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Title: Life in the Cul-De-Sac by Senji Kuroi, Philip Gabriel ISBN: 1-880656-57-4 Publisher: Stone Bridge Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Entrancing, more intertesting than Murakami Haruki by far
Comment: At first I was not so sure, the book seemed a rather Soap Operaish. But after a bit I was hooked. Very clear and yet subtle examination of Japanese life in the suburbs. The women characters are suprisinfgly strong for Japanese literature of this era. And the "dominant" men come off as intersting and yet useless buffons. I think it takes Japanese literature to a more elaborate height than most Japanese literature written by men. Murakami is all about men, and that get's boring to me (and I am a man), where as Kuroi gives us the tragic banality of suburban life for both the men and woomen of the era. It is a bit dated, but having grown up in U.S. suburbs it still rings frieghtenly true to me. And that is another thing; this book is very creepy and even scarry by the end. No obvious horror, but just the relentless creepiness of suburban living. I look forward to more Kuroi books in english!
Rating: 4
Summary: The "blah" of life
Comment: As the first reviewer stated I was attracted to this book because of the translator because he translated many of Murakami Haruki's books. While I did not enjoy this book quite as much as those written by Murakami, I did find it to be an interesting read. The book is one big down note. We are first introduced to the Oda family. The father Fusao is a depressed man who is often left at home with his two children while his wife is off taking classes. He tells his children about his family home that had stood in the same spot as their present house, and the reader can feel the family's past being melted away because of the destruction of the home. The rest of the chapters in the book deal with the families who live close to the Odas their stories are similar to his: lonliness, lack of roots, and a desire to return to the past. An Interesting read.
Rating: 3
Summary: Important¿But not really timely or enjoyable
Comment: For those unfamiliar with Japanese literature, I recommend starting this connected series of short stories only after first flipping to the back to read the Translator's Afterword. There is so much context given in those five pages that I was left scratching my head as to why the publisher hadn't made it a "Foreword" instead. There, one learns that the twelve stories, which are all grouped around a nondescript cul-de-sac in outer Tokyo and its few families, is a "rensaku shosetsu" (novel of linked stories)-which apparently is a popular literary format in Japan. There, one also learns that the stories were originally serialized from 1981-84, a period marking the beginning of the Japanese boom economy and high national spirits.
In that context, the stories-which carry with them a sense of quiet desperation and disconnection familiar to readers of Cheever and Carver-can be seen as going against the grain of popular sentiment of the time. Indeed, there is little evidence of the much-heralded Japanese "group ethic" and rather more a sense that no one-not even people in the same family-are in any way connected to those around them. The families of the cul-de-sac are a demographic cross-section clearly meant to embody average Tokyoites, and Kuroi's portrait of them as lonely and alienated individuals is meant to disturb. Wives and husbands live totally separate lives, children come and go, elders grow old and forgotten, with only occasional bursts of outreach. The writing is necessarily sparse and ventures into surrealism at times, and though the book is an important social commentary, it's not the most timely or enjoyable read.
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Title: The Breaking Jewel (Weatherhead Books on Asia) by Makoto Oda, Donald Keene ISBN: 0231126131 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
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Title: Twinkle Twinkle by Kaori Ekuni, Emi Shimokawa ISBN: 1932234012 Publisher: Vertical, Inc. Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Speed Tribes : Days and Night's with Japan's Next Generation by Karl T. Greenfeld ISBN: 0060926651 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 13 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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