The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami

It's great to see a couple more titles by Kawakami Hiromi appearing in translation in the not so distant future, Parade, a companion piece to Strange Weather in Tokyo is due in November by Soft Skull Press, translated by Allison Markin Powell and then next year Breasts and Eggs, which was awarded the Akutagawa Prize is due to be published by Picador, at the moment I see the translation is listed as being from both David Boyd and Sam Bett. Recently published in the U.K by Granta is The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino, translated by Allison Markin Powell, it feels simply mind boggling that nine years have passed since first reading Manazuru and thanks mainly to Allison Markin Powell we've read more in the time between.

Reading The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino the structure of the book brought to mind Revenge by Ogawa Yoko, as in some ways reading the chapters it feels like that they could be read as individual short stories that make up the whole novel, perhaps with Revenge the book is more thematically arranged and here it's more concentrated on character. That said, as much as the central character is the rather enigmatic Nishino-san, womaniser or socially awkward?, there's the balance that the book is equally presenting ten chapters exploring the lives of the ten women who fall in and out of love with him. The prose in The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino is more straight forward story telling as compared to Hebi wo fumu . Over the ten chapters, there's a connection between a couple here, as well as being given portraits into the lives of the women, we take in the life of Nishino Yukihiko, it feels that we get snapshots of his life as the relationships with the ten women occur over various points of his life, and indeed slightly beyond. An aspect due for contemplation is in as much as the narrative tells us a little about Nishino, thinking about what we don't know is of equal interest.  

Perhaps a striking element of the book is the amount of sex to it, not a massive amount maybe by other standards, but unsurprisingly it's central to most of the relationships which somehow is an interesting comparison to make with media reports that Japan is becoming increasingly sexless, or has issues with sex, perhaps this is mere media hyperbole, and maybe the book appeared before this recent social observation took hold, or came into fashion.

Through out the prose feels pitch perfect, there are moments of harshness and softness from character to character, it's not until perhaps the chapter Grapes that Nishino comes under the harsher criticism, and in the previous chapter Marimo, Kawakami finishes of the chapter with a poignant scene of dimming sunlight and the encounter with Nishino coming to an end for Sayuri Sasaki, who it feels is caught in a loveless marriage and perhaps in a single statement after meeting Nishino at an Energy Saving Cooking Club sums up the slightly pitiable Nishino - 'I forgave Nishino his past, I forgave Nishino his present and I forgave Nishino his eternal future'.

Read the first chapter Parfait at Granta

The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino at Granta Books    

Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami

After The Nakano Thrift Shop it seemed natural to continue on with the recently published Record of A Night Too Brief, by Pushkin Press as part of their interesting mini series of translated Japanese novellas, in a translation by Lucy North, the collection was awarded the Akutagawa Prize back in 1996.

The opening story - Record of a Night Too Brief is the story that consumes the most pages, just under seventy, and through those it perhaps represents a change in the way some English readers might perceive Kawakami, here Kawakami is in much more of an experimental mode, the story is broken down across nineteen chapters which in places induce within the reader the impression that they are reading a short story collection within the one. Feeling sequential, although they feel like they can be read individually, the story sprawls the subject, or concept of night, which in one chapter transforms from an itching sensation on a narrator's back, in another, from a swirling cup of coffee, the story in places breaks it's own supposed sequence, a dancing couple begin to notice mushrooms sprouting from themselves as they age, a girl who seems to be in various stages of disintegration remains the fragmentary clue, or narrative landmark linking the pieces together, the question arises perhaps - is the narrator the same one across the chapters?. The story incorporates surrealistic episodes and instances and an attempt at replay and repair for the broken girl. Record of a Night Too Brief is a mini sprawl of refreshingly imaginative chapters, full of minutiae of all sizes, recalling perhaps in places Landolfi, some incorporating concepts of theoretical physics, another a vivid scene from a strange formal dinner, but the surrealism and allegory don't let up even as dawn approaches, and the reader is given a moment to recollect themselves briefly before moving on to the next story.

The second story, Missing feels much in the same vein, although being more subdued with more space for the explorative, the central plot line is narrated by a sister of two brothers, who are named through the story as brother no. 1 and brother no. 2, brother no. 1 through an intermediary, named Ten, is set to marry Hiroko in what appears to be an arranged marriage, although the dilemma is that he has gone missing, the family, the narrator relates has a history of members going missing, a great - grandmother in the past. At random though, brother no. 1 it seems appears to the narrator at various points like a visitation, in his place in the marriage brother no. 2 steps in, as much of the marriage arrangements are conducted over the phone. Entwined to this main plot line a number of surrealistic episodes and diversions occur, the incident with the jar containing the spirit of Goshiki, (an older ancestor), there's also the balancing of the family numbers being equal, Hiroko moves in, but doesn't settle well with the family and begins to shrink, each family has it's own ways - as another member observes. Underneath the strangeness, there's some interesting observations and allegories occurring in Missing, the presence of it's characters fading in and out, diminishing literally in size, is telling, a cryptic critique, and it's occurrences of strange rituals make it fascinating reading.

As mentioned the last story A Snake Stepped On was awarded the Akutagawa Prize, as with The Nakano Thrift Shop there are not that many characters to the story, narrated by Hiwako who works at a small shop producing prayer beads and supplies for local temples, finds life irrevocably transformed after stepping on a snake, there's a mist, and Hiwako hears a voice saying 'It's all over' and sees a woman walk away in the direction of her apartment. An impression of the story, and Kawakami's writing as a whole, is her ability to mix the ambiguities and unkowns of modern life and blend them with the sense of older myth and folklore, in the three stories of the collection the frontiers of each erode away and intercede, creating fascinating narratives that bring the two worlds into forming exacting allegories. The woman reappears in Hiwako's apartment posing as her mother, although Hiwako's mother lives miles away, she calls to make certain she's there, who is the snake woman?, an imposter making absurd claims, a mother figure of a different sense?. As the story proceeds the revelation comes that Hiwako is not alone in having to live with a snake/human, as her boss's wife Nishiko reveals that she is in the same circumstance, with the snakes calling for them to submit and join them and make the transformation. In places the story shares the same claustrophobic fervor of Abe Kobo's 1949 short story Dendrocacalia and at moments visually it brings to mind Junji Ito's terrifying Uzumaki with spiralling snakes. Underneath this there remains the allegorical study of the transformative power of mankind's darker nature, a fascinating culmination to an engrossing collection.

Record of a Night Too Brief at Pushkin Press

The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami

Somewhere amongst the pages of The Nakano Thrift Shop it's lead character, Hitomi, surmises her observations of her on/off relationship with her colleague, Takeo, with the phrase 'the scrutiny of love', it could be said that this forms the central plot of contention and theme of the novel that was published by Portobello Books last year in a translation from Allison Markin Powell. The novel is made up of chapters which at times resemble installments, giving the impression of being diary entries, perhaps. Hitomi's observations carry a certain fragility to them, and there's some slight uses of poetical imagery, when kissing Takeo, perhaps for the first time?, Hitomi hears in the distance the sound of an engine start and then stop, which seems to mirror the progress of their relationship. It's refreshing to read Kawakami, she has her characters break and question conventional thought in subtle ways, Takeo feels quite a feminine character, for an initial portion of the book you wonder if he is asexual, the notion of sexual desire and relationships is a subject brokered again later in the novel by Masayo, (Mr Nakano's unmarried sister), who Hitomi confides her  inner most thoughts to through various points in the novel.

Being set in the confines of a thrift store, sometimes the novel has the feel of being a play, there are not that many characters to the book, perhaps the reader might imagine a stage, despite the women Mr Nakano is having affairs with. There are a number of subplots that arise through the characters that frequent the shop and through the objects they peruse, perhaps rather subtly, did one of these other story lines spill across a couple of chapters?. Kawakami's prose has a pensive quality to it, incidences can sometimes feel subdued however eventful they are, in one chapter Mr Nakano is stabbed, but things seem to carry rather glacially on to all degrees unaffected, maybe the prompt for his potential exit in his attempt to extrapolate himself from the escalating predicament of his affairs.

The prose of The Nakano Thrift Shop has a softly quintessential feel, an engaging episode of the drama of an encounter of the heart, like the customers of the shop who drift in and out we too, as does it's central protagonists, drift in and out of their lives and loves, tinted with their subtle eccentricities, alienations and lives subtly, sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently, knocked out of joint by modern life and it's pulling, the drama plays out combining both introspective reflection and an ending coda.  


The Nakano Thrift Shop at Portobello Books

the briefcase

A novel I've been very much looking forward to is Hiromi Kawakami's second appearance into English translation, after greatly enjoying the poeticism of Manazuru, the prose of The Briefcase has again a subtly understated simplicity to it that enables the reader to find themselves almost unawarely placed into the intricacies of the relationship between, Harutsuna Matsumoto, the ageing retired teacher, and Tsukiko Omachi, one of his former students who is now a woman facing middle age. The story is presented episodically, beginning with a chance meeting between the two again when they order exactly the same dish in a bar they both are eating in, the novel is presented through the perspective of Tsukiko, as the two become reacquainted the narrative begins to reveal episodes from her past, although a woman who has far from lived a sheltered life, we get the impression that she still lives in the same neighbourhood that she went to school in, re-meeting sensei, as Matsumoto is referred to by her throughout the novel, has provoked in her the realization that up til now she had been living a slightly oblivious existence, the world begins to appear in a new perspective.

After a few more meetings Tsukiko is invited to sensei's house, and discovers a collection of ceramic teapots from the boxed lunches that he and his wife bought from railway stations on their travels, background details of sensei's life aren't expanded upon greatly which adds a slightly enigmatic quality to him, although we learn that sensei's slightly bohemian wife passed away after leaving him. The little snippets of information about his characteristics we know are given to us through Tsukiko's observations, his dislike of having someone else pour his drink out for him, and throughout a reading of the novel the question of the contents of sensei's briefcase hovers  at the peripheries of our thoughts. Some of their meetings are pre-arranged and some occur by coincidence, as the relationship develops, it's nature is enigmatic, Tsukiko's growing attachment to sensei becomes apparent in her narrative, an episode when in their favourite bar a drunk begins to ask how many times a week they slept together, begins to provoke the reader into questioning the nature of the relationship. Following the two's outings together sees them go on a market excursion, Kawakami's  narrative  captures  Tsukiko's growing sense that the relationship is slightly absurd when she finds herself asking what is she doing? when she finds herself halfway up a mountain on a mushroom hunting trip with sensei and Satoru, the owner of their favourite bar, the novel is full of fantastic descriptions of Japanese dishes that makes you want to eat and drink while reading.

On another meeting she goes with sensei to a cherry blossom viewing party held at their old school, old teachers and old pupils gather for the party, Tsukiko meets Kojima, a fellow student who has since divorced his wife, the pair leave the party early and Kojima  asks Tsukiko for more dates, but she finds that she's not attracted to him. Meeting with Kojima seems to tap into a whole wreath of nostalgic memories for the pair, although never does Tsukiko admit to ever having had a crush on sensei when she was at school, these passages see Tsukiko  acknowledging the passing of time and the tide of it washing her up on an unfamiliar shore, reminiscing and being with Kojima she observes, 'it seemed like we had ended up within a time that didn't exist anymore'. Tsukiko is a fascinating character study, there is ample room to discuss her psychology at length, it could be said that the reason she develops an attachment to sensei is that she sometimes appears to be in a fragile emotional state at finding herself in an onset of spiritual dilemma in the face of approaching her middle age, but in Kawakami's prose the story can also be read with all the innocence of being a simple love story, although albeit being a slightly unconventional one being one  that spans the generation gap, but this is the truer path of love. If this were a movie there are moments where it could be seen that Tsukiko is caught speaking directly into the camera, the narrative speaks out to us and sees Tsukiko ask the same questions the reader will find themselves asking, the answer perhaps lies in reading this fine translation.

The Briefcase/Sensei no kaban is translated by Allison Markin Powell and published by Counterpoint Press, the novel was awarded the Tanizaki Prize in 2001. The first chapter of The Briefcase, (The Moon and the Batteries), is available to read as a sampler at Granta's online site.

Manazuru

Manazuru, Hiromi Kawakami's first novel to appear in English, is translated by Michael Emmerich whose previous translations include novels from Yoshimoto Banana, Kawabata Yasunari and Yamada Taichi to name but a few, and is published by Counterpoint Press. It opens by following the observations of a woman who has travelled from Tokyo to a remote cape, (Manazuru), she checks in at an inn by the coast run by a mother and son, the son she estimates could be in his forties. In her room her thoughts turn to Seiji back in Tokyo. Inquiring about booking her room she has the feeling that the son's voice reminds her of someone, although she can't pinpoint exactly who. She hadn't actually intentionally travelled to this place, but finishing dinner with someone, on impulse she got on a train and got off at Manazuru. As she starts to piece together the ambiguous fragments of her situation, her history begins to unfurl, she has a daughter, Momo, at High School age, her husband, Rei, went missing twelve years ago, she lives with her widowed mother, and sometime starting in the recent past she has been in a relationship with Seiji, although she's kept their relationship a secret from the rest of her family.

 

As she sets off to walk to the cape, she gets the feeling that she's being followed, the present tense is punctured by recollections of her relationship with her husband, of watching silent movies together, his love of the sea, 'It's strange when his presence used to be so thick, when his sudden departure only made his presence thicker', she realizes of him. The prose reverses back to when Momo was a child and explores the relationship between mother daughter, she contemplated taking down the family name plate, Yanagimoto, after some years after her husband disappeared. Kawakami's prose through Emmerich's translation captures Kei's emotional fragility, her thoughts seem to follow lines caught within an undefined polarity, 'When the path ahead is still unformed, we loose all sense of our location', her uncertainty is defined again with her stating, 'The fear in me resembled the inability to tell upstream from downstream, to perceive the direction the water was going'. As Kei examines the effects of her husband's disappearance Kawakami's concerns come to the fore, the substance of the present, desire, love, memory, motherhood, the effects of recollection, loss, and the study of human relations between both, mother and daughter, wife and man. Kawakami seems to dismantle her prose, reducing it to near poetry, near the beginning of the book in a descriptive passage we're offered as a complete sentence, 'Chrysanthemum leaves and Shiitake.', taken by themselves they summon up exacting imagery, this allows her characters to unglue themselves from their circumstances to explore a much wider terrain, and later sentences are further reduced to sometimes consisting of one word, lending the prose a blend of stream of consciousness/ stream of recollection effect, but allowing us to sometimes pause to reflect as Kei pieces together her path to coming to a conclusion of what possibly drove her husband to disappear.

Kei seems reluctant to let go of her husband, or even the memory of him, 'I've heard that when you start to dream of what you have lost, it means the hurt is healing', she appears to be happy to endure this pain rather than let him go. Although Seiji knows about Rei, Kei's feelings for her vanished husband at times threaten to overspill into her relationship with Seiji, he manages to contain his feelings despite her fragility, 'When we embrace, I feel as though I am only the outline of my body... Two outlines almost fusing but without dissolving', she observes when they are together. What Kei felt as a presence following her at the beginning of the novel, takes the form of woman who she suspects maybe connected to Rei's disappearance, she begins to talk with this woman, although it's unclear what this ghostly woman represents, possibly the woman is a symptom of her loss?, but the two women grow a fondness for each other. Despite her sometimes erudite nature the woman guides Kei back to Manazuru, where an accident occurs, a boat being used for the local festival is engulfed by the chaos caused by a typhoon, and after what could be a brief sighting of Rei, there's a pursuit and dilemma of sorts arises. On her return the narrative skips between her relationship with Seiji and recollections of Momo as a child and the difference in Momo as she shows signs of growing up. A letter arrives from Rei's father informing her that he's resigned to the fact that Rei is dead, but for Kei his lingering presence is harder to free herself from. The novel's a mixture of startling abrupt imagery and questioning meditation on the nature of remembrance of things past and passing, losing and loss.

Manazuru at Counterpoint Press