The Cat in the Coffin by Mariko Koike

Translated by Deborah Boliver Boehm, The Cat in the Coffin originally appeared in Japan back in 1990, Vertical Inc published the translation in 2009 along with an interesting Chip Kidd cover. It's a little surprising, traversing the internet, not to have stumbled upon reading lists of Japanese cat related fictions as the list now in translation must number quite a few, maybe that's something for another day, or maybe they are out there. The Cat in the Coffin is related as a narrative within a narrative, the main character, an aspiring artist, Masayo, takes a job as housekeeper to a successful artist - Goro Kawakubo. In exchange for housekeeping duties, she receives a weekly lesson from Goro as well as financial payments. Additionally Masayo acts as tutor to Goro's daughter Momoko, who after her mother Yuriko's death has become withdrawn, her only confidant and companion being her white cat, Lala.

As the novel progresses Masayo contemplates her relationship to Goro, his flamboyant reputation as a bit of a womaniser precedes him and the presence of a nearby American base seems to hang over the household, a relaxation of formalities and perhaps a certain degree of bohemianism is in the air. As well as these observations Masayo observes the world inhabited by Momoko and Lala and their excursions out to the barley fields that also surround the household, the special places they frequent amongst them an old out of use well. Through arty parties and sojurns the presence of Chinatsu enters the house which causes ripples amongst the already slightly estranged relationships, the centre of attention shifts to Lala, the object of a jealous affection and in some ways a miniature power struggle. With the suspicion that the cat is an embodiment of Yuriko things take a turn for the worse, or perhaps it could be said that things take a turn down the pathological path.

Whilst reading The Cat in the Coffin it could feel perhaps that the plotline leans toward feeling slightly formulaic, although there are some surprising twists when the rug of character identities is pulled beneath your feet, there remains enough curvatures to it to keep you hooked until the last pages, and throughout the prose retains it's darkly gothic tones. After reading that Koike's novel A Cappella translated by Juliet W. Carpenter, was recently adapted to film, (trailer), I'd like to turn that one next.  

The Cat in the Coffin at Vertical Inc         

Nocturne of Remembrance by Shichiri Nakayama

Amongst some interesting novels recently published from Vertical Inc. comes Nocturne of Remembrance, translated by Paul Rubin, a subtly dense and solid novel that dispenses with the usual sequential narratives seen in most crime novels, although opening with a gruesome murder, which is reminiscent of a scenario from one of Otsuichi's novels, the narrative reverts to the more formulaic when the main murder of the novel occurs in the Tsuda family, the character initially bridging these two story lines is Mikoshiba, who in the first is the guilty party, but in the second has progressed to a lawyer of renown with slightly maverick tendencies who takes up the case, although a big mystery hangs over his motives for taking on the case as he stands not to profit greatly, perhaps it's for free publicity, purposively the enigma remains throughout the novel until it's final pages.

After the initial description of the murder, on the surface a simple case - Akiko confesses to murdering her husband, Shingo, in the shower, the novel is largely taken up in describing Mikoshiba's day to day, and exploring his reputation and standing within his profession, eventually we see him beginning to re-investigate the case which he is taking up after the previous defence it appears was lacklustre in it's efforts. The narrative of the novel begins to find it's footing and adopts a more familiar gear after a hundred pages or so when beginning to explore Shingo and Akiko's relationship and circumstance leading up to his murder, describing Shingo being laid off from his job and falling into debt after becoming a 'shut in' and dabbling with online investing. In turn Akiko becomes estranged from her husband and his abusive and violent behaviour and his unwillingness to improve his situation, she turns her affections to a male colleague at work, but is the depth of this relationship imaginary and exists purely in her head on her part?. Over a number of pages the reader becomes embroiled with the setting up of what appears to be an obvious motive on Akiko's part, through Mikoshiba's repeated musings aspects of the case are gone over and the portrait of a familial disintegration emerges, but perhaps motives are seen only in half light, Nakayama's control of the direction of his prose and of what we see is watertight.

Without wanting to include spoilers, the full progress of Nocturne of Remembrance is a difficult one to relate in it's entirety, it repulses and fascinates in equal measure but at it's end you have to admire Nakayama's ability at diverting your attention and of hiding, perhaps you could say burying  the significant details that connects the various strands of this deftly constructed novel, the book does include one of the lead characters suffering a rare phobia - Aichmophobia, which stretches the boundaries of belief to a certain degree, but it's necessary, and before you know it you're reading a disturbing and bleak story of strange redemption stemming from a very dark starting point, where most of the participants shoulder various degrees and differing strains of guilt and which has journeyed, unflinchingly, through a whole trope of domestic dysfunction(s), Nakayama, it feels like is holding a mirror up to the darkest side of humanity.


Nocturne of Remembrance at Vertical Inc

Sayonara, Gangsters

 

A novel I've wanted to read for quite a while but somehow hadn't got around to reading, Sayonara,Gangsters/ Sayounara Gyangu-tachi was published in Japan in 1982, translated by Michael Emmerich and published in English by Vertical Inc. The narrative of the book sometimes reminding me of Vonnegut and sometimes of Flann O'Brien's 1939 novel At Swim Two Birds, it blends surrealism, meta fiction, metaphor into a fantastic mix, the novel offers up many amusing scenes, and many unexpected twists and turns, including the poet Virgil as a refrigerator, an object called 'Some Incomprehensible Thing', (whose actions are incomprehensible to itself), a suicidal Ferris wheel, a security guard who doesn't know if he's working in a hospital or a hotel, to name but a few. The main protagonist is a teacher of poetry, the opening scenario is that of an assassination..by bubblegum, and then were introduced to a world set in what could be the future, a time though when you could change your name at the local city hall, everyone seemed to be doing it, although to change your name unofficially could have deadly consequences, a classmate of the narrator names himself, and the name kills him.Were also told about 'the gangsters' a notorious criminal gang. The poetry teacher meets a woman who he names The Nakajimi Miyuki Songbook, she has a cat called Henry IV, she hands him a piece on which she has written, Sayonara, Gangsters and explains that she used ,'to be a gangster but not anymore,so Sayonara,Gangsters is my name'. He recalls the time he met the gangsters, (in a bank raid), and takes us back to the time before he met Song Book, he had worked at a production line in a factory. He lived with a woman at this time and they had a daughter, who he calls Caraway but her mother calls Green Pinky.

He describes the Poetry School he teaches at, which used to have tens of thousands of students, when asked to describe his job he explains 'I do almost nothing here. Pressed to explain, I might say that my job is conducting traffic'. A visit from a Jovian (someone from Jupiter), who points out differences between concepts of death and time, pointing out that on Jupiter 'we have a time whose quantity is not fixed'. Takahashi's prose has a rolling snowball quality to it, often something alluded to in one chapter or paragraph will feature prominently in the following one,which throws together seemingly unrelated scenarios and objects to great effect, usually ending in philosophical reflection, and sometimes just abruptly coming to an end, which gives the narrative alot of buoyancy. The gangsters make an appearance again nearer the end of the novel when four of them turn up and demand a poetry lesson, one of them begs Songbook to return to the fold, they're poetry lesson seems to give way to being an inquiry into the ethics of 'gangsterism', but the encounter ends up being a decisive shoot out with the police.Comparisons with Murakami Haruki are inevitable, maybe Takahashi's has his foot pressed a little harder on the acceleration pedal. But like many reviews I've read of this novel, to try and sum it up would be inadequate to describe this intriguing reading experience.

Vertical Inc