ASIAN BOOK CHALLENGE - AUGUST 2022 : NIPPON - JAPANESE AUTHORS

AUGUST



AUGUST 2022 - NIPPON / WRITERS FROM JAPAN

Twenty Japanese Authors to try with an example of their work.

Kobe Abe - The Woman in the Dunes
Haruki Murakami - Sweetheart Sputnik
Ryu Murakami - In the Miso Soup
Yasunari Kawabata - The Master of Go
Yukio Mishima - Runaway Horses
Masuji Ibuse - Black Rain
Banana Yoshimoto - Kitchen
Miyuki Miyabe - All She Was Worth
Yuko Tsushima - Territory of Light
Kenzaburo Oe - A Personal Matter
Shusaku Endo - Silence
Hiromi Kawakami - Strange Weather in Tokyo
Soseki Natsume - I am a Cat
Junichiro Tanizaki - Some Prefer Nettles
Natsuo Kirino - Grotesque
Keigo Higashino - The Devotion of Suspect X
Yoko Ogawa - Hotel Iris
Sayaka Murata - Convenience Store Woman
Mieko Kawakami - Breasts and Eggs
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day

What I am reading:

Starting with Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

This is one of the months I am looking forward to and I have a good dozen books competing for attention.

>3 PaulCranswick: I just finished Murata's Convenience Store Woman!

The titular woman is completely out of step with the rest of the human race, but is a pretty good mimic so she's able to fake her way through most social interactions outside of work. At her part-time convenience store job it's another story: she lives her life by the store manual and is a model employee. She is so in tune with her work environment that she knows exactly when, where, and how she is needed at all times. Very strange book, but one of the best I've read this year.

I've also read a few score manga that I'll post about later.

I'll go with South of the Border.

now reading convenience store woman (and very interested in the new one Paul!)

followed by
Klara and the Sun
Territory of Light

should check out the other authors and explore more

ETA oh my a must read
I am a cat!

>4 amanda4242: I've heard good things about this book multiple times this year now, it's officially on my TBR list now.

For this month, I just finished Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, which was an enjoyable and quick read.
I started reading Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami and also plan on reading The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa.
Also planning to get through a couple more volumes of Beastars by Paru Itagaki.

>4 amanda4242:, >5 m.belljackson:, >6 cindydavid4: & >7 WhiteRaven.17: We really do have a lot of good options this month don't we? I quickly put together a dozen possibles for this month and want to alternate or pair with my other reads.

Of those mentioned that I've read my favorites are Convenience Store Woman and All She Was Worth. The Memory Police was all had waving and Klara and the Sun was manipulative and old hat for robot SF. I remember being mesmerized by the movie The Woman in the Dunes so I imagine the book is worthwhile.

>8 PaulCranswick: We really do. I'm thankful I already had the ones I picked waiting on my shelves otherwise I imagine I'd have had a hard time choosing which books to read and will probably be tacking a few onto my TBR as I see what everyone else is reading.

Not exactly the same but hopefully it is fitting to mention here. I'm hoping to also read a memoir I picked up at random from my last trip to a local bookstore by a Japanese-American author to round out this month - The Dream of Water by Kyoko Mori.

I am deliberately not reading Murakami this month as I have read several of his books. I am trying some new authors and their books out: Quicksand by Junichiro Tanizaki, The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe, and The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.

I have so many books on Mount TBR that will fit with this month's theme. I love Japanese literature, as does one of my colleagues, and we regularly lend each other books.

I'm starting with All the lovers in the night, Mieko Kawakami's follow-up to Breasts and eggs (which I really enjoyed). I also have Earthlings, The ten loves of Mr Nishino, I am a cat and The ark Sakura among other titles.

>7 WhiteRaven.17: Time travel? I am so there! will try to get that

>9 quondame: what do you mean by manipulative? Ive heard people use that term esp about movies but never quite sure what they mean. Is it over emotional? Ive read his other books and wonder if never let me go falls into that category

I loved the novella Ms Ice Sandwich so I am reading Breasts and Eggs this month.

Interesting, I think of Ishiguro as British. He left Japan when he was five, and his books are set in very Western settings.

My favorite Japanese books are
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (didn't care for Memory Police, although some LTers loved it)
The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami
1Q84, I know, I know not everyone is a Murakami fan
Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse
Kamikaze by Yasuo Kuwahara
Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa
The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe

I am currently reading Snow Country by Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata

Others on my shelves waiting to be picked:
Sun and Steel and Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima
Silence by Shusaku Endo
Palm-of-the-Hand Stories also by Kawabata
Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Murakami
The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura

On my wishlist:
Fires on the plain by Shohei Ooka
Grass for my Pillow by Saiichi Maruya
Strange Weather in Tokyo another by Kawakami

>15 labfs39: except the Ishiguro novels that are set in Japan :. An Artist of the Floating World or A Paddle Pale View of Hills, for example

>13 cindydavid4: In a certain sense all writing meant to evoke emotion is manipulative, but I tend to use the term when tropes are invoked that don't seem supported by the rest of the story. One major, but not Asian, example is the death of the dogs in Where the Red Fern Grows. Since the boy needed to leave the area, he couldn't keep the dogs, so they had to die saving his life - and no mention of Red Fern existed earlier in the book. More realistically he would have passed the dogs onto another hunter and would have missed them the rest of his life, but they would have had lots of puppies.

ah, so making more drama than was necessary. I saw that at the end of she who became the sun Zhu has acheived everything, but she needs to kill holy little Prince of Radiance, who has given her Heavens Mandate.
why? To show that she indeed would do anything for power? tho it was a m inor point in an excellent story, I was a bit put off by that

>18 cindydavid4: Ah, I found that point less arbitrary and more the edge of the ruthless pragmatism that was an established character attribute. That sort of difference in impact is why what seems manipulative varies so much from reader to reader. I dislike sentimentality directed outward, and so that's what I flag. Using the characters sentimentality is quite different.

>15 labfs39: & >16 ELiz_M: I have no issue with Ishiguro being included here or in December with the diaspora writers. I also think about him as British but he was born in Japan. His daughter ought really be included only in December, I think.

I have big plans for this month, but like the last several months the likely outcome is an even bigger pile of books on the floor by my bed. The ones in bold are the ones I'm likely to read first.

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea - Yukio Mishima
Botchan - Natsume Soseki
The Nakano Thrift Shop - Hiromi Kawakami
An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
Breasts and Eggs - Mieko Kawakami
Some Prefer Nettles - Junichiro Tanizaki
Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! - Kenzaburo Oe

>21 AnneDC: The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea is...intense. Good luck with it.

I'll be pulling The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa out of my TBR stash.

Just finiished convenience story woman wow this was taking pressure to conform to the nth degree. The ending reminded me of Jonathan Swift. Glad the character is finally happy being herself.....

Finished All the lovers in the night which was really satisfying.

>16 ELiz_M: As Paul says, either here or there is fine, I just find it interesting where people choose to slot authors. It's such a sticky wicket. I haven't read Artist of the Floating World, but I did Pale View of Hills, and much of it takes places in an English country house, no? Of the other ones I've read Remains of the Day is almost quintessentially British, Never Let Me Go was set in a sort of British boarding school, and Klara and the Sun's setting seemed generic Western. I also read When We Were Orphans, and it was about the British in Shanghai. I wonder how Ishiguro thinks of himself? I wonder if with time nationality will become more fluid and less binary, like gender.

I picked up The Cat Who Saved Books for this challenge.

>26 labfs39: ive wondered that too. I suspect you might be right, His convenience store worker could really have taken place anywhere.

>28 cindydavid4: I think the particular expectations for women and status jobs of Japan were integral to what choices the woman makes, and the very regimented interactions scripted for the stores that give her support are not universal.

That is true

I'm reading The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea. I have had this book on the shelf for a long time. The writing/translation is excellent although I was mildly put off by the voyeurism at the start. The descriptive writing and "feel" of the book is quite good otherwise. So far. I have very vague recollections of not understanding or liking the 1970's film. The story was written in the early 60's and is set in post-WWII Japan.

I have a lot of Japanese novels on my tbr. I've started reading Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Might try to get to a couple more Kosuke Kindaichi novels by Seishi Yokomizo.
Manga - I've just finished Sailor Moon vol. 1 by Naoko Takeuchi, a followup to watching season 1 of the tv anime. I have vol. 2 out from the library and might give it a go.
Also have vols. 3 & 4 of The Apothecary Diaries by Natsu Hyuuga
and have just requested some more Osamu Tezuka manga from the library - Buddha vol. 2 & Princess Knight part 2.

This time, I'll try to do better than last month (despite grand plans, I have read nothing from China in July. I might catch up latter in the year though).

I have quite a few books from Japanese authors on my shelves, so here are the ones I’d like to read this month:
Un Eté en vêtements de deuil, a long short story or a short novella by Akira Yoshimura
The Cat who saved books by Sôsuke Natsukawa
Le Diamant du Bouddha, a collection of short stories by Kenji Miyazawa

And if times allows, I might be willing to read from this additionnal list:
Les Gens de la rue des rêves by Teru Miyamoto
Le Temps qui va, le temps qui vient by Kawakami Hiromi
Un Ciel radieux, a graphic novel by Jiro Tanigushi

All titles, except one, are in French, as I have not found the translation in English for the other books. It makes me realise, once again, how lucky we, francophone readers, are in terms of access to literature in translation.

>33 raton-liseur: I read The cat who saved books a couple of months ago and thought it was a fun read. Hope you enjoy it.

I have Seventeen by Hideo Yokoyama on order at the library.

Well, I don't know if any actually qualify, but my August TBR is at least glancing toward Japan with Tokyo Ever After and
The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles and Light From Uncommon Stars has Japanese connections.

Love that cover of cat!

>36 cindydavid4: The cover was as good as it got.

Ha! thanks for the warning!

finished territory of light I was very sympathetic to this young single mother trying to raise her child while everyone was yelling at her and judging her, (similar to what happened in convenience store worker) and having to deal with the constant nighttime crying of her child. and having no resources or options. all of it was very universal to women everywhere. I really got tired of what she was doing leaving her child alone while she went drinking I appreciated the language, there were some lovely images here, but it was such a depressing bookit was difficult to read; it was a book I was eager to finish; needed more joy I guess, still giving it a three*because the writing was really good

I just finished Snow Country by Nobel Laureate Yasunari Kawabata. My rather lengthy review can be found here.

>40 labfs39: I think Snow Country was the first Kawabata I read. I'm glad you liked it. I think I have read 7 more of his books since and every one has been good. Palm of the Hand, super short stories, is excellent.

>41 RBeffa: Interesting you should say that, I own Palm-of-the-Hand Stories and pulled it off the shelf. I started reading The Crazy Iris, a collection of stories about Hiroshima, edited by Kenzaburō Ōe, but will break it up with some of Kawabata's stories. For one, reading about Hiroshima is tough and I need to break it up, second I think Kawabata is someone that deserves to be read slowly.

>42 labfs39: This is what I wrote on my thread in Sept 2020 when I read the Palm of the Hand collection:

Several years ago I read and greatly enjoyed several novels by this author and so I picked up this "short story" collection and have been saving it to savor. Short stories is a bit of an exaggeration as the majority of these stories are 2-4 pages long with a few longer. I counted 70 stories, the majority of which were written between 1923-1932 when the author was finishing up his university and then in his twenties, with the last one shortly before the author's death in 1972. My impression was that some of these could have been written after awakening from a dream and writing about it as a story scene. Others seem to be an idea that could develop into a longer story or even a novel, but what we have is a small scene to work with. In fact I was pretty sure that some of the little pieces I had seen before, and that could only have been in one of the novels I read. There is a bit of surrealism in here like a small bit of what Haruki Murakami would later do. There is also, without any doubt, set forth very matter of factly material that shows that one is reading about a very different culture where women are viewed quite differently from how I would. There are strange scenes and dark scenes amongst little bits of beauty. Little insights into people and a world of 100 years ago. The last story is a miniature version from the author's most famous novel, "Snow Country".

I enjoyed these a lot despite a few of the topics because they are done so well and they were great to read a handful at a time and reflect on them. However, I've noticed that Japanese writers of the 20th century have something of an obsession with prostitutes. That's a warning.

I also finally finished What's Michael?: fatcat collection vol.1 by Makoto Kobayashi (b. 1958). This is a massive collection of 1980s comic strips about the adventures of multiple ginger cats named Michael. I liked the ones about the Yakuza boss who loved his cat but feared humiliation if anyone found out, not knowing that his rival was scared witless of cats.
Overall the appeal is how well Kobayashi portrays cat behaviour.

>31 RBeffa: I should mention that I stopped reading Mishima's novel. The writing was very good and altho there was a creepy voyeur scene at the beginning, the novel for me became repulsive when a boy in a gang of 5 is told to beat a kitten to death and it gets worse. I just won't read material like that.

>45 RBeffa: An understandable reasoning, I can get through a lot in a book but animal torture is often too difficult.

Speaking of, I'm currently reading Kafka on the Shore and for the first time ever had to just quickly skim and skip an entire chapter because it has a very graphic scene of animal torture of cats that goes on for multiple pages. I'm already a quarter of the way through the book and am really invested in what's happening in the story, so I just skipped the chapter and am hoping that no other scenes like that will come up again. Some of the aspects and details Haruki Murakami decides to include and focus on have been different and the story itself is a little odd so far but I'm enjoying it and curious to see where it's going.

I'm now reading The ark sakura by Abe Kobo, about a man preparing a shelter from the end of the world. His plans are sent awry by some unexpected followers.

>46 WhiteRaven.17: I had the exact same reaction to the cat scene in Kafka on the Shore when there was a group read several years back. It was so unlike Murakami. It really decreased my enjoyment of what was a good novel - and that section you describe does not happen again so you are safe.

>48 RBeffa: This is the first book by Murakami that I've read so it's nice to know that's not a normal occurrence in his writing. I'm glad to know that - I'd really been getting into the story and how it was all coming together and then that chapter came up and it immediately took me out of it and ruined the reading momentum I was on, everything was so cat friendly up to that point that it really was an unexpectedly dark turn. Skipping it was the only way I was going to be able to continue with the book.

>45 RBeffa: Why do authors choose to poison our minds with these never to be forgotten images of animal torture?

>50 m.belljackson: I didn't feel "poisoned" by it, and honestly don't even remember the gory details.

I don't enjoy reading about torture, but I don't see a depiction of fictional animal torture as any worse than a depiction of fictional human torture. Fortunately we can close a book if we come across scenes of activities we would rather not read about and move on to something else.

>50 m.belljackson: well, I think some people are just broken Marianne. Some writers want to shock the reader in a disgusting way. I read the wiki on Mishima after being disgusted with the animal torture and wondering if I should read on. I'll quote here from wikipedia:
"Mishima formed the Tatenokai for the avowed purpose of restoring sacredness and dignity to the Emperor of Japan. On 25 November 1970, Mishima and four members of his militia entered a military base in central Tokyo, took its commandant hostage, and unsuccessfully tried to inspire the Japan Self-Defense Forces to rise up and overthrow Japan's 1947 Constitution (which he called "a constitution of defeat"). After his speech and screaming of "Long live the Emperor!", he committed seppuku."

The back of my book has a short blurb on the author and it says something to the effect that he committed seppuku on the day he completed his final novel.

Okaaay. I guess WWII broke his brain.

I have removed my unread Mishima books from my library. I have plenty of better Japanese authors to choose from.

I am probably going to use this occasion to read Dance, Dance, Dance as it is on my shelves.

I do like Japanese fiction though, and can I put in a shout out for The Makioka Sisters? One of my favorite books.

Also, if anyone is looking of a short read, I recommend Kitchen or The Housekeeper and the Professor

A couple of Mishima's books are violent and, frankly, grotesque. But he also wrote the beautiful The Sound of Waves, a thought-provoking look at fame in Star, and some very powerful short stories. He is an author worth reading, even if not everything he wrote is worth reading.

>51 amanda4242: I agree; in both instances I cover my eyes as I turn the page. If it goes on to long I stop rading it. One of my fave authors is Timothy Findley; in his otherwise excellent booknot wanted on the voyage there is a torture of a cat that seemed to have no purpose, just not necessary

>53 banjo123: Seconding the love for The Makioka sisters! I read it for the first time last year and found it totally absorbing.

I finished The ark sakura which is absurd and surreal. It's meant to be humorous but I think most of it would have been funnier at the time and/or in the culture in which the book was written. Quite a lot of it is sexist, and there's an obsession with scatology running through it. None of the characters are people you'd want to be holed up with in the event of a disaster, which I guess is part of the point. But the underground caverns are an atmospheric setting, and the twist at the very end is well done.

My next book will be Diary of a void, which I bought in Foyles yesterday.

The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath edited by Kenzaburō Ōe
Published 1985, 204 p.

In his outstanding introduction, Nobel Laureate Kenzaburō Ōe writes about the treatment of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in literature. Not only survivor stories, but the "second-generation survivors" (children of survivors), and other writers who struggle with the import to humanity. In choosing the stories for inclusion in this anthology, Ōe tried to include writers from all three categories as well as covering a range of topics: the large number of Koreans killed in the bombings, discrimination against survivors, and the future of the world as long as there are nuclear weapons.

I read this collection on this the 77th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Despite the difficult topic, many of the stories were beautifully expressed, and I learned a lot about the lived experience of Japanese survivors.

See my review for descriptions of each story.

Ebook sale

Humble Bundle has a Japanese Art and Culture bundle available for the next three weeks. Some of the titles available:

Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghibli by Steve Alpert
The Cape and Other Stories from the Japanese Ghetto by Kenji Nakagami
The Minamata Story: An EcoTragedy by Seán Michael Wilson and Akiko Shimojima
Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima by Naoki Inose
Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn

oh I want to read the Ghibli book! need hard copy however

Finished Klara and the Sun. Like never let me go it left me cold. And sad. I liked Klara and her observations, but the rest was just slow. It didn't help that I was expecting a story about Japan; this story could have taken place anywhere. Thats ok, I have other sources I can use.

I know it probably wont count for this months theme (author is Japanese American but l love these movies and really want to read it Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghibli sounds fun and I think I need that right now.

I completed Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I didn't like this one much. His usual themes are there but I just don't like this one.

I enjoyed Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. There's a sequel of sorts so will get to that eventually. A simple time travel experience in an old cafe, but with rules that make the experience only worthwhile for the heartbroken.

A Riot of Goldfish by Kanoko Okamoto, translated from the Japanese by J. Keith Vincent
PUblished 1937, English translation 2010, 113 p.

This volume is comprised of two stories. I read the first, eponymous one and declined to read the second. Far more interesting than the story is the life of the author. You can read about both in my review.

The Cat Who Saved Books – Sosuke Natsukawa – 2021

After teenaged Rintaro’s grandfather dies, Rintaro must close his grandfather’s beloved second hand book shop and go to live with his aunt.

But before he can do so, a talking cat appears that can only be seen by certain people. The cat leads Rintaro through a mysterious portal at the back of the bookshop. They visit three labyrinths. Rintaro sees books in new ways, while saving books from a variety of people who love books but harm them.

Each mission is slightly harder, until there is an unexpected fourth mission which Rintaro must accomplish without his cat guide and which has more than books at stake.

I really wanted to love this book; there were so many enticing elements: a fantasy with a magical cat, a bookstore, saving books. But somehow the book just didn’t hit my sweet spots. Some of it, I believe was due to an awkwardness of language which would jar me from the story – perhaps the fault of the translator rather than the story itself. Also I’m not sure for whom the book was written – a young adult probably would not find the book exciting enough. An adult, while more appreciative of the themes, would be put off by the simple story lines.

It's also an interesting choice that all the classic books featured in the story are from the west. Where are the beloved Japanese classics?

Nevertheless, this author wrote a best seller about his experiences as a doctor working in a small hospital in Japan. If that book becomes available in English, I’d like to read that.

>47 Sakerfalcon: The Ark Sakura!! I loved that strange novel. I’m so glad someone else read it. It is so weird and wonderful.

Japanese contemporary fiction is my favorite, but I don’t think I’ll get to slip one in this month. There are too many novels by Japanese authors I love here so I’ll just enjoy skimming this thread.

>64 streamsong: It's also an interesting choice that all the classic books featured in the story are from the west. Where are the beloved Japanese classics?

guess he wanted to cater to western community but what a sad mistake not to include Japanese classis. the tale of geni is considered the firs novel every written, 11th Century Japan by a woman known to us only as Murasaki Shikibu. Surely more could be found. pity

>65 SqueakyChu: I'm definitely keeping it to reread, even though I had some doubts about it. Sometimes you just need a dose of weirdness!

Finished Diary of a void and loved it. Shibata is the only female employee in her section, and therefore it's expected that she will distribute the mail, make tea, clear up after meetings etc. One day she announces that she can't clear the coffee cups because she's pregnant and the smell makes her nauseous. This results in others taking over the annoying tasks, she's allowed to leave at 5 each day instead of staying for overtime, and generally her quality of life improves. There's just one snag .... Shibata is not actually pregnant! How she maintains the ruse, and how her lie and her real life start to merge, makes for an interesting, penetrating and frequently humorous examination of women's roles in Japanese society.

>167 I totally love weird. Have you read The Woman in the Dunes, also by Kobo Abe? That's a weird book as well and one which I highly recommend.

ETA: I see you did read it (from your library) so I'll recommend it to others! :D
I also liked The Face of Another by Kobo Abe. Try that one for weirdness. I also enjoyed that novel very much.

>68 SqueakyChu: I read those two pre LT at least 15 years ago. One of my earliest excursions into Japanese lit. I was more than a little happy to discover that my library had the Criterion collection of dvds that have both of the film adaptations. I can scarcely recall the film of face but I will never forget the woman in the dunes for strangeness. My library no longer has the novels which made me rather mad, but they do still have the dvds.

Another of Kobo Abe's books was bit much for me. The Box Man was another strange story, but I found it a bit hard to follow/understand. It left me confused more than anything else. It's worth a try, though...for its weirdness, of course! :D

Okay. I decided to jump into this challenge.I'm beginning with Seven Japanese Tales by Junichiro Tanizaki which one of my BookCrossing friends recently gave me because she know I love reading Japanese literature.

I read and liked Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. I'm happy to report that there was no torture of cats in this one, just lots of brain games.

I followed it up with a travel memoir called Japanland which gave a good look into the culture of both modern and ancient Japan. It doesn't qualify for this challenge because the author was born in Switzerland and educated in the U.S., but it was a good companion read.

Just picked up before the coffee gets cold and started reading; looks very interesting, think Im gonna like it.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami, translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel
Published 2014, 386 p.

In high school, Tsukuru Tazaki is in a tight-knit group of five friends, the other four of whom all have names that reflect a color: red, blue, white, and black. Only Tsukuru is "colorless," and he feels that it is an accurate description of his personality as well. He goes to Tokyo to college⁠—he has always wanted to build train stations⁠—whereas the other four remain in their hometown. On one trip home his sophomore year, he is abruptly cut off from all contact with his friends. They want nothing more to do with him, and it cuts him deeply. Now, sixteen years later, he is encouraged by his girlfriend to track down his friends and resolve the mystery of why he was ostracized, and perhaps heal the pain that he has lived with for so long.

I loved this novel: the writing, the characters, the tone, and even the book design (the cover overlays a map of Japanese train stations). The other two books that I have read by Murakami were representative of his magical-surrealist style, and while I enjoyed them, I found them difficult reading. This one is completely different. There are no talking cats or parallel universes, just characters that I could relate to and empathize with, dealing with problems of belonging, self-awareness, and the unfathomable nature of relationships.

The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura, translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter
Published 2012, Translation 2021, 197 p.

Yoki Hirano graduates from high school with no plans for his future. His parents, absorbed with their first grandchild, bundle him off to a remote village to learn forestry. Astonished at his banishment to the backwoods, Yoki is at first resentful and tries to run back to Yokohama. But slowly the villagers, the lovely Nao, and the forest itself become reasons to stay.

This was the first time I have read a Japanese young adult novel, and I might not have read it had I known. I'm glad I did, however. The author researched forestry and interviewed dozens of loggers in the course of writing the book, and I found the descriptions of the forest, the work the foresters do, and the Shinto rituals they practice to be fascinating. I'm inspired to do a little more research of my own.

The novel is rather male-centric, although given the nature of the job in the patriarchal society, it's not surprising. The women are portrayed as strong and, in the case of Nao, daring, but their stories are not explored. The village and the work is romanticized, rather like an ode to the life there. Social issues such as the aging of the rural population, the decline of the forestry industry, and the problems inherent in patriarchy are there, lurking in the subtext, but not unpackaged. I think this could have been a very interesting novel for adults if they had been.

>73 cindydavid4: Hope it's an enjoyable read for you. I liked it enough that I'll probably read the sequels at some point.

Finally finished Kafka on the Shore, it was a longer read than I anticipated, but I quite enjoyed the process of it and it's one that will ruminate in my head for a little while. Having now read my first Haruki Murakami book there are some aspects to his writing that I can see why he doesn't appeal to everyone, but I am intrigued to read more by him. See what aspects of this story carry through in his other works. A link to my overall thoughts on the book here, to those curious.
Now onto The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa.

I just read Earthlings, Murata's follow-up to Convenience store woman. Earthlings is really disturbing, an extreme portrayal of dissociation caused by abuse. It's a great commentary on the way society tries to force people, especially women, into procreation, but if you were expecting something as heartwarming as CSW ends up, you've come to the wrong place. It's very worth reading, but eesh.

I also read Botchan, which is apparently beloved in Japan. It's narrated by an impulsive, easily riled young man who goes from Tokyo to the provinces to work as a maths teacher in about 1905. He caricatures his fellow teachers, butting heads with several of them, and tries (not very hard) to adjust to life in a small town. This was an amusing read with a strong sense of place and time. I'm sure there are cultural references that Japanese readers relate to and which makes it such a favourite there.

>75 labfs39: I read both the Kamusari books and really enjoyed them. I usually prefer books with more female main characters but these just worked for me.

Last night I read a short, In a Grove by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

This is the story that the film Rashomon (the Kurosawa movie from 1950) is based on. Very unusual where each small chapter reports markedly different stories of the same event. Who knows what the truth was.

>76 WhiteRaven.17: it was ok. I loved the premise and the idea that you cant channge the past but you can make the future apt. but I found way too much repetition and over explanations. Wanted to love it more.

>77 Sakerfalcon: i didn't think CSW was heartwarming, thought it really creepy and sad. Glad to have read it, certainly a look at the pressure of Japanese society.

>77 Sakerfalcon: >80 cindydavid4: I'm sort of halfway to Cindy's view of this one. While I was satisfied by Keiko's determination to do what she felt right doing, it still felt sad and off-putting.

>78 RBeffa: It's been longer since I've read that than since I've watched Rashomon, and that was years back, but not decades I feel.

Added: I found a copy online. The reader is left pretty free to interpret the stories. I think the movie had a neutral observer to tell the viewer what really happened.

I read The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima. (1954). This is a 1001 book. A simple story of the first love between a young fisher boy and the daughter of a wealthier man in a small fishing village in Japan. It is also about how small village gossip out of jealousy and spite can ruin lives.

>82 Kristelh: I've been meaning to re-read that one.

I dont want to generalize but it seems as if Japanese books tend toward the sad or unsettling? Anyone have a book thats not?

>84 cindydavid4: I haven't read it myself, but Kiki's Delivery Service looks charming.

Oh that does look good ! thanks for the tip

>84 cindydavid4: The Sound of Waves is not sad, it is actually a book that ends well.

I haven't gotten very far since I've been finishing up other books, but I started The great passage and so far it's an entertaining (fictional) story about lexicographers working on the next great Japanese dictionary. >84 cindydavid4: So far it hasn't been sad or unsettling, though I can't promise it'll stay that way.

>88 bell7: I just loved The Great Passage.

>77 Sakerfalcon: Claire those were my thoughts entirely! She gets across the awfulness imposed upon the innocent very effectively in the first section of the book. It is a good book but a disturbing one and somehow very Japanese.

>77 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad the second Kamusari book was good too. I'm torn between wanting to stay in that world, and checking out The Great Passage.

>84 cindydavid4: The Easy Life in Kamusari was not depressing or unsettling. I also liked The Nakano Thrift Shop, which was quirky and fun.

>80 cindydavid4:, >81 quondame: I couldn't think of an appropriate word to describe the ending of CSW, but having just finished Earthlings, trust me, by comparison it is heartwarming! (I agree that it actually has a strong sense of melancholy.)

>84 cindydavid4:, >91 labfs39: Seconding the rec for Kamusari.

>88 bell7: oooo that should be an interesting read after dictionary of lost words thanks Ill give that a try

>84 cindydavid4: Well, be sure to skip South of the Border - it was Murakami's sad tale of selfish male adultery.

I'm reading The Cake Tree in the Ruins by Akiyuki Nosaka. This is a short story collection by the author of Grave of the Fireflies

>94Thx for the info

>95 RBeffa: ! How are you liking that collection similar to fire flies?

>94 m.belljackson: note taken

>96 cindydavid4: I have not gotten very far with Cake Tree in the Ruins but it seems to be about the horrors of WWII on the innocent - children and animals. So, yes, like Grave of the Fireflies. There is a good summary of it here: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2019/winter/cake-tree-ruins-akiyuki-nosaka

>98 RBeffa: ah ok then. thanks for the heads up and the link, I will most likely skip this one, I am looking for something that will get me out of the mood Im in. A pleasnt well written story that makes me smil

This is not a happy read but well worth it.

Book Territory of Light by Yūko Tsushima
Format: book/audio
Original publication date: originally written in serial monthly submissions in 1978, Published as a hardcover in 2019.
Acquisition date/place: 2018, Indiespensible
Decimal/ Star rating: 4 stars
Book description/summary: can't stay in the light
Challenge(s): Asian author challenge, ROOT
American:
British:
List book:
genre literature, Japanese, feminism, translated
Liked: I liked the use of light
Disliked: it is hard to like the unnamed narrator

>84 cindydavid4:. I kind of think that dealing with WWII and Japan's part in that war is a huge theme in Japanese literature, and shadows even those books that don't deal with it directly.

>101 banjo123: i can see that. thats for that heads up

I just finished up The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa and it's already an instant favorite with me I think, though I should let the story linger with me for a few more days. It's fitting to make the relation to Orwell's 1984 as they both have an overpowering, oppressive force in a world where the very notion of how people perceive is challenged. I look forward to looking into and reading some of this author's other works. Overall, I've liked every book I've read and look forward to diving into more Japanese literature as I think I might end up being quite the fan of it.

As an aside, this book gives no names to any of its characters and in Kafka on the Shore it was very easy to follow the names of characters, but I remember reading Before the Coffee Gets Cold and taking solid moments of confusion on naming. This is the first time I've ever read Japanese literature and I had assumed that even in translated works they would keep the naming convention of their culture, with family name first, followed by their given name and so it led to some confusion on my end. Is it common in translated books to also switch the order of naming conventions to match that of the cultural norm of the language they're being translated into?

>103 WhiteRaven.17: Overall, I've liked every book I've read and look forward to diving into more Japanese literature as I think I might end up being quite the fan of it.
That's exactly what happened to me. I just wishlisted The Memory Police.

this book just arrived, and Im tryig to finish the great passagebefore tomorrow . the story is about about a solitary man who is tasked with creating a new Japanese dictionary. Liking it so far, and hoping this guy gets a clue eventually

just a little bit over the deadline - but I really loved the great passage what a wonderful ending! A bookish and socially impaired man is hired to help develop a new dictionary. He is mercilouly teased by his collegues but he ultimately finds a way to express love, using his own unique personality.

>106 cindydavid4: No deadlines as such over here, Cindy. The challenge was really a general invitation to read Asian literature. xx

I managed three this month by Japanese writers :

The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
and
Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami.

The last one was my favourite read of the month.

>107 PaulCranswick:. Funny you should mention The Master of Go. I believe that was the first book of contemporary Japanese fiction I ever read. It not only got me on a never-ending streak of enjoying Japanese fiction, but it interested me I learning how to play GO…the rules of which I have no recollection now!

I have not finished it but I've started So Sad To Fall In Battle: An Account of War Based on General Tadamichi Kuribayashi's Letters from Iwo Jima by Kumiko Kakehashi This book or a version of it has some relation to the Clint Eastwood films. I can't find who the translator was which I find a little odd.

>107 PaulCranswick: I'm glad to hear you liked Strange Weather in Tokyo, Paul. I enjoyed her Nakano Thrift Shop quite a bit and have SWiT on my wishlist.

>108 SqueakyChu: I played it once, Madeline, with a French pal of mine who took great pleasure in only half explaining the game so he could beat me. It looked like a game that could be really addictive. Same fellow bought himself a table tennis table practiced for a month and then called me over to play with him. He was hugely annoyed that he couldn't win a single game!

>110 labfs39: I can certainly recommend it for deft tenderness, Lisa. It suited my mood, I guess as I just turned 56!

I read Convenience Store Woman last month, found it strange and sad. Glad to see that I’m not the only one! The idea of a person being completely adapted to a store, like some kind of robot, even if it made her happy, seemed very weird and unsettling.

I’m having trouble with Japanese literature. Strange, I have watched a number of Japanese movies in the last years that I really enjoyed, that I felt I could understand. (Unfortunately I have forgotten the titles). But the books?

I still have Master of Go out from the library and am hoping to read it this month along with a book or two by Korean authors.

>112 EllaTim: I rather enjoyed Convenience Store Woman. This is my review from back when I read it in 2020. https://www.librarything.com/work/20852239/reviews/177593990

By the way, I just started back into reading manga again, I guess that would count for this challenge as well, eh? …except August is over!

I read Kiki's Delivery Service this morning and it is as adorable as it looks.

>115 amanda4242: I just found a copy of that so will be reading it soon! I love the anime version.

>115 amanda4242: The only fantasy city I really would like to live in is the one in the movie of Kiki's Delivery Service. No evil empire, wonderful views, and a great bakery.

>115 amanda4242: I want to read Kiki's Delivery Service!

>116 Sakerfalcon: There's a live action adaptation, too, but I can only find it as a crazy expensive import DVD.

>117 quondame: It would probably be the most pleasant fantasy land to live in, but I really want to live on Discworld despite the dangers involved.

>118 SqueakyChu: It's a really fun read.

>119 amanda4242: You could do a lot worse. As long as your neighborhood wasn't downwind of the Unseen Academy.

>120 quondame: I was thinking a village in Lancre.

Oh I did like that book; want to see the movie!

>121 amanda4242: Hmm, infestations of fair folk, vampires, and regular witch competitions... vs wizards, golem, and a little explored day watch well, it's a real choice.

This interlibrary loan arrived late, but I'll thought I would add it anyhow.



Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated from the Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot
Published 2015, English translation 2020, 272 p.

The Funiculi Funicula is a small underground café that has been in operation for over a hundred years, almost since coffee has been in Japan. It had a moment of fame when an urban legend spread that people could travel through time when at the café, but the furor quickly died when people learned that even if they travelled back in time, they wouldn't be able to change the present. What's the point? But occasionally someone is desperate enough to put up with all the rules (have to sit in a certain chair, can't leave the chair, have to return by drinking the coffee before it gets cold, etc.) to try it. This book is the story of four people who attempt to time travel from the café.

Quiet and sweet, the book has little wisdom to impart, but it's gentle stories of everyday people facing loss of various types is comforting. It's not hardcore sci-fi/fantasy, rather it's about relationships and what people would do with a limited do-over. The author has gone on to write two more books about the café's employees and customers. Although I enjoyed this volume well enough, I'm not sure I'll seek out the others.

Just to add that I read Kiki's delivery service and it was great! I think I'll pass the book on to my goddaughter.

Now reading my brillant life which I am liking it in very much, love the writing and the poetry that comes with it.

>125 Sakerfalcon: One of my favorite books/movies!

A late arrival:



The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell
Published 2003, 172 p.

I read and was utterly charmed by The Nakano Thrift Shop last year, so I was eager to read something else by this author. Unfortunately, Ten Loves of Nishino was disappointing in comparison. The idea is interesting enough, depict a man through the lenses of ten of the women he has dated. The relationships occur throughout his life, from the time he was a teenager until his death. The relationships were of different types: more or less sexual, older women, younger women, love, friendship. Nishino is self-centered and rather boring, and the women's voices are so similar as to blur into one (although translation may have effected this as well). Although I appreciated the concept, I felt that it was not executed as well as it might have been.

Another one from JAPAN


Fires on the Plain by Shohei Ooka, translated from the Japanese by Ivan Morris
Originally published 1952, this translation 2001, 246 p., 4*

Tamura is a conscripted Japanese soldier on the island of Leyte in the Philippines late in World War II. When the novel opens, he has been discharged from the field hospital because he can no longer supply his own food, and rejected by his unit because he is too weak to forage. He wanders the forests, starving and lonely. At one point he sees the cross on the top of a Filipino church and begins reflecting on his youthful belief in God and later adult rejection of religion as childish illusions. Rather than the existence of evil, his focus is on his personal relationship with God and God's wishes for him. Eventually he meets up with other Japanese stragglers and joins them in making a push for the coast, where rumor has it they are to be evacuated. But the American army has cut off their escape route, and Tamura finds himself wandering alone again. As starvation and madness set in, he must confront both practical and philosophical questions about death, sin, and the role of chance in human destiny.

Like his protagonist, Shohei Ooka was a conscript sent to the Philippines late in the war. He was a student and translator of French literature and after the war was a Fulbright Scholar at Yale. He kept a journal during the war and began writing and publishing postwar. Several of his books won prominent awards, and in his Nobel acceptance speech, Kenzaburo Oe credits Ooka as an influence on his own writing.

I read Fires on the Plain in two sittings, unable to stop turning pages to see what would happen. The writing is clear and clean, with detailed descriptions of nature, but what I found most compelling was Tamura's struggles with survival, not only of his body, but of his Self. How do you remain true to yourself during the horrors of war, the degradation of the body, and the effects of starvation, loneliness, and guilt on the mind?

I read Echo on the Bay by Masatsugu Ono--- an interesting and disturbing book, very compact, which seems to be about different generations of trauma, echoing back to the trauma of the Japanese Empire in WWII. Parts are quite funny, others quite disturbing.

>131 banjo123: Thanks. That is an author I had not heard of. My library has a copy of Echo on the Bay as well as one called Lion Cross Point.

>132 RBeffa:, >131 banjo123: Noting both - sounds like an uncomfortable read, but attracts me nonetheless.

>132 RBeffa: and >133 markon:. My daughter had read and liked the book as well. We had talked to folks from the publishers, Two Lines Press at the Portland Book Fest.