insightful glimpse of a society.
Per quanto io in genere preferisca il romanzo al racconto, devo dire che nel caso di questa raccolta di Matsumoto Seichō, il formato breve si presta benissimo e non si sente assolutamente la mancanza di uno sviluppo più approfondito. Ottimo per approcciarsi a un autore recentemente riscoperto dalla nostra editoria a vantaggio di tutti gli amanti della crime fiction.
quattro stelle invece di cinque come gli altri libri letti di seicho solo perché si tratta di una raccolta di racconti. in quanto tale inevitabilmente (per me, almeno) si rompe la magia (seppur per pochi secondi) tra un racconto e l’altro. ma come sempre 100% consigliato.
OK if you like the puzzle sort of stories. Clever, but mechanical.
Sì
Ah, the perfect crime – an ideal that transcends cultural boundaries … Unfortunately, carelessness and overconfidence are also universal, and they have a nasty habit of giving the guilty away. Through the lucid translation of Adam Kabat, Matsumoto kept me in suspense with taut plotting and in delight with descriptions of bullet trains and tea ceremonies. A thoroughly enjoyable read!
All of these stories back up the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat'. Not a bad read but just as I was getting into the story, they end. I didn't find that any stood out from the other, they were all of the same standard.
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-Short stories by Japans leading mystery writer.
I found the stories to be simple and not particularly engaging. Easy to read though and enjoyable.
-The accomplice, The face, The serial, Beyond all suspicion, The voice, The woman who wrote Haiku.
I found the stories to be simple and not particularly engaging. Easy to read though and enjoyable.
-The accomplice, The face, The serial, Beyond all suspicion, The voice, The woman who wrote Haiku.
A part of me enjoyed the "this is exactly what happened and why" at the end of the stories, and a part of me didn't. They were entertaining stories, but I was hoping for a little bit more...
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some stories were better than others - the title one was probably the best - enjoyed them
Great, compact crime stories.
An unknown gem ...every story in this collection is a thriller!
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Seicho Matsumoto (松本清張, Matsumoto Seichō), December 21, 1909 – August 4, 1992) was a Japanese writer.
Matsumoto's works created a new tradition of Japanese crime fiction. Dispensing with formulaic plot devices such as puzzles, Matsumoto incorporated elements of human psychology and ordinary life into his crime fiction. In particular, his works often reflect a wider social context and postwar nihili ...more
Matsumoto's works created a new tradition of Japanese crime fiction. Dispensing with formulaic plot devices such as puzzles, Matsumoto incorporated elements of human psychology and ordinary life into his crime fiction. In particular, his works often reflect a wider social context and postwar nihili ...more
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