10/2022 Inheritance from Mother, by Minae Mizumura

[Carol]

This is the thread for our October discussion of Inheritance from Mother by Minae Mizumura. Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter. First published in Japanese in 2012.

Mizumura's own site. https://www.mizumuraminae.com

A 2015 Columbia University Press interview with Mizumura on the publication of another book (so no spoilers). https://cupblog.org/2015/02/10/an-int...

WashingtonPost review (spoilers) https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

Asian Review of Books (2019) review (spoilers) https://asianreviewofbooks.com/conten...

I have my copy, but need to finish a couple of books this week before I can start. Who's in?

[Bill]

I just read chapter one. It's going to be impossible for me to rate this objectively, so in the end I'll probably just mark it as read.

My mother died in late 2019 after five months in assisted living, and we spent the next year settling all the details and the inheritance. I expect that I'll be 'comparing notes' with this novel every step of the way.

[Carol]

Bill wrote: "I just read chapter one. It's going to be impossible for me to rate this objectively, so in the end I'll probably just mark it as read.

My mother died in late 2019 after five months in assisted li..."

That must have been a really difficult period, Bill. My mom died at home 8 - 10 years ago (I honestly can't recall) after a long decline; my parents agreed that they didn't want a diagnosis because they wouldn't treat it if they knew. Insert many eyerolls here. Because dad was still alive and living in their home, we didn't have to address any of the more challenging financial or estate-related issues, which is much easier on many levels.

I also read chapter one last evening and am liking Mizumura's writing style and the effective way in which she's introduced us to the two sisters in very few paragraphs. I'm trying to keep an open mind about Natsuki, but she's pushing all of my dislike buttons. At the same time, I'm not getting much of a sense of Mitsuki's thoughts. The bombshell and ambiguity about the state of her marriage at the end of chapter 1 has fully drawn me in to wanting to read more and soon.

[Bill]

The years after my mother's diagnosis actually brought my family closer together. Though we shared our frustration at times, we didn't fight over the caring or the inheritance. The one thing that still strikes me as odd is how the doctor always pretended my mother's illness was survivable, and none of us ever talked about that, even though we all must have looked it up on the internet (Mom, too) and found out otherwise.

We get more detail about Mitsuki's marriage as the novel progresses. We also get what I see as a realistic portrayal of decline and caring (so far), which the exception of the mother saying she wants to be dead and her daughters silently agreeing. Surely that's not realistic.

The novel is in many very short chapters. Perhaps the translator broke it up into the individual newspaper installments? Oddly, I was thinking just that while reading In Black & White ("Why can't they delineate the installments when translating novels written for newspapers?"). Kudos to Carpenter for reading my mind!

[Bill]

I was wondering how Mizumura was going to fill 450 pages with just the last few months of the mother's life.

She's interpreting isan (Inheritance, Heritage, etc.) very broadly, including her mother and grandmother's upbringing. I'm almost a third of the way in, and it feels padded already.

[Bill]

In some ways, I'm just glad this book is over. It's too long and spends too much time going over the same territory, even in the second half where you think things will be different.

It's a result of being serialized in a newspaper, I suppose. Paid by the word, having to write every week and not being able to revise or reorganize, and no editor being able to cut the fat from it. Should it have been edited down after the fact, for publication as a stand-along volume? I don't think that would be right, either.

[Carol]

Bill wrote: "In some ways, I'm just glad this book is over. It's too long and spends too much time going over the same territory, even in the second half where you think things will be different.

It's a result..."

I got sidetracked with an IRL read I had to finish for tomorrow, but am still looking forward to getting back to this one.

Does serialization result in repetitive recaps, do you think, in addition to the perils you note? I don't recall Dickens ever bothering to use his real estate to catch a reader up, but serialization did allow for more one-chapter rabbit holes that would be culled with some editorial actions if it were published as a single work. Interesting that I don't recall other reviewers being as annoyed by this as you, and I'm also a hard critic on bloat and repetition. We're definitely not alone in our preferences, across literature readers.

[Bill]

I don't mean to be too hard on it. I gave it a 3 (mildly positive). It would have been better if it had fewer nearly-repetitive flashbacks, but is still a good novel as it is.

Given the way it started with the mother's death and then moved back a few months to when she was hospitalized, I thought that would be the focus, more akin to my own recent experiences. But it was primarily about the mother's entire life story, plus her mother and daughters.

Despite its size, the men (mostly husbands) in this novel get very short shrift. None of their thoughts and precious few of their words.

[Ariane]

Hi! It's my first time participating in a book club on this group!
I decided to join you this month (a bit late!) and borrowed Inheritance from Mother at the library yesterday. I read two chapters so far, so nothing to say much yet, but I'll add thoughts later on.

[Bill]

Welcome, and it's never too late! People sometimes comment on these after the month is over, too.