Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories” as Want to Read:
Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories
by
Lucy North
Toddler-Hunting & Other Stories introduces to American readers a startlingly original voice. Kono Taeko has won all of Japan's major literary prizes for fiction (among them the Akutagawa, the Tanizaki, the Noma, and the Yomiuri). Her disquieting stories, with their strange beauty and undercurrent of sadomasochism, bring to mind Tanizaki, but in a new vein. Subtly ruthl
...more
Hardcover, 266 pages
Published
December 31st 1996
by New Directions Publishing Corporation
(first published 1996)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
415)
Feb 02, 2015
Paquita Maria Sanchez
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
literature
Before the review, I wanted to drop in a quick question at the risk of perhaps sounding like some sort of prude: do that many gals really like getting whipped? Like, whipped. Whipped. Like part of the suffering Christians say Jesus endured for the sins of all mankind, whipped. Like, draw buckets of blood and leave ghastly scars, whipped. Like, medieval torture, punishment that no human rights embracing nation would ever still have on the books, whipped. You know, like...whipped. So many ladies i
...more
One of the best short story collections I've read in recent years. It's a shame that Taeko Kono isn't better known and though she appears to have authored several books, this seems to be the only one translated into English.
The stories were written in the 60's but do not feel in any way dated. Each story creates a world as rich as any novel...The lives of women are explored, their relationships, the violence of their longing, the way pain and pleasure mix. Setting: a seaside town, an urban neigh ...more
The stories were written in the 60's but do not feel in any way dated. Each story creates a world as rich as any novel...The lives of women are explored, their relationships, the violence of their longing, the way pain and pleasure mix. Setting: a seaside town, an urban neigh ...more
Jan 20, 2012
Alan
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Alan by:
Jessica Treat
Shelves:
short-stories,
read-in-2012
read two of these last night, excellent. Limpid, seemingly conventional but with a real subversive bite... (next day) and then I read the third - title - story, fuck me it's strong, repellant (her fantasy bit). Jesus Christ. Still reading on though, this is good stuff, but with caution now and wondering what else will come up.
update: I've stopped reading these for a bit. Not because they're bad, quite the opposite. I just need to go and lie down in a corner (with another book: it's like cheating ...more
update: I've stopped reading these for a bit. Not because they're bad, quite the opposite. I just need to go and lie down in a corner (with another book: it's like cheating ...more
Oct 27, 2012
David
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommended to David by:
Jessica
Shelves:
big-red-circle
This is what I'm coming as on Hallowe'en:
Because she's fucking scary. A thing of horror can be a thing of beauty. Don't you just love Japan? Ban this filth, I want it too much.
Because she's fucking scary. A thing of horror can be a thing of beauty. Don't you just love Japan? Ban this filth, I want it too much.
Jan 17, 2016
Ryan
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2011-favorites,
shelfari-favorite
The stories in Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories were originally written in the 1960s and concerned women and their unstable or uncertain marital relationships. Kōno Taeko's genre of writing was classified as transgressive fiction owing to her use of elements of sadomasochism and aberrant behavior. The stories were often open-ended, which are really the best kind of stories; and they were propelled by ordinary details made to seem odd and entirely new, as if the outcome of the story was dictated
...more
Jan 13, 2008
Brittany
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
japanese-literature
This book was the subject matter for the best paper I ever wrote in college, or perhaps EVER, on the appeal of sadomasochism to Japanese women...so I admit I'm a bit sentimental toward this book. It's amazingly fascinating in that it defies your expectations, and makes you question what motivates the protagonist in her true and obvious hatred of little girls--or, if you don't want to think that far, you can be emotionally provoked by how she manifests her feelings in a very vivid sadomasochistic
...more
i'm not sure whether japanese authors have an innate proclivity for deviance, or if i just happen to have read the weird ones, but she's got a great way of shocking you with the undercurrent of violence, prurience, and cruelty that runs through all these stories.
incidentally, does anyone remember which japanese author wrote a story about a woman who bobbited her husband then kept the evidence in a box and took it out periodically to put it in her mouth when she missed him? i can't for the life ...more
incidentally, does anyone remember which japanese author wrote a story about a woman who bobbited her husband then kept the evidence in a box and took it out periodically to put it in her mouth when she missed him? i can't for the life ...more
Excited to have discovered these stories. The big guns in Japanese fiction seem to be like 99% male, but Kono Taeko is all, you guys think *you're* weird? Will someone please translate more of her work, please?
Unnerving, strange stories about lust, desire and obsession. I especially enjoyed Snow, and Bone Meat.
While a few of the things in here were a little too disturbing, I have to give the book 5 stars overall for the character building and the plots. For the characters jumping off the pages and making me feel like I knew them well, and was right there watching them. Hard to put down!
Savoured this collection over several weeks. The pieces were all written in the 1960's. Each story has some additional twist or complication that is completely unexpected. Some of the twists are S/M, physical or emotional. The back cover uses the word "transgressive" and some well-known Japaneses writers (male of course) describe Kono as the best female writer. I think Kono the writer deserves higher praise.
You know that Joker quote? "I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve."
That's nice. You got nothing on Taeko Kono, buddy.
But: ahead of the curve. That's the whole new shelf I made just for this book, where it can dwell all by itself in its melancholy, terrifying perfection.
That's nice. You got nothing on Taeko Kono, buddy.
But: ahead of the curve. That's the whole new shelf I made just for this book, where it can dwell all by itself in its melancholy, terrifying perfection.
Oct 08, 2012
Sae-chan
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
japanese-writers
These short stories should not be put together as a book. They are very powerful, dark, and some have recurring themes. Needs lotsa lotsa energy to consumed them whole. I bet all of the symbolisms, I only got a quarter. Or even less.
the comparison to O'Connor on the back is apt. her writing also reminds me of Lydia Davis in places. "Toddler Hunting" and "Bone Meat" are both effectively creepy/moving. All the references to rough sex come to seem cliche after a while.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
