An intriguing introduction to a significant voice in contemporary Japanese fiction.
This pair of novellas, ably translated from the Japanese by Trowell, marks the English-language debut of celebrated author Kashimada.
In the first novella, Touring the Land of the Dead, a delicate, layered exploration of family, trauma, and memory, Natsuko and her husband, Taichi, board a train to a luxury seaside resort–turned–"cheap health retreat." Her wealthy grandparents frequented the resort on long-ago summer vacations with her mother, and Natsuko also visited the spot in its better days with her own parents, before her father was struck by a fatal disease that plunged the family into a poverty Natsuko's feckless mother could never imagine—much less work—her way out of. The trip is their first since Taichi became ill with a progressive neurological disorder not long after they married, leaving Natsuko to support them with her part-time job at a child care center. At the humbled hotel, "the past...[creeps] up on the present," rooting Natsuko in place as her mind's eye gazes back to the 8 mm films of her mother dancing as a child with her grandparents in the hotel's once-elegant, now empty salon. Natsuko contemplates how her mother's and brother's entitlement has only grown through their own diminishment, how they've exploited Natusko and Taichi to fortify their denial, and revisiting these memories opens Natsuko to a new understanding of her obligations, affections, and what might yet be possible. The second novella, Ninety-Nine Kisses, is told through Nanako, the youngest of four sisters who live with their mother in one of Tokyo's Shitamachi, its older, traditionally less affluent and less fashionable neighborhoods. When "a pretentious-looking outsider" lands in the area, apparently looking for inspiration as an aspiring filmmaker and, Nanako suspects, easy pickings among the neighborhood girls, the elder three sisters vie for his attention. But for Nanako, he holds no interest, and she's equally uninterested in what she sees as artificial divisions of class, worth, and the self. Sexually obsessed with her sisters, she views herself as inseparable from them, four parts of a single body. While this story links thematically to Touring the Land of the Dead through its portrayal of a family in unglamorous circumstances, uncertainty in one's sense of self, and aberrant manifestations of familial bonds, it doesn't quite rise to its rarefied level.
An intriguing introduction to a significant voice in contemporary Japanese fiction.Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-60945-651-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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