BOOK: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, 150 pages

Japanese Literature Challenge; 1% Well Read

Actually two stories, Kitchen, a novella and Moonlight Shadow, a short story, this book was less dreary than you'd expect for two stories all about grief.
I preferred Moonlight Shadow with its touch of supernatural to help the young girl deal with the death of her boyfriend. The story was simpler but touched me a bit more.
Kitchen is the story of two young adults who come together in their shared grief of what seems like the death of everyone around them. I found this story a bit more abstract with the relationships. It's hard to know when the problems in a story are with the translations. There were some nice phrases and images however.

In the uncertain ebb and flow of time and emotions, much of one's life history is etched in the senses. page 75

CHALLENGE: Japanese Literature Challenge 3

The lovely Bellezza is hosting the Japanese Literature Challenge 3 and I plan to participate again.

The challenge is to read one work of Japanese origin between July 30, 2009 and January 30, 2010. There are a ton of great prizes from the oh so generous Bellezza; I won a beautiful Japanese calendar in the last challenge that I love to look at.

I've enjoyed the books I've read in the last year and have a few more that I know I'd like to read. I don't have an official list but maybe:

• Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (am I the only one who didn't read this last time?)
  
• Cranes at Dusk by Hisako Matsubara (picked this up for $1)
  
• When We Were Orphans by Kazou Ishiguro (love Ishiguro!
  
• another mystery by Miyuke Miyabe (I've read 2 already but I don't know if I can get my hands on another one)

The books I've read already that I would recommend:

After Dark by Haruki Murakami (a little strange, but compelling)
All She Was Worth by Miyuke Miyabe (police mystery)
A Pale View of Hills by Kazou Ishiguro (not his strongest, but still good)
Shadow Family by Miyuke Miyabe (police mystery)
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (best book! with math!)

BOOK: After Dark by Haruki Murakami

After Dark by Haruki Murakami, 191 pages

Japanese Literature Challenge, unread author, Dewey's books

Perspective. Memory. Sleep. Things that occur during the night in Tokyo connected with two sisters, Mari and Eri. I'm still not sure if I liked this book.

The story of Mari is more concrete and easy to follow. She meets up with a friend of her sister's, Takahashi, and they talk. She helps a stranger, and meets up with Takahashi again. We get to know more of Mari and her plans and thoughts. Eri is sleeping through the night and there is some funky third person point of view, but like a camera, observing her. The narration is observing itself observing Eri. It gets very abstract with Eri and I still don't quite understand her connection to another character, the business man who perpetrated a crime.

I liked the story as I read it, but the ending didn't answer anything for me. I didn't understand the purpose of some of the perspective. I didn't mind during the reading, but I needed a bit more payoff in the end for suspending my understanding. I liked Murakami's prose and it had beautiful imagery and ideas about sleep and memory, and the feeling of menace that subtley developed, but ultimately I just didn't get it.

There was a section where a character refers to the movie Love Story, which I found funny because he completely missed the ending and what the story was about, but liked it enough to retell the plot. Ironic, isn't it?

BOOK: All She Was Worth by Miyuki Miyabe

All She Was Worth by Miyuki Miyabe, 296 pages (translated by Alfred Birnbaum)

Japanese Literature Challenge, 2nds Challenge

Another great Japanese mystery by Miyabe; I read Shadow Family earlier this year. This was named Best Mystery and Best Novel of the Year in Japan when it was published in 1992.

A woman goes missing, and her fiance asks a distant relative, Detective Honma to investigate. Honma is off on leave after being injured on the job and after the death of his young wife. His life is pretty quiet, and the investigation is a welcome distraction. The characters are nicely written and enjoyable to follow around. The plot was tight and suspenseful, quick turn after quick turn.

I really enjoyed the look at life in Japan, learning about family registrations, and the different types of red tape in that country. Same but different. The topic was timely as well, with a strong condemnation of consumer credit and the whole business of credit cards and consumerism. This book is fifteen years old, but in today's inflated finacial world, not much has really changed. There were a few sections that got a little preachy, but it didn't distract too much from the mystery. I liked how we followed the detective and learned clues along with him; there were no big surprise reveals, just step by step closer and closer to the end of the mystery. I must continue looking for Miyabe's mysteries.

BOOK: A Pale View of Hills by Kazou Ishiguro

A Pale View of Hills by Kazou Ishiguro, 183 pages

1% well read, Japanese literature challenge

I'm fudging things a bit to use this for the Japanese literature challenge, as although Ishiguro was born in Japan, he moved to England as a young child. This book does take place for the most part in Japan, so I am going to count it.

The first novel written by Ishiguro has his signature beautiful writing. His writing matches the way my head thinks, so I find his writing very easy to get absorbed into. His sparse style tells so much more than you would expect. There isn't much in the line of plot here - Etsuko's younger daughter arrives at her English countryside cottage after the suicide of Keiko, the elder daughter. The mother is sent into a remembrance of a particular time of her life in Nagasaki, newly married after the war and the bomb and a friendship with an unusual neighbour in the months before her daughter is born. The neighbour, Sachiko and her young daughter Mariko are preparing to leave Japan with Sachiko's American boyfriend. For some reason, this time was important to Etsuko, even though other important information about her life and how she ended up in England with a different husband is never really told.

I enjoyed this slow meandering read and the view of life in Japan as life was changing there after the war. I wasn't always clear what the characters were about and their interactions, but an interesting passage near the end had me sitting up and rereading a page or so and blinking my eyes. Ishiguro is a great writer, and this book would be interesting for a group read, as there are some interpretations required to decide upon at the end.

CHALLENGE: Japanese Literature Challenge 2

Dolce Bellezza is hosting the Japanese Literature Challenge 2. I didn't participate last year, but there are a few books on my radar this year that would qualify for this challenge. I can't believe how much my reading has broadened in the last year. This is a perfect example, as now I know three different authors that are Japanese, and I don't think I could say that last year.

Read 3 books of your choice between July 30, 2008 and January 30, 2009.

1. After Dark by Haruki Murakami I should try one of his


2. All She Was Worth by Miyuke Miyabe I really liked her Shadow Family


3. A Pale View of Hills by Kazou Ishiguro I want to read all of Ishiguro's books