A rare delight—stories in stylish prose that do both entertain and move.
Uncharacteristically playful mix of stories from the late Japanese writer Dazai that celebrates quirky families and reinterprets old fairy tales.
Known more for his dark, self-absorbed autobiographical fiction (Self-Portraits, 1991), Dazai was also an innovative stylist who experimented with narrative techniques that would both move and entertain—an ambition more than realized in these pieces, first published in the late 1930's and early 40's in Japan. The first and last—"On Love and Beauty" and "Lanterns of Romance"—are stories-within-stories about a family with literary pretensions through whose veins "flowed an uncommon romanticism." Wealthy, well-educated, and bored, the members while away their tedium by telling serial stories—with each section reflecting the temperament and interests of the respective narrators. In the first story, the five siblings take the confused and intellectually pompous beginning of the youngest son and turn it into a wry tale of an aging professor's illusions of happiness. The last section is an inventive interpretation of Rapunzel, interrupted by descriptions of the family's reactions and comments, especially those of the grandfather, who, "plagued by a certain sense of guilt over his unorthodox behavior, had been making a concerted effort to get on the good side of everyone." The collection's title story is a reworking of an old Chinese legend in which an unhappily married man is shown true love by a magical crow. Other notables here—"The Chrysanthemum Spirit" and "the Mermaid and the Samurai"—are imaginative and gently humorous retellings of old fables in which, respectively, an obsessed gardener finds himself helped by a remarkable family; and death follows when a noble samurai's tale of a malevolent mermaid is not believed.
A rare delight—stories in stylish prose that do both entertain and move.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 4-77001-738-3
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Kodansha
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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