My Post on Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
Parade:A Folk Tale by Hiromi Kawakami - 2002- translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell 2019-
In July of this year I read Hiromi Kawakami’s delightful novel Strange Weather in Tokyo. Strange Weather in Tokyo centers on the very slowly developing relationship between a single woman in her late thirties,Tsukiko, and one of her former high school teachers, Sensei,at least thirty years her senior. They run into each other in a bar by accident. They have frequent unarranged meet ups at the bar, which serves great food along with Saki and beer. She assumes he is a widower.
As time passes a shared love of food, proximity and their history brings them into a more intimate relationship.
This is a very subtly developed story line. Each character keeps things in reserve. Both are deeply lonely.
Parade is also about odd bonds formed to combat loneliness. Here it is with traditional Japanese spirit entities which can only be seen by one person or perhaps also their close companion. The entities have interesting personalities.
I found Parade a lot of fun to read. I do have one practical qualm. The projected Reading time is 55 minutes but 32 minutes are devoted to extracts from print reviews praising her other work. I obtained the Kindle edition on sale for $1.95, it is now back up to $6.95. Personally i would have felt taken advantage of had I paid that price.
HIROMI KAWAKAMI was born in Tokyo in 1958. Her first book, God (Kamisama), was published in 1994. In 1996, she was awarded the Akutagawa Prize for Tread on a Snake (Hebi o fumu), and in 2001 she won the Tanizaki Prize for her novel Strange Weather in Tokyo (Sensei no kaban), which was an international bestseller. The book was short-listed for the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize and the 2014 International Foreign Fiction Prize.
No comments:
Post a Comment