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I spoke too soon...There is plenty of mixed direct / indirect dialog in this book, and I still find it distracting and hard to follow. It must be Kawakami's writing style, because I found it in two of her books with different translators.
It makes me curious as to how this appears in Japanese, and whether it's less distracting there.
Have just read Farewell, My Orange by Iwaki Kei. Set in Australia, written in Japanese by an author who herself now lives in Oz, and winner of the Oe Kenzaburo prize in 2014. Really enjoyed - and admired - it. So many ideas on so many levels, about language, identity, belonging, family, friendship, and the act of writing itself. One I will definitely go back and re-read - and quite possibly will nominate for a future group read :)
I'm currently about halfway throughThe Woman in the Dunes
So far, I'm really enjoying it. Not sure I have a handle on all the sub-text (I need to spend some time 'digging through the sand' of this deeply layered book), but this hasn't yet proved an obstacle to me picking it up to read whenever I have a spare 20 minutes or more.
Since people say this thread isn't just about Japanese literature...Reading The Werewolf Principle I was struck by the fact that this old, used copy was a British edition... and was translated into British English. I thought American publishers were the only people foolish enough to commit such travesties.
I finished Spring Snow yesterday and am surprised that I liked it very much. There's a lot to take from the novel and I'm reading various analyses online (or what I can find) about all the themes in the novel and their representations in the characters. I think Honda is probably my favourite character, and I also rather liked Satoko. Kiyoaki took some getting used to, that's for sure.I don't know if I should take a break and read something else or continue reading the next book in the tetralogy.
FoxedFolios wrote: "I'm currently about halfway throughThe Woman in the Dunes
I enjoyed this: https://wordsandpeace.com/2011/11/22/...
but even more by the same author: The Face of Another
Just started The Sound of the Mountain. Trying to make sure I keep up with at least most of the club selections right now. :)
Tim wrote: "Just started The Sound of the Mountain. Trying to make sure I keep up with at least most of the club selections right now. :)"I’m so looking forward to this read. I’ll open a thread tomorrow unless someone beats me to it.
Carol wrote: "Tim wrote: "Just started The Sound of the Mountain. Trying to make sure I keep up with at least most of the club selections right now. :)"I’m so looking forward to this read. I’ll op..."
I’m looking forward to the thread. I have some non-spoiler reactions I’m looking forward to sharing... I don’t know whether they are positive or negative thoughts on it though as they could be either until I get farther. :)
Emma wrote: "FoxedFolios wrote: "I'm currently about halfway throughThe Woman in the Dunes
I enjoyed this: https://wordsandpeace.com/2011/11/22/...
but even more by t..."
Thanks for sharing. The book lost me a bit in the mid section (or perhaps I just lost my way) but picked up again to end as a satisfying read. As a big Camus fan in my younger years, this book created a similar feelings of hopelessness / resignation.
I’ll keep an eye out for
!
Tim wrote: "Carol wrote: "Tim wrote: "Just started The Sound of the Mountain. Trying to make sure I keep up with at least most of the club selections right now. :)"I’m so looking forward to this..."
Here’s the link:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
I finally picked up something Japanese again: Usurper of the Sun. I've been on a sci-fi binge for a (long) while now.I have a lot of time to read these days, so I'm going to see if I can catch up on book club reads after I finish this one.
Reading Beasts Head for HomeA riveting tale of survival, not at all like his other novels.
Skip the 25-page introduction, though; it's a pile of pretentious literary-speak.
And it could use a map of Manchuria. The main character gets a map. We deserve one, too.
Beasts Head for Home has its problems. The first third of the book is tense and suspenseful. The last third also holds you on tenterhooks wondering how our main character will get escape his dire circumstances.But the middle third drags as the main character is freezing and starving in the wilderness; this section could have been significantly shorter without losing anything. If you find this part boring, skim ahead. You won't miss much.
I'm about to start Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto on my lunch break. It's got such mixed receptions with the people I follow, I'm curious to see where I fit in those.
I finally finished the manga Red River (literal title: On the Banks of the Halys River). As someone who likes ancient history, I had misgivings about reading of a girl who gets sent back in time to the Hittite Empire in the 14th century BC, but the author pulled it off well.Still, it took me a year to read because it isn't the sort of book that makes me read it all at once. I'd read three volumes (out of 28), and then put it back on the shelf for a month or more while I read other books.
I feel the story could have continued past the end of volume 27 with more adventures and battles, but perhaps the author was tired of it. We got nothing of the Hittites' wars with the hill people, and almost nothing of their relationship with western Anatolia.
Carola wrote: "I have a lot of time to read these days, so I'm going to see if I can catch up on book club reads after I finish this one."Narrator: "She did not catch up."
Carola wrote: "Carola wrote: "I have a lot of time to read these days, so I'm going to see if I can catch up on book club reads after I finish this one."Narrator: "She did not catch up.""
😂
I read The Dancing Girl of Izu and Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata in the last twenty-four hours. I confess that the title story didn’t do much for me and I expected more, but other than that disappointment, this is a really interesting collection. Unlike many/most of you, I didn’t know anything about Kawabata’s upbringing and loss of his entire family at a young age. On the literature front, I’d not heard of palm-of-the-hand stories. So it was an educational and literary win on all fronts. My favorite story in the collection is The Master of Funerals.
Carola wrote: "Carola wrote: "I have a lot of time to read these days, so I'm going to see if I can catch up on book club reads after I finish this one."Narrator: "She did not catch up.""
I know how this story goes, lol.
Not Japanese, but I’m currently reading Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber. It’s... extremely frustrating. They very definition of slow burning horror, which normally I like, but I’m currently about 1/3 of the way into it, and it’s already taken multiple detours away from the plot (unless they somehow all tie together in a way I just cannot fathom).
Tim wrote: "Not Japanese, but I’m currently reading Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber. It’s... extremely frustrating. They very definition of slow burning horror, which normally I like, but I’..."I would be sorely tempted to abandon it, but I’m glad you won’t so you can tell us how it turns out, lol.
I read Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue. It was fine, but seemed trivial. Like a short story an author returns to several years later, revises and expands it and I wanted to have that later, nonexistent version instead. I didn’t experience any of the wonderment I recall when I discovered The Hunting Gun. Maybe big themes just went over my head. Alas.
Carol wrote: "I would be sorely tempted to abandon it, but I’m glad you won’t so you can tell us how it turns out, lol."I'll certainly try... but unless thing pick up just a touch, I may not be able to make it. lol
As a brief, more on topic note, I did finish The Lady Killer (which I will say more about in the discussion thread later) and Last Winter We Parted, which is EASILY my favorite from Nakamura that I've read, and currently sits as my favorite book thus far this year.
Tim wrote: "Carol wrote: "I would be sorely tempted to abandon it, but I’m glad you won’t so you can tell us how it turns out, lol."I'll certainly try... but unless thing pick up just a touch, I may not be a..."
That does it! I’ll have to get LWWP. The Gun and The Thief showed a lot of promise but weren’t complete reads for me, and I own Cult X but may not ever get to it. I’d like to read a reasonable-length novel of his that is successful.
Honestly, I liked LWWP so much that I went out and bought Cult X, The Kingdom and Evil and the Mask. No clue which one I'll read next, but I'm greatly enjoying working my way through his works.
Tim wrote: "Honestly, I liked LWWP so much that I went out and bought Cult X, The Kingdom and Evil and the Mask. No clue which one I'll read next, but I'm greatl..."I know no one who has read Evil, so whenever you get to it, I look forward to your take.
Remind me, have you read The Plotters? I realize it’s not your first-choice country, but it reminded me from the get-go of a far more polished, less depressing Nakamura.
I have Evil on the shelf (the physical shelf). I'll buy another of his after I read it, so I can keep a variety of authors available.
Carol: I have not read The Plotters yet. I remember you recommended it to me after I started reading The Thief. I will most likely check it out when it hit paperback. :)Bill: Maybe Evil should be proposed as a future group read here?
That's a good idea. Lots of people want to read it, and none of us have. It's got 3 votes already.
Tim wrote: "Carol: I have not read The Plotters yet. I remember you recommended it to me after I started reading The Thief. I will most likely check it out when it hit paperback. :)Bill: Maybe Evil should be..."
I’m a third vote :)
Started the The Decagon House Murders. Thus far it had a nice introduction/history of the locked door mystery genre in Japan and the book proper seems a loving homage to such stories. Currently enjoyable... also interesting that when they mentioned Orczy, they used The Old Man in the Corner rather than The Scarlet Pimpernel as an example of her writing (which I know doesn’t fit the mystery theme, but is honestly the only book I could have named by her had anyone asked).
I'll be a 4th vote. I don't even know what I'm voting for but, in this group, I enjoy it more that way. As long as it's easy enough to get my hands on a copy. :)I also want to read The Plotters. Korean work has been doing well for me lately. AndImGoingToKoreaAgainInAWeek. Excited.
Carol wrote: "Carola wrote: "Carola wrote: "I have a lot of time to read these days, so I'm going to see if I can catch up on book club reads after I finish this one."Narrator: "She did not catch up.""
I know how this story goes, lol."
I'm trying to do better! Just requested The Lady Killer from the library :')
As for LWWP, I had an e-ARC for that a few years ago (omg it's been 5 years). I don't know if it was the quality of the ebook, or the fact that it was just an ARC and still needed work, but I found it incredibly confusing. I'm sure that's part of the plot but I'm not sure it should be confusing to this degree...
Maybe I should give it another try.
About Evil and the mask, are all the voters aware this is a :"follow-up to 2012's critically acclaimed The Thief─another fantastically creepy, electric literary thriller that explores the limits of human depravity─and the powerful human instinct to resist evil." And have you all read The Thief ?
If Evil is going to win for June, I need to start planning and getting The thief read, cause of course I can't get into a follow-up if I have not read the first part, nevermind if it can or can not be read stand-alone. As a matter of principles, you know. One has to have principles.
I thought it was a follow up just in terms of it being release in English right after The Thief (which was his first book released in America). I don’t think they are directly connected. To my knowledge the only book that he’s written definitely connect to The Thief is The Kingdom which is a sister novel to it (featuring a few of the same characters).
Hey, just as an update, I looked it up and the books are unconnected except in terms of some themes (which pretty much all of his books have). It is a "follow up" just in the sense of being released directly after The Thief (in much the same way the when a band releases an album, their next one is a follow up). So, no need to read The Thief unless you want it... which honestly I suggest, just because it's excellent.
Good to know. Thanks for looking into it Tim.
Carola wrote: "As for LWWP, I had an e-ARC for that a few years ago (omg it's been 5 years). I don't know if it was the quality of the ebook, or the fact that it was just an ARC and still needed work, but I found it incredibly confusing. I'm sure that's part of the plot but I'm not sure it should be confusing to this degree..."It WAS confusing, but I never found it overly so. Most of it came from the multiple narration points and different writing styles reflecting the different writers (plus being intentionally left in the dark about some details).
Admittedly, without seeing your copy, depending on how it was formatted, that could also add to the confusion as we switch narrators and styles depending on if you're in a "chapter" or "archive" section of the book, and if it was not made clear on the ARC or e-reader format, that would make for a challenge.
Tim wrote: "I thought it was a follow up just in terms of it being release in English right after The Thief (which was his first book released in America). I don’t think they are directly connected. To my know..."Aha ! thanks Tim !!
Tim wrote: "Admittedly, without seeing your copy, depending on how it was formatted, that could also add to the confusion as we switch narrators and styles depending on if you're in a "chapter" or "archive" section of the book, and if it was not made clear on the ARC or e-reader format, that would make for a challenge. "I suspect this was the problem. I think they simply hadn't finished the formatting on the e-ARC yet...
I just finished The Decagon House Murders. Interesting, but flawed. Worth a read if you are one of those people who enjoys the deduction aspect of a mystery novel over the plot.
Tim wrote: "I just finished The Decagon House Murders. Interesting, but flawed. Worth a read if you are one of those people who enjoys the deduction aspect of a mystery novel over the plot."Odd, wasn’t it? It was probably the first Japanese mystery I read (4-5 yrs ago) and I recall trying desperately to work back and figure out how this explanation for a couple of those deaths made sense in light of everyone’s movements on the island. I’m glad I didn’t let its flaws discourage me from reading mid-century Japanese mysteries.
I have just finished The Resurrection Fireplace by Hiroko Minagawa. I enjoyed it - it's a quirky piece, being a mystery set in 1770 London, yet it feels very Japanese-detective-story. Fans of, say, Higashino would enjoy it, I think. All in all an interesting and slightly different read.
Alan wrote: "I have just finished The Resurrection Fireplace by Hiroko Minagawa. I enjoyed it - it's a quirky piece, being a mystery set in 1770 London, yet it feels very Japane..."Thanks for the rec! I’m not familiar with this author.
I'm currently reading Seven Blades in Black, which is an American fantasy novel. It wasn't on my planned reading list yet, but I've been hearing a lot of good things from early reviews and happened to see a copy at my local bookstore for sale... and the book hasn't officially been released yet. Apparently they set it out early because the publisher didn't put it on their "strict on sale" list. Well, I got it early, that means I have to read it. :D
Alan wrote: "I have just finished The Resurrection Fireplace by Hiroko Minagawa. I enjoyed it - it's a quirky piece, being a mystery set in 1770 London, yet it feels very Japane..."That sounds really interesting. I'll have to add that one to my to read list.
Reading 'The Mystery Train Disappears' now. The first thing I'd like to say is ... the first copy I ordered got lost in the mail.
Bill wrote: "Reading 'The Mystery Train Disappears' now. The first thing I'd like to say is ... the first copy I ordered got lost in the mail."I really enjoyed that when I read it last fall. It was more than the sum of its parts and I didn’t mind that some characters were stock, etc.
Japanese Literature
Books mentioned in this topic
When the Museum Is Closed (other topics)Nan-Core (other topics)
Chieko, and Other Poems of Takamura Kotaro (other topics)
Chieko's Sky (other topics)
Tale of the Princess Kaguya Picture Book (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Kotaro Takamura (other topics)Iori Kusano (other topics)
Fehu Kazuno (other topics)
David Guterson (other topics)
Donald Keene (other topics)
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Unlike the light, upbeat Nakano Thrift Shop, this is a novel of loneliness. Thankfully there is none of the odd mix of direct and indirect dialog that made Nakano so hard to follow. Most of it so far is introspection, with occasional directly spoken dialog.
Kawakami is deliberately avoiding cliched sentiments, expressing the main character's feelings with unusual phrases and metaphors. You feel you understand her better because of the unclarity of it all.
The title isn't some untranslated Japanese word, by the way. It's the name of a town on the sea.