はじめての文学 宮部みゆき

はじめての文学

by Miyuki Miyabe, 宮部 みゆき

276 pages, Hardcover

Published March 1, 2007

About the author

See also 宮部 みゆき (Japanese language profile) and 宮部美幸 (Chinese language profile).

Miyuki Miyabe (宮部みゆき Miyabe Miyuki) is a popular contemporary Japanese author active in a number of genres including science fiction, mystery fiction, historical fiction, social commentary, and juvenile fiction.
Miyabe started writing novels at the age of 23. She has been a prolific writer, publishing dozens of novels and winning many major literary prizes, including the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize in 1993 for Kasha and the Naoki Prize in 1998 for Riyū [The Reason] (理由). A Japanese film adaptation of Riyû, directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, was released in 2004.

Reviews

[Angel 一匹狼 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains four short stories by the famous mystery writer Miyuki Miyabe. They are kind of an introduction to her writing, but they excel in bringing excitement, surprising ideas and a fast-paced writing style. It is not the best book ever, but it is lots of fun.

There are a couple of long stories and a couple of short ones. The long ones are: 1) a dog that lives with a detective and gets involved in a strange case: the youngest daughter of the detective is found leaving a love hotel with a friend, but they swear there is a very strange story behind that: someone knocked them out on the street and left them there; and 2) after a young woman's grandmother dies, she finds some old tapes in a box, and they seem to contain a surprising story. The two short bring us to the past: a young woman who meets a mysterious yakuza and another young woman who suspects her partner is going to leave her because he has found someone else.

All four stories are well written, with a nice style and easy to read. Miyuki doesn't go for grand words (even if her vocabulary changes quite a lot for the two "historical" stories) and makes it easy for the reader to enjoy her work. The mysteries are quite engaging, and the plot development shows an assured hand. In general, Miyuki shows why she is one of the most famous writers in Japan, even if these stories are just a kind of an introduction to her work.

Absolutely worth reading.

6.5/10

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

収録されている作品：
「心とろかすような」：元警察犬「マサ」目線の話
「朽ちてゆくまで」：事故で記憶をなくした女性の話
「馬鹿囃子」：虚言癖と通り魔と浮気疑惑の話
「砂村新田」：12歳の少女の小さい成長の話

はじめの二作は現代が舞台（携帯電話がまだ一般的でない時代だけど…）で、後の二作は江戸時代が舞台。
作者曰く、「お若い読者の皆さんの感覚に合うものはどんな作品だろう？暗い話はだめかな。」という事で、犯罪小説が多い作家なので選ぶのに苦労したとの事。
結果、主要な登場人物が少年少女である、という事だけを条件に選んだのが、上記4作品だったらしい。

高校時代に宮部みゆきにはまって大量に作品を読んだ私としては、もっと後味が良い作品やもっとコミカルな作品があったんじゃないかなと思うが（幽霊が見える少女が主人公の江戸時代が舞台の作品とか…一卵性双生児の話とか…）、彼女の作品が如何に読みやすいものかよく分かる作品たちであるのは確か。
久々に宮部みゆき作品を読み返そうかなという気になった。
折角引越し先の近くの図書館のカードを発行したし！

この「はじめての文学」シリーズ、図書館で初めて目にしたが、他にも色んな作家の作品があるらしい。これを機に、今まで読むチャンスが無かった作品を読んでみようと思う。
村上春樹とか。