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Idol, Burning by Rin Usami
“Everything about him was precious. When it came to my oshi, I wanted to offer him everything I had.” Rin Usami’s Idol, Burning gives readers insight into fandom culture and celebrity worship through the lens of Akari, a high-school student whose thoughts are always on Masaki Ueno, her oshi, a former child actor who is…
1st pov, 2.5 STARS, adolescence, Adult, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, ANGST, anxiety, boybands, bullying, cold tone, coming of age, Contemporary, DEPRESSION, desire, ennui, entertainment industry, fandom culture, female authors, feverish, HIGH SCHOOL, Idol Burning, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, LITERARY FICTION, musicians, navel gazing, published in 2020, read in 2023, Rin Usami, social media, subject over characters/story, the body, the female malaise, TRANSLATED FICTION -
Hardboiled & Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto
“I felt as if this place I had come to was nowhere. As if I no longer had a home to return to. That road I had been on didn’t lead anywhere, this trip would never end—it seemed to me as if next morning would never arrive.” Banana Yoshimoto is at her whimsical best in…
1990s, 1st pov, 3.5 STARS, Adult, ハードボイルド／ハードラック, Banana Yoshimoto, collection of short stories, Contemporary, DEATH, dreamlike quality, Dreams, existentialism, f/f, favourite authors, female authors, forgiveness, ghosts/spirits, GRIEF, heartbreak/breakups, hotel, illness, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, lgbtq+, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, MAGICAL REALISM, melancholy, MEMORY, navel gazing, no plot just vibes, published in 1999, queer, read in 2023, right person wrong time, sapphic, short stories, SISTERS, SLICE OF LIFE, suicide, surreal, TRANSLATED FICTION, unnamed narrator, uplifting reads -
Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto
Over the last couple of years, I have made slow but steady progress reading my way through Banana Yoshimoto’s oeuvre. Amrita marks the thirteenth work that I have read by her and, as in many ways, it exhibits many textbook Yoshimoto traits: an atypical family unity, an irreverently optimistic tone (regardless of the subject matter),…
1990s, 1st pov, 3 STARS, abuse, Adult, adulthood, amnesia, Amrita, アムリタ, Banana Yoshimoto, celebrities, Contemporary, existentialism, female authors, GRIEF, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, KIDS WITH POWERS, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Longing, MAGICAL REALISM, MEMORY, mumblecore, navel gazing, no plot just vibes, POWERS, published in 1994, read in 2022, ROMANCE, siblings, SLICE OF LIFE, slow pacing, surreal, TRANSLATED FICTION -
ひらやすみ (Hirayasumi) #1 by Keigo Shinzo
Hirayasumi is a wonderful slice of life manga that will definitely appeal to fans of the iyashikei sub-genre. There is a lulling, comforting even, quality to the Shinzo’s storytelling, from his characters to his art style. With little preamble the manga explores every-day experiences of its central characters, giving insight into their lives and the…
Adult, adulthood, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, ひらやすみ, Contemporary, existentialism, friendships, Hirayasumi, HUMOR, Iyashikei, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, Keigo Shinzo, light reads, male artists, male authors, manga, published in 2021, read in 2022, Sequential Art, SLICE OF LIFE, tokyo, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, uplifting reads, youth -
Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada
Having read Hiroko Oyamada’s The Hole and The Factory, I was intrigued by the premise of Weasels in the Attic, which has recently been translated into English. This book is divided into three self-contained episodes centred on the same character. Our narrator’s wife really wants to have children but he seems far less enthused by…
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The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin
“I felt almost affectionate towards those machines, a kind of pity tinged with fear. As soon as they were fed, their contents would be regurgitated, undigested.” I am happy to report that I found Shua Dusapin’s second novel much more to my liking than her first one (which i actually tried revisiting hoping that it…
1st pov, 3.25 stars, Adult, adulthood, ambivalent mood, cold tone, Contemporary, contemporary malaise, cultural dissonance, dreamlike quality, Elisa Shua Dusapin, ennui, female authors, FRANCE, French Korean author, grandparents, introspective, japan, Korea, language, loneliness, melancholy, navel gazing, published in 2018, read in 2022, stylised prose, teachers, the female malaise, The Pachinko Parlour, tokyo, TRANSLATED FICTION -
Dead-End Memories: Stories by Banana Yoshimoto
“And yet, when I traveled to other cities, I always found that a view without a river was of no interest to me at all. Perhaps that was because the inherent stillness of my nature made me crave the sight of things that moved.” Whenever I am in a reading slump or going through a…
1st pov, 2000s, 3 STARS, Adult, Banana Yoshimoto, collection of short stories, Contemporary, Dead-End Memories, Dead-End Memories: Stories, dreamlike quality, Dreams, female authors, ghosts/spirits, GRIEF, heartbreak/breakups, incest-y, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, loneliness, Longing, melancholy, MEMORY, nature, navel gazing, nostalgic reads, published in 2003, read in 2022, short stories, SLICE OF LIFE, surreal -
Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto
Tokyo Express presents its readers with an intriguing set-up that is somewhat let-down by the story giving away too much too soon. The premise made me think that this would be a whodunnit with some noir undertones, but it soon became apparent that the mystery driving the narrative was more of the whydunnit variety. There…
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Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi
“Inside of me, there’s another person, with a form all his own, moving around as he pleases. It’s like my own body has become foreign to me.” The premise for Diary of a Void promised a ‘surreal and wryly humorous cultural critique’ and I am afraid that while the commentary within this novel is fairly…
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The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
yawn The Decagon House Murders is a pale imitation of the novel it is trying to pay homage to. While by no means a terrible read, I found it to be boring and ultimately deeply underwhelming. As the self-proclaimed whodunnit enthusiast that I am, I was looking forward to reading this, especially as it promised…
1980s, 2 STARS, 20th century, 3rd pov, Adult, amateur detective, CRIME, golden age detective fiction, ISLAND, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, male authors, men who do not seem to know how to write women, MURDER, murder mystery, MYSTERY, published in 1987, read in 2022, revenge, SUSPENSE, The Decagon House Murders, THRILLER, whodunnit, Yukito Ayatsuji
luce [is reading] 