Status Updates From This Kind of Woman: Ten Sto...

Doll Love - Strange - a woman believes that her dreams are connected to a young boy, Tamao, whom she observes and then befriends in the hotel where they are both staying. But it seems to be a circular, enclosed story, the travelling woman observes an older woman tending her roses in a garden and at the end of the story she has become that woman - and observes the younger woman asking for a hotel.

The Man Who Cut the Grass - simplistic style but mysterious and strange too. One of my favourites so far - the narrator 's detachment from reality - I think is what I like.

Family in Hell - depressing. Not just the man but his family making use of his serial relationships with women. Author Tomioka examining a society in crisis? Rejecting the traditional safety net of marriage. Women were protected by marriage - now 29th C - young women becoming even more vulnerable.

Luminous Watch - eminently readable - sad from all perspectives; the man, Michiyo and the wife.

The Three Crabs - good story, irritating beginning 7/8 people at a house party - almost impossible to understand the bickering, double meaning to-fro of attacks. But it conveys the antagonism between husband and wife - hard to understand how the friends would accept all the comments.

Truck load of Chrysanthemums - the writers limited perception of mental illness and her perceived resolution of the character of Rie. What is clear; is the high value placed on intelligence - which reflects Enchi's background - daughter of a Professor of Literature. Dissatisfactory resolution - but eye-opening nonetheless in terms of Japanese culture and the weight of family obligation - this time from father to son.

Reminds me of a relationship where we parted with reluctance. These writers are looking in depth at women's emotional lives.

First story - reminds me so much of another voice - but whose? Also read v long and pompous intro - 30+ pages.

'Lingering Affection' by Setouchi Harumi (Translated by Mona Nagai and Akiko Willing)

'Partei' by 'Kurahashi Yumiko' (if anyone with librarian privileges wants to collaborate and help me fill out the online author bios with the info provided in this work, let me know)

He terminado "Partei" de Kurahashi Yumiko, la primera de este recopilatorio de historias cortas escritas por mujeres Japonesas entre el 60 y el 68.

Admiro y he quedado ciertamente impresionada con la sencillez con que la autora describe una compleja red de sentimientos y contradicciones. Ambientada en un lugar extraño, expresa la poca comprensión de política que las mujeres podían adquirir y el descaro con que lo

Did this mean that I had grown old? Should I be grateful that I had reached an age when I could accept without explanation the fact that human beings have thoughts and behavior that seem beyond rational comprehension? I felt a sense of joy in thinking of the flat features of Rie's melancholy, middle-aged face as being somehow like the short, dense petals of a modest white chrysanthemum. (p. 86)

The door of the freight car finally closed, and the starting signal sounded. I got on the train in a hurry but didn't know quite what to make of the strange scene I had just witnessed. I couldn't believe that what I'd seen wasn't an illusion, like a scene from a movie.
"I feel sorry for them. Living on into old age like that."
I turned around. A middle-aged man in a gray jacket was sitting across ... (p. 73)

It must have been seven or eight years ago, since the highway wasn't good as it is now, and traveling by car wasn't easy.
I was still staying in my summer house in Karuizawa even though it was mid-September. One day a woman's group in the nearby town of Ueda asked me to give a talk. I've forgotten what kind of group they were, but I left my house in the late afternoon and spoke to the audience ... (p. 71)

Our mission was to explain and publicize the "workers' school" we were going to open and also to feel out the current condition of the union. You smiled continually and made yourself agreeable to the union officers, but I couldn't do this. As we were leaving the factory, however, you told me that you yourself did not completely trust those union members. You said we must not, under any circumstances, ... (p. 6)