Autofiction (2006)

Autofiction is a literary term, coined in 1977 by Serge Doubrovsky, he used it in reference to his novel Fils, it refers to a work combining fiction & autobiography. By using these contradictory styles, a writer may tell their story in the third person, change significant details or characters, with the aim of searching for, or revealing, their inner workings, their self. It has parallels with a genre devised by Truman Capote called faction, and used in his novel Cold Blood.
It is also the name of a novel by Japanese author Hitomi Kanehara.
Hitomi Kanehara was born, and currently lives in, Tokyo. She wrote her first novel Snakes and Earrings when she was 21(2003). It won the Subaru Prize, before later the same year winning the Akutagawa Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in Japan, making her one of the youngest people ever to receive this honour, it was also highly praised by Ryu Murakami who said that “the novel was an accurate depiction of a new generation” going on to sell a million copies. Autofiction is her second novel to be translated into English

“Look! Look! it’s amazing.”
“You’re right. It really is.”
“Come on, though. Take a good look for yourself! See how amazing it is.”
“All right.”
“WOW!”
I take my pale fiancé's hand in mine and continue to stare out the window as the plane makes its steady ascent. I pray to the orange lights below me. Pray that next year he’ll take me another trip to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.
I don’t want to go back to Japan. That’s how wonderful our honeymoon in Tahiti had been. Anything and everything is just so much fun when the two of us are together.”

Rin is flying back from her honeymoon. She’s absolutely head over heals in love with Shin, her husband, and the future appears bright and wonderful, until the flight stewardess comes along offering drinks, innocently igniting Rin’s jealousy . Later on, thinking Rin’s asleep, Shin goes to the toilet, which she thinks is a cover to seduce the flight attendant, and she starts to imagine all sorts of scenarios that they could be up to, her thoughts spiralling further & further out of control, her jealousy burning out any reasoning process she once had, going so far as to imagine that the stewardess must have drugged her, so she slept. This, according to her now jaundiced view, leaves her no option but death, so she prays for the plane to crash.
This state of mind lasts no more than the time it takes Shin to use the toilet, by the time he’s sat down any thoughts of death & suicide are replaced by her adoring, madly in love self, with neither Shin or anyone else aware of the turmoil she just went through.
In this book we meet Rin, aged 22, a successful writer married to a literary editor and a paranoid, jealous, angry woman capable of imagining this husband committing infidelities on the way home from their honeymoon. The book then spirals backwards through her 18th, 16th and finally 15th years. On the way we see Rin, the Barbie doll bar-hopper, exchanging sex for her other needs, Rin the school girl, hating it and dropping out till we reach the 15 year old Rin strung out on pills, pregnant, facing the prospect of an abortion.

Although this book is called Autofiction, and as such would appear to be some version of the author’s (Hitomi Kanehara ) life - you’re never sure how much or even if any – for example, on page 49 there a scene where the author/Rin meets her publisher (Shinagawa) and they discuss writing a work of autofiction.

“Shinagawa “ I’d like you to write a work of autofiction”.
Rin “ autofiction?” I say, and the words begin to feel real. “Autofiction”, I whisper to myself again and the word feels more real. But no matter how it feels when I say it, I still have no idea what it means. It is best to be honest in situations like this, so I ask him
“What do you mean by autofiction?”
Shinagawa “ Well in short, it’s autobiography-style fiction. A work of fiction that gets the reader suspecting that it’s actually an autobiography. After reading your short story set in the plane, I thought you might be interested”.”

http://parrishlantern.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/autofiction.html ( )

Autofiction is a combination of styles which combine autobiography and fiction and this book describes the thoughts and feelings of a recently married young Japanese woman and her burgeoning writing career. Her obsessive behaviour for her new husband is quite scary. Even contemplating killing an over-friendly stewardess on the return flight from their honeymoon. We then travel back in time over successive sections of the book to times in her life that might go some way to describe her current state of mind.

Quite similar in feeling to a Ryū Murakami novel and if you combine something like Audition with Out (Natsuo Kirino) then you would probably get something like this. Powerful and disturbing but not an easy read despite its shortness of just over 200 pages. ( )

Rin sort of reminded me of myself, which is probably a bad thing. I don't mean that she acted the way that I would or engages in acts that I would, I mean that her thought progression reminds me of my own. Rin has a very split yet singular mind. What I mean is; she thinks about others to an extent that shes willing to put them before herself and because of that she ends up hating others because shes built up her idea of her connection to them to such an extreme point. But at the same time she's pretty selfish; and tends to think of her actions as sacrifices that she makes in order for her relationships to work, and how lucky the losers that she dates are the she even bothers to pay attention to them. Now I'm not really like that; because that would make me crazy, but I can understand the concept of a split or portioned mind. In a way I can relate to Rin even though shes crazy and has suicidal type thoughts that have never crossed my mind. I guess you could say this book had an impact on me. Not because I necessarily liked it, but because in a way I felt like I was reading about someone who could easily be me if I decided to go that direction with my life. That being said this review I'm sure is terrible and if anyone is actually reading it, they're thinking how emo I am but well I'm not scared of my feelings and this book happened to invoke them. On a different note, Hitomi Kanehara is a wonderfully thought provoking author and I urge others to read her books if they feel that they're up to it. ( )