Tag: Japanese literature

The Tatami Galaxy

The Tatami Galaxy

by Tomihiko Morimi (Ohta, 2004); audiobook trans. Emily Balistrieri; read by Andrew Grace (HarperAudio, 2022)

Book cover: “The Tatami Galaxy” by Tomihiko Morimi (Ohta, 2004); audiobook trans. Emily Balistrieri; read by Andrew Grace (HarperAudio, 2022)

Morimi squanders the Sliding Doors premise by firing hadrons at a puerile scenario. The whole-passage repetitions are inexcusable (both logically and stylistically). Readers will come to loathe the narrator’s blethering on about dark-haired maidens, rose-coloured campus life and his four-and-a-half-mat tatami room.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles

The Travelling Cat Chronicles

by Hiro Arikawa, trans. Philip Gabriel (Doubleday, 2017); audiobook read by George Blagden (Transworld, 2018)

Book cover: “The Travelling Cat Chronicles” by Hiro Arikawa, trans. Philip Gabriel (Doubleday, 2017); audiobook read by George Blagden (Transworld, 2018)

A simple, at times wistful exploration of life in Japan, told by way of old friendships revisited and the devoted owner/pet relationship the protagonist shares with his cat. While Arikawa captures the power of childhood memories, the cat’s direct observations add little.

Pinball, 1973

Pinball, 1973

by Haruki Murakami (Kodansha International, 1980); trans. Ted Goossen; audiobook read by Kirby Heyborne (Random House Audio, 2015)

Book cover: 'Pinball, 1973', by Haruki Murakami

In volume two of the Rat tetralogy, Murakami renews his commitment to dressing up shallow student nihilism as intellectual profundity. The contemplative simplicity of prose, the bleakness of the narrator’s mindset and the banality of subject matter combine alluringly, only to deceive.

The Cat Who Saved Books

The Cat Who Saved Books

by Sosuke Natsukawa (2017); trans. Louise Heal Kawai; audiobook read by Kevin Shen (Picador, 2021)

Natsukawa_Cat Who Saved Books

The cat gives off Alice in Wonderland vibes and there’s a dark, almost elegiac edge to the book-rescuing missions it cajoles teenage shut-in Rintaro Natsuki into undertaking. Through Rintaro’s coming of age, Natsukawa expresses love for and extols the virtues of books.

 

 

Hear the Wind Sing

Hear the Wind Sing

by Haruki Murakami (Kodansha International, 1979); trans. Ted Goossen; audiobook read by Kirby Heyborne (Random House Audio, 2015)

Murakami_Hear the Wind Sing

The narrator looks back on when he was a 21-year-old student of little interest to anyone. Murakami, rather like Vonnegut, writes what may or may not be deadpan literary satire. Narrator Kirby Heyborne does his best to make it all sound meaningful.