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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 -
NOTES OF A CROCODILE BY QIU MIAOJIN
“Cruelty and mercy are one and the same. Existence in this world relegates good and evil to the exact same status. Cruelty and evil are only natural, and together they are endowed with half the power and half the utility in this world. It seems I’m going to have to learn to be crueler if…
1980s, 1st pov, 20th century, academia, Adult, ambiguous protagonist, ANGST, bi side characters, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, CLASSICS, DEPRESSION, endless monologues, existentialism, female authors, gay side characters, HISTORICAL FICTION, LESBIAN, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, LITERARY FICTION, modern classics, My reviews, navel gazing, Notes of a Crocodile, published in 1994, Qiu Miaojin, queer, read in 2021, reading, sapphic, SEXUALITY, style over character, subject over characters/story, suicide, taiwan, taiwanese author, toxic relationships, TRANSLATED FICTION, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE -
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
“But our memories were diminishing day by day, for when something disappeared from the island, all memory of it vanished, too.” The Memory Police reminded me of a book I recently read, called Amatka. Given that the former was first published in 1994 and the latter is a fairly recent release I wouldn’t be surprised…
3 STARS, Adult, books about writers, dystopia, female authors, GRIEF, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, language, MAGICAL REALISM, MEMORY, MYSTERY, published in 1994, READ IN 2019, SCI-FI, SPECULATIVE FICTION, The Memory Police, TRANSLATED FICTION, trauma, unnamed characters, unnamed country, unnamed narrator, Yōko Ogawa