July 13, 2009
In the style of Autofiction, a review of sorts:
22nd year, Winter
Wow! I’m so annoyed I could die. First, the cover of this book is so exactly like the cover of that old guy Murakami’s books. It’s really so stupid. I don’t know why anyone should fall for such a dumb stunt. Wait, I did. Uu? Anyway, it’s just unbelievable. It’s not the same as Murakami really. It’s not as dreamy as his stuff. My friend Kana would probably do him. She doesn’t care who she spreads her legs for. The main character is so annoying! Have you ever met someone so hysterical as this Rin person? In fact, I think I’m going to coin a new genre of fiction based on this kind of narrative: the simple hysterical present.
At the start of this book is Rin is on a plane with her cute husband Shin. A flight attendant spills some champagne on Shin’s knee, and she wipes it off. Rin gets really angry and jealous. But she’s so in love with Shin! She wishes the plane would fall out of the sky so they could die together. Shin goes off somewhere and Rin starts imagining that he is cheating on her with the flight attendant. How did someone get so crazy?
18th Summer
Okay, so now we’re going back in time. That’s cool, I can understand that. She’s with some loser called Shah who lies to her. But I guess the lies he tells her are not so bad. She gets angry about a lot of things. What a stinker! Why is she so angry all the time? She loves dancing and going to parties but at these parties there’s a lot of sex. She doesn’t seem to question it though, so whatever. In fact she knows she’s cute and that guys want her but that’s the limit of her self-awareness really. Rin’s so micro! I don’t think this book is interested in issues other than personal issues.
16th Summer
Whoa, now she’s with a real asshole who makes Rin support herself by going to pachinko parlours. She’s not allowed to get a real job. I guess you can really see why she’s so screwed up all the time. It’s a bit of an obvious trick but you can still feel sympathetic towards her. Some really bad stuff happens to Rin. It’s sad.
15th Winter
Whoa, another asshole. So I guess Rin has a really bad life. And though she’s annoying you really feel sorry for her. Even if you want her to go away because she’s so crazy. This going-back-in-time structure is pretty good! Even though all the parts that show why she has no self-control are so obvious and the language is a bit stupid sometimes, there are also some parts where you really feel sorry for Rin. Sometimes she is really fun! She seems more together when she is younger.
Okay, I’m going to dance to Non-Stop Techno Adventure now.
Comments (8)
Thuy Linh Nguyen | 14th Jul 09 | 4:59 pm |
I love the exclamation marks! And the stupid speak! Makes me think of Korean soap operas! Could you review Twilight in this fashion?! It would be lolcakes!
estelle | 15th Jul 09 | 12:27 am |
Thank God you understood — my boyfriend thought it was just my normal tone of voice. I had to put in an explanatory note for the dummkopfs like him. HMMM.
I don't think I want to read Twilight just yet. Even for such a hilarious enterprise!
sam | 15th Jul 09 | 4:14 pm |
Whatever
Thuy Linh Nguyen | 15th Jul 09 | 6:16 pm |
Sam = boyfriend?
Harry Potter comes out today. Wheeeeeeeee!
*is excited*
Dion | 11th Jan 10 | 8:46 am |
I'm loathe to put down an unfinished book, and though I kept anticipating something explanatory/redemptive/sympathetic to account for this young woman's (kind of interesting, but mostly irritating) angst and neuroses, I just couldn't go there with her. I too was enticed by the sexy Murukamiesque cover… but I found this book frustrating – not in a good way – and couldn't go the distance into the heart of this darkness. You do the idiom well E.
estelle | 11th Jan 10 | 11:09 am |
Dion! In a way I felt like Kanehara put enough material to explain Rin's anxiety ipso facto, but I'm not sure that she did enough with the language to make full use of the explanatory events. Rin was an incredibly irritating narrator, and when you have a protagonist that irritating, you really need some kind of trade-off in the language. You know, think of A Confederacy of Dunces or something. I think your phrase was perfect – 'heart of darkness' – there really isn't one, and the backwards format really foregrounds the idea of a core trauma, so it's disappointing when you don't get a fulfilling one.
On the other hand, I think I approached this book for the point of view that there apparently isn't a great modern movement of Japanese female fiction, and I found it interesting from an anthrocultural (uhhhhh made up word) point of view.
Dion | 12th Jan 10 | 10:26 am |
I'm by no means well read in Japanese literature, nor much of an anthroculturist (!), but I loved Banana Yoshimoto's 'Asleep' and 'Kitchen'. I guess she's kind of an obvious person to point out as an example of modern Japanese women writers – interestingly, she can also seem a bit like Murukami at times. I wonder if this has something to do with what Japanese fiction is popular/gets published outside of Japan?
I'm glad I didn't finish the book if only because, the older I get, the more I feel belligerently justified in moving onto something I feel I'll get more out of reading. But that's an ethos that needs some practice when you're used to persisting with books regardless. Because, on the other hand, not finishing something can sometimes leave you with a residue of unfinished business…
Do you ever leave books unfinished?
estelle | 12th Jan 10 | 11:13 am |
Of course, Banana! Yeah, I'm no Japanese literature aficionado either, but I suppose I wasn't able to dredge up many familiar female names from my brain in comparison to the lengthier roll-call of classic male Japanese authors I'm familiar with – Mishima, Oe, Soseki, Murakami. Apart from the kind of historical era Tale of Genji lady and the Pillow Book lady I guess.
I totally hadn't thought about the question of what gets translated from Japanese into English. I'm sure there are plenty more female writers not translated.
I haven't left any books unfinished (well, I have a couple I haven't quite made it through that are lingering on the blog's right-hand column) but I'm starting to wonder if I should. I think I'm still in the stage of reading where it's useful for me to read books that fail for me in some respect, and I'm much better now at understanding which books I'm likely to want to see all the way through. But increasingly, as I pick up weird little titles or misconstrue when would be the right time for me to read any particular book, I am considering putting books to rest indefinitely.
Definitely don't like unfinished business though…what a strange feeling that is.