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Woman Running in the Mountains
Pregnant and unmarried, Takiko, who lives at home with her violent, alcoholic father and her hard-working mother, discovers the true meaning of love, growing up, and maturity after she bears a son
275 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
125 people are currently reading
8117 people want to read
About the author
Yūko Tsushima
53 books663 followersYūko Tsushima 津島 佑子 is the pen name of Satoko Tsushima, a contemporary Japanese fiction writer, essayist and critic. She is the daughter of famed novelist Osamu Dazai, who died when she was one year old. She is considered "one of the most important Japanese writers of her generation" (The New York Times).
She has won many major literary prizes, including the Kawabata for "The Silent Traders," one of the stories in The Shooting Gallery, and the Tanizaki for Mountain of Fire. Her early fiction, from which The Shooting Gallery is drawn, was largely based on her experience as a single mother.
Her multilayered narrative techniques have increasingly taken inspiration from the Ainu oral epics (yukar) and the tales of premodern Japan.
When invited to teach Japanese literature to graduate students in Paris, she taught the yukar, and her seminar led to the publication of Tombent, tombent les gouttes d’argent: Chants du peuple aïnou (1996), the first French edition of the epic poems.
Tsushima is active in networks such as the Japan-India Writers’ Caravans and dialogues with Korean and Chinese writers. Recent novels have been set in Taiwan during Japanese colonial rule, among the Kyrgyz, in medieval Nara, and in post-3/11 Tokyo. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages.
She has won many major literary prizes, including the Kawabata for "The Silent Traders," one of the stories in The Shooting Gallery, and the Tanizaki for Mountain of Fire. Her early fiction, from which The Shooting Gallery is drawn, was largely based on her experience as a single mother.
Her multilayered narrative techniques have increasingly taken inspiration from the Ainu oral epics (yukar) and the tales of premodern Japan.
When invited to teach Japanese literature to graduate students in Paris, she taught the yukar, and her seminar led to the publication of Tombent, tombent les gouttes d’argent: Chants du peuple aïnou (1996), the first French edition of the epic poems.
Tsushima is active in networks such as the Japan-India Writers’ Caravans and dialogues with Korean and Chinese writers. Recent novels have been set in Taiwan during Japanese colonial rule, among the Kyrgyz, in medieval Nara, and in post-3/11 Tokyo. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 275 reviews
August 26, 2020
The story is set Tokyo in the 1970’s. A young woman is pregnant by a married man. She has screaming matches with her parents but refuses to have an abortion or to give the baby up for adoption. This was extremely unusual in Japan at the time. We are told in a footnote that in 1980 the rate of births outside of marriage was less than 1% while in the US it was 18%. (I looked it up: in 2020 the figures are around 3% and 40% in the two countries.)
Her family situation is focused around a peculiar kind of abuse. (She’s around 20 years old when the story starts.) She and her alcoholic father, a small man, have knock-down, dragged-out fist fights including wresting, hair pulling and bloody noses. Her mother screams while this goes on and eventually her teen-aged brother, larger than her father, separates them. Even after she has had her baby she ends up in the emergency room for injuries one night. She survives in the house because he’s away most of the day drinking. She avoids her farther and keeps to her room with the baby. So I added this book to new shelf I called “Abuse.”
The situation damages her relationship with her mother. Her mother has to work to keep the family going financially. The young woman flies into rages at her mother: “I’ll tell him you wanted to kill him.” Yet she understands when her mother in conversation refers to her as “someone like you.”
So it’s a story of this woman suffering social and economic hardship, abuse and loneliness. We read a lot of detail about her difficulties with crap jobs (waitressing, door-to-door cosmetic sales) that don’t give her enough money to pay for daycare. She never contacts the father for financial assistance. The story reminds me of another book by this author that I read and reviewed, Territory of Light. The woman in that story is also raising a child on her own and also refuses to accept help from the father.
The book is clearly an early Japanese feminist work. She applies for a job at a plant nursery when she sees a “male only wanted” sign posted. She gets the job. Of her all-male co-workers, many her age, she chooses to become romantically involved, again, with an older married man. She feels a camaraderie with this man because he is a loving father to a child with Down’s syndrome and she feels that her child is similarly handicapped by his birth status.
I think we are intended to conclude that the young woman is looking for a father figure. While she has occasional sex in stolen moments with a man her age, the father of her child was an older married man who moved away from Tokyo.
I liked the story but the writing is far from stellar. It’s pretty much straight-forward narrative and not very literary. There are no deep philosophical insights or passages that I would highlight. The first quarter of the book is a narrative of her six days in the hospital to deliver the baby and it drags a bit. So, 3.5 which I will round up to 4.0.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the author (1947-2016). Tsushima's work is often characterized as feminist, though she did not apply this label to her own work. Her writing explores the lives of marginalized people, usually women, who struggle for control of their own lives against societal and family pressures. Unlike many of her contemporaries, whose writing about women tended to assume a nuclear family, Tsushima wrote about women who had been abandoned by family members. Her stories, several of which draw on her own experience as a single mother, focus on the psychological impact of abandonment on those left behind.
(Here’s an LOL: I always get a little stir when I look up an author and see that they were born in the same year as me and have passed away. Ok, maybe not an LOL.)
Top photo from theatlantic.com
Neighborhood in Tokyo from sugoii-japan.com
The author from covers.openlibrary.org
Her family situation is focused around a peculiar kind of abuse. (She’s around 20 years old when the story starts.) She and her alcoholic father, a small man, have knock-down, dragged-out fist fights including wresting, hair pulling and bloody noses. Her mother screams while this goes on and eventually her teen-aged brother, larger than her father, separates them. Even after she has had her baby she ends up in the emergency room for injuries one night. She survives in the house because he’s away most of the day drinking. She avoids her farther and keeps to her room with the baby. So I added this book to new shelf I called “Abuse.”
The situation damages her relationship with her mother. Her mother has to work to keep the family going financially. The young woman flies into rages at her mother: “I’ll tell him you wanted to kill him.” Yet she understands when her mother in conversation refers to her as “someone like you.”
So it’s a story of this woman suffering social and economic hardship, abuse and loneliness. We read a lot of detail about her difficulties with crap jobs (waitressing, door-to-door cosmetic sales) that don’t give her enough money to pay for daycare. She never contacts the father for financial assistance. The story reminds me of another book by this author that I read and reviewed, Territory of Light. The woman in that story is also raising a child on her own and also refuses to accept help from the father.
The book is clearly an early Japanese feminist work. She applies for a job at a plant nursery when she sees a “male only wanted” sign posted. She gets the job. Of her all-male co-workers, many her age, she chooses to become romantically involved, again, with an older married man. She feels a camaraderie with this man because he is a loving father to a child with Down’s syndrome and she feels that her child is similarly handicapped by his birth status.
I think we are intended to conclude that the young woman is looking for a father figure. While she has occasional sex in stolen moments with a man her age, the father of her child was an older married man who moved away from Tokyo.
I liked the story but the writing is far from stellar. It’s pretty much straight-forward narrative and not very literary. There are no deep philosophical insights or passages that I would highlight. The first quarter of the book is a narrative of her six days in the hospital to deliver the baby and it drags a bit. So, 3.5 which I will round up to 4.0.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the author (1947-2016). Tsushima's work is often characterized as feminist, though she did not apply this label to her own work. Her writing explores the lives of marginalized people, usually women, who struggle for control of their own lives against societal and family pressures. Unlike many of her contemporaries, whose writing about women tended to assume a nuclear family, Tsushima wrote about women who had been abandoned by family members. Her stories, several of which draw on her own experience as a single mother, focus on the psychological impact of abandonment on those left behind.
(Here’s an LOL: I always get a little stir when I look up an author and see that they were born in the same year as me and have passed away. Ok, maybe not an LOL.)
Top photo from theatlantic.com
Neighborhood in Tokyo from sugoii-japan.com
The author from covers.openlibrary.org
December 1, 2021
Set in Tokyo in the 1970s, Yūko Tsushima’s i-novel is a deceptively simple, slice-of-life piece. Originally published in serial form, it traces a year in the life of a young woman, Takiko Odaka, beginning as she’s about to give birth. Takiko’s an unmarried mother at a time when single mothers were rare in her society, automatically stigmatised. Her mother begs her to have an abortion, and later to give the child away but Takiko, for reasons she can’t explain, is determined to raise her son. She returns to her cramped family home, where she’s the preferred target of her alcoholic father’s violent outbursts, and struggles to find a way to carve out a space in the world for herself and her baby. As Takiko paces the local streets looking for work, she’s overwhelmed with visions of the mountains where her mother grew up, suddenly overtaken by the sensation of being filled with light or bathed in the warmth of the sun, somehow made whole. Although it’s an exceptionally convincing, realist narrative, Takiko’s story’s frequently punctuated by scenes centred on her dreams and fantasies, the manifestation of her deep-felt longing for freedom and intimate connection. It’s a deftly-told piece, direct and immediate, yet laced with images of incredible beauty and quiet grace. Smoothly translated by Geraldine Harcourt, this NYRB edition also features an introduction by Lauren Groff that places Tsushima’s novel in the context of her life and wider body of work.
Many thanks to Edelweiss and publisher NYRB Classics for an arc
Rating: 4.5/5
Many thanks to Edelweiss and publisher NYRB Classics for an arc
Rating: 4.5/5
April 12, 2023
4.5
Though it might seem as if the protagonist is passive in the beginning, I didn’t find her completely so. She finds ways to be alone, away from her abusive father and her judgmental mother, in order to do things the way she wants, starting with her walking to the hospital for the birth of her baby.
The 2o-year-old single mother takes care of her baby's needs in an unthinkingly dutiful way, trying to find affordable daycare while she looks for a job; coping with the costs and demands of daycare, including filling out forms describing her baby’s activities when he’s with her in a tiny storage room for a bedroom. At this juncture, she’s sleepwalking through her days and her plans for the future seem unrealistic to the reader, but her (day)dreams are what sustain her. She's ready to wake up, and a new job and new people are instrumental.
On the surface the novel might seem “just” the perfect rendering of a young single mother, and it is that. But there’s much more, including visceral prose that makes you feel the cramped interiors, the freer outside, the heat, the rain, the look and smell of trees, and the touch of bodies.
Though it might seem as if the protagonist is passive in the beginning, I didn’t find her completely so. She finds ways to be alone, away from her abusive father and her judgmental mother, in order to do things the way she wants, starting with her walking to the hospital for the birth of her baby.
The 2o-year-old single mother takes care of her baby's needs in an unthinkingly dutiful way, trying to find affordable daycare while she looks for a job; coping with the costs and demands of daycare, including filling out forms describing her baby’s activities when he’s with her in a tiny storage room for a bedroom. At this juncture, she’s sleepwalking through her days and her plans for the future seem unrealistic to the reader, but her (day)dreams are what sustain her. She's ready to wake up, and a new job and new people are instrumental.
On the surface the novel might seem “just” the perfect rendering of a young single mother, and it is that. But there’s much more, including visceral prose that makes you feel the cramped interiors, the freer outside, the heat, the rain, the look and smell of trees, and the touch of bodies.
July 4, 2025
Takiko Odaka is a young pregnant woman making her way to the hospital on a warm midsummer's day in 1970s Japan at the start of the novel. Her child's father is not in the picture. She has, against all odds, decided to continue with the pregnancy and raise the child on her own going against societal expectations and even the advice of her mother and father, both of whom, in their own ways, abuse Takiko. She is resilient, determined, and ready for a change. Over the course of the novel we watch her navigate the first year of motherhood, seeking to make something of her life and resist the constraints she feels from the things passed down to and pushed on her by those she encounters.
I found the writing style in this to be absolutely breathtaking. There are these almost surreal, dreamlike moments of Takiko picturing a snowy landscape pocked with men riding sleds up in the mountains from where her mother comes. Though Takiko has never been there, this image and place becomes a sort of mental escape for her in her daily life, serving as a reminder that we can always change our scenery and seek out the things that make us feel light and free. She wants to run wild in the mountains, to be among nature and escape the concerns of city life, motherhood and responsibility, but she isn't naive to the realities of her situation. It's merely a way for her to cope with her life in between moments of stress and anxiety.
Simple and mundane, the story doesn't go for big swings but accurately depicts the life of a strong-willed but constrained young woman in a time and place that expected her to dream small and stay small. Takiko is anything but that.
I found the writing style in this to be absolutely breathtaking. There are these almost surreal, dreamlike moments of Takiko picturing a snowy landscape pocked with men riding sleds up in the mountains from where her mother comes. Though Takiko has never been there, this image and place becomes a sort of mental escape for her in her daily life, serving as a reminder that we can always change our scenery and seek out the things that make us feel light and free. She wants to run wild in the mountains, to be among nature and escape the concerns of city life, motherhood and responsibility, but she isn't naive to the realities of her situation. It's merely a way for her to cope with her life in between moments of stress and anxiety.
Simple and mundane, the story doesn't go for big swings but accurately depicts the life of a strong-willed but constrained young woman in a time and place that expected her to dream small and stay small. Takiko is anything but that.
August 28, 2021
i love all the men writing reviews like this book is just a boring prose piece about a single mom when this is part of tsushima’s life-long oeuvre on the gendered ontological roles of light, transparency, and nature LOL
May 26, 2022
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3 ¼ stars
This is my second novel by Yūko Tsushima and I’m happy to I appreciated it a lot more than Territory of Light. While both works explore single-motherhood in 1970s Japan, Woman Running in the Mountains struck me as far more accomplished. This is a very introspective narrative that examines the repercussions of motherhood on a young woman named Takiko. From detailing the changes her body experiences during her pregnancy to interrogating how her sense of self has been irrevocably changed after she’s given birth to her son, Takiko engages in a long act of self-examination. We see how her shifting self-perception is affected by her being a mother and the numbness, exhaustion, and anxiety that overcome her as she tries to raise her son in a very conservative country. The father of her child is a married man and has no idea Takiko has given birth to their child. Takiko’s parents are deeply ashamed of her and physically and emotionally mistreat her. During the last months of her pregnancy, her mother insists that she should either get an abortion or give her baby up for adoption. Her father, who after a work injury stays all day at home drinking, who even prior to her pregnancy was verbally and physically abusive towards her, becomes increasingly hostile towards Takiko. Her younger brother is perhaps the only member of her family who doesn’t seek to shame and or punish Takiko but he also seems unwilling to involve himself in her ongoing fight with their parents.
After she’s given birth Takiko struggles to find a daycare and is often forced to act as if she’s married in order not to face discrimination. She eventually finds a job and attempts to save enough money to leave her parents’ house.
Despite the heavy themes Woman Running in the Mountains is marked by a lulling rhythm, one that lends an idyllic quality to the narrative. Takiko is particularly attuned to her environment and she describes in vivid detail the changing seasons and the sceneries of her city (from the maternity ward to her cramped family house, to the neighbourhoods she crosses). Her ability to recollect her dreams also adds to the evocative atmosphere of her narrative.
Towards the end, the story lost me a little and I did grow tired of the lists detailing Takiko’s baby routine (i have no interest in newborns or small children). Still, I found this a deeply atmospheric read and there were many gorgeous descriptions of Takiko’s various environments. The motif of light was particularly striking and it really complimented Takiko’s narrative.
Not a happy book but certainly an arresting one. The dreamlike vibe was certainly hypnotic and the scenes capturing Takiko's every day gave the narrative a slice-of-life feel.
3 ¼ stars
This is my second novel by Yūko Tsushima and I’m happy to I appreciated it a lot more than Territory of Light. While both works explore single-motherhood in 1970s Japan, Woman Running in the Mountains struck me as far more accomplished. This is a very introspective narrative that examines the repercussions of motherhood on a young woman named Takiko. From detailing the changes her body experiences during her pregnancy to interrogating how her sense of self has been irrevocably changed after she’s given birth to her son, Takiko engages in a long act of self-examination. We see how her shifting self-perception is affected by her being a mother and the numbness, exhaustion, and anxiety that overcome her as she tries to raise her son in a very conservative country. The father of her child is a married man and has no idea Takiko has given birth to their child. Takiko’s parents are deeply ashamed of her and physically and emotionally mistreat her. During the last months of her pregnancy, her mother insists that she should either get an abortion or give her baby up for adoption. Her father, who after a work injury stays all day at home drinking, who even prior to her pregnancy was verbally and physically abusive towards her, becomes increasingly hostile towards Takiko. Her younger brother is perhaps the only member of her family who doesn’t seek to shame and or punish Takiko but he also seems unwilling to involve himself in her ongoing fight with their parents.
After she’s given birth Takiko struggles to find a daycare and is often forced to act as if she’s married in order not to face discrimination. She eventually finds a job and attempts to save enough money to leave her parents’ house.
Despite the heavy themes Woman Running in the Mountains is marked by a lulling rhythm, one that lends an idyllic quality to the narrative. Takiko is particularly attuned to her environment and she describes in vivid detail the changing seasons and the sceneries of her city (from the maternity ward to her cramped family house, to the neighbourhoods she crosses). Her ability to recollect her dreams also adds to the evocative atmosphere of her narrative.
Towards the end, the story lost me a little and I did grow tired of the lists detailing Takiko’s baby routine (i have no interest in newborns or small children). Still, I found this a deeply atmospheric read and there were many gorgeous descriptions of Takiko’s various environments. The motif of light was particularly striking and it really complimented Takiko’s narrative.
Not a happy book but certainly an arresting one. The dreamlike vibe was certainly hypnotic and the scenes capturing Takiko's every day gave the narrative a slice-of-life feel.
December 2, 2025
I read Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human five years ago and this month, I picked up his daughter's Woman Running in the Mountains without knowing the connection. Oh, the mystique of the written word. Dazai, a celebrated novelist, committed suicide when his daughter was a year old. Yūko Tsushima's (or Satoko Tsushima, which is her real name) novel has traces of abandonment and underscores single motherhood, as she was raised by a single mother and herself became a single mother.
Takiko is a young woman who has an affair with a married man and becomes pregnant. The opening scenes consist of her in labor and as the story develops, she tries to find a daycare center, a job, and a place in the world where she can be herself, "tough and free to move." Her baby helps her escape the suffocation she feels at home; getting pregnant is the way she forges a path for herself that she could not see before, but it is also the way she rebels against an abusive father. It is about feeling trapped in one's body, feeling trapped in one's way of life, feeling trapped as a single mother in a society that shuns a pregnant, unmarried woman. She finds escape in the landscapes around her.
Tsushima uses visual and tactile imagery that lures. Some descriptions are puzzling, yet the writing successfully depicts Takiko's internal and external worlds. The prose is lucid, although there are irrelevant details throughout that detract from the lyricism and pacing. Takiko finds Misawa Gardens, where she works with greenery: "Day by day, Takiko felt herself taking on the simplicity of their greenness." Green is the color that molds her: it represents the mountains, represents freedom, represents falling in love, represents a world where she can be who she wants to be. Green is an "excess rapidly rising in her own body." It becomes clear that hers is a search for love: romantic love and the love that only one's child can provide.
Takiko is a young woman who has an affair with a married man and becomes pregnant. The opening scenes consist of her in labor and as the story develops, she tries to find a daycare center, a job, and a place in the world where she can be herself, "tough and free to move." Her baby helps her escape the suffocation she feels at home; getting pregnant is the way she forges a path for herself that she could not see before, but it is also the way she rebels against an abusive father. It is about feeling trapped in one's body, feeling trapped in one's way of life, feeling trapped as a single mother in a society that shuns a pregnant, unmarried woman. She finds escape in the landscapes around her.
There were no mountain shadows on the skyline. No pale blue mountains or glinting horse-shaped traces of snow. These weren't vineyards of flashing white-backed leaves rustling beneath her gaze. And she wasn't standing on a mountainside where the grapevines crept upward like a giant creature. But she felt as though she was—that she stood in the place she'd pictured so often from her mother's stories of home. She sensed the cold, crystalline hardness of its quartz. As if she were trapped inside a crystal. A hexagonal crystal of rock quartz. A girl in the mountains surrounded more bountifully by grapes and quartz and sky than anyone else on earth. Beautiful things that trapped her in solitude. How fondly she would remember the girl she'd been.
Tsushima uses visual and tactile imagery that lures. Some descriptions are puzzling, yet the writing successfully depicts Takiko's internal and external worlds. The prose is lucid, although there are irrelevant details throughout that detract from the lyricism and pacing. Takiko finds Misawa Gardens, where she works with greenery: "Day by day, Takiko felt herself taking on the simplicity of their greenness." Green is the color that molds her: it represents the mountains, represents freedom, represents falling in love, represents a world where she can be who she wants to be. Green is an "excess rapidly rising in her own body." It becomes clear that hers is a search for love: romantic love and the love that only one's child can provide.
February 22, 2022
This is a fierce piece of psychological feminine literature, a portrait of womanhood and motherhood in 1970's Japan.
Set in Tokyo, Woman Running In The Mountains follows Takiko Odaka a young, unmarried, pregnant woman. After a brief affair she become pregnant and refused to give the baby up, much to the dismay of her parents and society who treat her with misery and shame. Her first year of motherhood is tough, there are many ups and downs, she is lonely, and had hoped the baby would be her salvation but the pressures of motherhood are vexing. Money and childcare are an issue as well so she lives with her parents but her father is an angry, abusive alcoholic, and her relationship with her mother is strained. Takiko finds herself drawn to the mountains, their beauty and serenity, offerings of contentment and freedom.
One of my favorite subjects to read about is motherhood and Tsushima's storytelling captured me at once! This was originally written in a serialized form, capturing the first year of single motherhood in a time when there wasn't many single Japanese mothers. Her writing transcends and was so ahead of it's time. I felt Takiko's anguish of everybody mothering, her needs and desires for freedom for beauty. If you can't tell already, I absolutely loved this book!
I also found all the influence and imagery of nature and it's connection to the story so beautifully done. While reading this I found myself drawn to the author, researching her life, (which was facinating) and her other books which I want to read more of now.
This beautiful edition is out in the world today! Thank You to NYRB for sending me this book it's one I wont soon forget!
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
Set in Tokyo, Woman Running In The Mountains follows Takiko Odaka a young, unmarried, pregnant woman. After a brief affair she become pregnant and refused to give the baby up, much to the dismay of her parents and society who treat her with misery and shame. Her first year of motherhood is tough, there are many ups and downs, she is lonely, and had hoped the baby would be her salvation but the pressures of motherhood are vexing. Money and childcare are an issue as well so she lives with her parents but her father is an angry, abusive alcoholic, and her relationship with her mother is strained. Takiko finds herself drawn to the mountains, their beauty and serenity, offerings of contentment and freedom.
One of my favorite subjects to read about is motherhood and Tsushima's storytelling captured me at once! This was originally written in a serialized form, capturing the first year of single motherhood in a time when there wasn't many single Japanese mothers. Her writing transcends and was so ahead of it's time. I felt Takiko's anguish of everybody mothering, her needs and desires for freedom for beauty. If you can't tell already, I absolutely loved this book!
I also found all the influence and imagery of nature and it's connection to the story so beautifully done. While reading this I found myself drawn to the author, researching her life, (which was facinating) and her other books which I want to read more of now.
This beautiful edition is out in the world today! Thank You to NYRB for sending me this book it's one I wont soon forget!
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
August 14, 2024
Of single parenting and early motherhood; so emotionally dramatic and intense but quite neatly plotted for the theme. Utterly loved the execution that I was easily drowned in Takiko’s tale since its earliest chapters following the journey of her unexpected pregnancy after a brief affair with a married man and the pressure she has to endure from her mother who keeps asking her to abort as well those physical violence and harassment from her alcoholic and abusive father.
It was both distressing and affecting to delve into Takiko’s perspective; her stubbornness and flaws at times irked me yet it grasped me with empathy to understand her stance of wanting to stand on her own in raising Akira despite her immaturity and lack of supports. Those day-to-day were a strive; of finding the right job to dealing with her own solitude and hopelessness, it charmed me somehow of how she was so keen in surviving and actually cared for Akira a lot.
From that midsummer night of going through the labor pains alone to getting past the winter with a new found friendship and a job at the Misawa Gardens (loved this part the most although that fragment of love fling spooked me a bit), it was an enchanting premise all in all to me. Quite impressed too on how the author could relate that gaze on patriarchal, parenting and both marriage and relationship issues to be as relatable as the present-day concerns despite the plot being set in 1970s.
Another fav from Tsushima to my list!
It was both distressing and affecting to delve into Takiko’s perspective; her stubbornness and flaws at times irked me yet it grasped me with empathy to understand her stance of wanting to stand on her own in raising Akira despite her immaturity and lack of supports. Those day-to-day were a strive; of finding the right job to dealing with her own solitude and hopelessness, it charmed me somehow of how she was so keen in surviving and actually cared for Akira a lot.
From that midsummer night of going through the labor pains alone to getting past the winter with a new found friendship and a job at the Misawa Gardens (loved this part the most although that fragment of love fling spooked me a bit), it was an enchanting premise all in all to me. Quite impressed too on how the author could relate that gaze on patriarchal, parenting and both marriage and relationship issues to be as relatable as the present-day concerns despite the plot being set in 1970s.
Another fav from Tsushima to my list!
January 8, 2026
Daha önce yazarın ‘Köpeklere ve Duvarlara Dair’ ve ‘Işığın Alanı’ başlıklı kitaplarını okumuştum. Bu eserinde de tıpkı diğer iki eserinde olduğu gibi anne/çocuk, bekar/yalnız anneler, yalnızlık, sevgi arayışı, ekonomik sıkıntılar ve aile için sorunlar, kadınlık halleri gibi konulara incelikle yaklaşıyor. Bu anlatımı da, merkezine koyduğu yeni doğan bir bebeğin bir yıllık yaşam süresi içerisinde yaşanan zorlukları temel alarak yapıyor.
Babası Osamu Dazai’nin aksine romanlarında, karşılaştığı sorunlardan kaçmak yerine mücadele etmeyi tercih eden karakterler yer alıyor. Bu anlamda pozitif duygular ve umut olasılığının bu kadar güzel işlenmesini seviyorum. Sanırım bu, yazarın en sevdiğim yönünü oluşturuyor.
‘Işığın Alanı’nda da, bu eserinde de ışığın ve manzaraların, duygulardaki değişime paralel nasıl değişebildiği çok güzel ifade ediliyor.
Babası Osamu Dazai’nin aksine romanlarında, karşılaştığı sorunlardan kaçmak yerine mücadele etmeyi tercih eden karakterler yer alıyor. Bu anlamda pozitif duygular ve umut olasılığının bu kadar güzel işlenmesini seviyorum. Sanırım bu, yazarın en sevdiğim yönünü oluşturuyor.
‘Işığın Alanı’nda da, bu eserinde de ışığın ve manzaraların, duygulardaki değişime paralel nasıl değişebildiği çok güzel ifade ediliyor.
June 20, 2024
woman running in the mountains is a beautifully written account of a year in the life of a single mother, takiko, and her newborn son, akira. it begins with 20-year-old takiko going to the hospital to give birth on her own on a sweltering midsummer day, and we see her struggle against all odds to raise her son on her own. due to the rarity of children raised outside of a marriage in japan, she faces intense criticism and abuse from her family, whom she must stay with as she searches for a way to make a living and find childcare.
she grapples with feeling ambivalent towards motherhood while also drawing from a great will for both herself and her son to survive. we see how little progress has been made economically since this was written - it is impossible for takiko to pay for a home of her own and afford childcare at the same time. she also explores her desire for a married coworker, who she bonds with as they discuss their children. she sees him as a sort of mirror and stand-in for a father figure, potentially for both herself and her son.
i really enjoyed the writing style in this, as i typically do with works translated from the japanese. beautiful and descriptive without being overly flowery or hard to understand. what really struck me was the descriptions of light and greenery that can be found throughout the book, and the way they interact with each other - very shimmery and ethereal and just wonderful to read.
i do think it could've been a bit shorter as it was repetitive at times, but then again, life itself is repetitive, especially when you’re trying to find your footing within the world of work and domestic life. this was a really great read as the weather heats up, and it was a nice complement to the other motherhood-centric books i’ve been reading, as there was the unique element of pushback from takiko’s family on her decision to keep her child. i also have a copy of tsushima’s novel territory of light and am looking forward to reading more from her!
”Squinting at its brightness, Takiko descended the slope. The sun was shining directly before her, full onto her body. She smiled. No one was aware of her joy at this instant - not her mother, not her father, not a soul. She didn't think there could be any moment more luxurious than this. The sunlight felt good on her body. A hot midsummer's day was about to begin.“
she grapples with feeling ambivalent towards motherhood while also drawing from a great will for both herself and her son to survive. we see how little progress has been made economically since this was written - it is impossible for takiko to pay for a home of her own and afford childcare at the same time. she also explores her desire for a married coworker, who she bonds with as they discuss their children. she sees him as a sort of mirror and stand-in for a father figure, potentially for both herself and her son.
i really enjoyed the writing style in this, as i typically do with works translated from the japanese. beautiful and descriptive without being overly flowery or hard to understand. what really struck me was the descriptions of light and greenery that can be found throughout the book, and the way they interact with each other - very shimmery and ethereal and just wonderful to read.
i do think it could've been a bit shorter as it was repetitive at times, but then again, life itself is repetitive, especially when you’re trying to find your footing within the world of work and domestic life. this was a really great read as the weather heats up, and it was a nice complement to the other motherhood-centric books i’ve been reading, as there was the unique element of pushback from takiko’s family on her decision to keep her child. i also have a copy of tsushima’s novel territory of light and am looking forward to reading more from her!
”Squinting at its brightness, Takiko descended the slope. The sun was shining directly before her, full onto her body. She smiled. No one was aware of her joy at this instant - not her mother, not her father, not a soul. She didn't think there could be any moment more luxurious than this. The sunlight felt good on her body. A hot midsummer's day was about to begin.“
March 13, 2025
3.5 stars
This deceptively simple Japanese novel, published in 1980, really grew on me as it followed a “profoundly unheroic heroine” (in Lauren Groff’s words) through her first year as a single mother to an illegitimate baby.
It appears to be set in 1960s Tokyo, and 21-year-old Takiko is quite a character. Pregnant after a brief fling, she can’t even muster the energy to worry about it, though her mother wants her to get an abortion and her father slaps her around regularly. The only thing Takiko feels strongly about is doing things on her own terms, leaving at dawn to take herself to the hospital in labour, creating a life for herself away from her parents. But, unsurprisingly, stigma, discrimination and economic precarity test these wishes, and Takiko’s first year with baby Akira is spent at her parents’ house, trying to hold down odd jobs, attending nursery meetings and wandering the streets looking at the changing lights and shadows and dreaming of being a woman who can clutch the baby to her chest and run free on a mountain top. She also drinks a — truly inadvisable! — number of whiskies, falls in love with an inappropriate man, lives in her own head, watches plants grow and has dreams and visions involving snow, northbound ferries and Inuit people living on the ice.
Takiko can be pretty insufferable, and it’s not exactly a page-turner of a novel, but by the end I very much liked the sense of a complete world, fully realized, the views of skyscrapers, the mountains not in view but always in the inner eye, the return of light, the reminder of the cyclical nature of years and the small cyclones that are early years with a baby and the gradual expanding of consciousness to include the wider world again after months of tunnel vision.
This deceptively simple Japanese novel, published in 1980, really grew on me as it followed a “profoundly unheroic heroine” (in Lauren Groff’s words) through her first year as a single mother to an illegitimate baby.
It appears to be set in 1960s Tokyo, and 21-year-old Takiko is quite a character. Pregnant after a brief fling, she can’t even muster the energy to worry about it, though her mother wants her to get an abortion and her father slaps her around regularly. The only thing Takiko feels strongly about is doing things on her own terms, leaving at dawn to take herself to the hospital in labour, creating a life for herself away from her parents. But, unsurprisingly, stigma, discrimination and economic precarity test these wishes, and Takiko’s first year with baby Akira is spent at her parents’ house, trying to hold down odd jobs, attending nursery meetings and wandering the streets looking at the changing lights and shadows and dreaming of being a woman who can clutch the baby to her chest and run free on a mountain top. She also drinks a — truly inadvisable! — number of whiskies, falls in love with an inappropriate man, lives in her own head, watches plants grow and has dreams and visions involving snow, northbound ferries and Inuit people living on the ice.
Takiko can be pretty insufferable, and it’s not exactly a page-turner of a novel, but by the end I very much liked the sense of a complete world, fully realized, the views of skyscrapers, the mountains not in view but always in the inner eye, the return of light, the reminder of the cyclical nature of years and the small cyclones that are early years with a baby and the gradual expanding of consciousness to include the wider world again after months of tunnel vision.
July 14, 2022
'She had forgotten the sound of her own voice; she had forgotten her face and her body. Now and then a ray of light slanted in like a sunbeam through trees, bringing memories of herself in the outside world, and with them pain. Whenever this happened she went over to the window and gazed wide-eyed at the sky, the greenness of the woods that frothed at the foot of the building, and the rows of roofs that glared in the midsummer heat. She was drawn there by a haunting sense that these things were her body. She would gaze at its expanse, its brilliance. The sound of voices crying pulsated out there like a rainbow. Heartbeats reverberated, and desire. She wondered at the rainbow’s resonance. Then she would turn back to the roomful of sick children and let out the breath she’d been holding. Her fear of the voice that told her to give up seemed to have melted away.'
(p266-267)
(p266-267)
December 21, 2025
(4.5 rounded to 5) beautiful book about an incredibly flawed, incredibly human woman finding hope and beauty in a world that is begging her to give up.
November 23, 2023
The journal of little Akira's changing daily routines was delightful. I was sad when that plotline wrapped up with the move to the new nursery. The "mountain" sections toward the end of the novel reminded me of the movie Tokyo Story in that they took Takiko away into an almost idyllic -- but still real -- place that offered the promise of a life free of the dangers of her life in the city, which, just like in the movie, was where the connections among people felt temporary and easily broken.
Till the last page I found myself fearing that Takiko's father might hurt the baby and so I couldn't quite take in the mountain episode. This might be due to the timing of my reading: I picked up this book while expecting a baby myself, and there is an unshakable vigilance in my reading now. I might have missed certain aspects of storytelling here, poised as I was to scan the story for possible solutions to the mother and child's dilemmas -- for possibilities of achieving greater safety and a separation from threats. But that pulls the reading into a fairy-tale quest, and in real life babies arrive in all manner of circumstances and situations. Given the difficult hand she's been dealt, Tsushima's protagonist approaches challenges with greater serenity than this impatient reader.
Till the last page I found myself fearing that Takiko's father might hurt the baby and so I couldn't quite take in the mountain episode. This might be due to the timing of my reading: I picked up this book while expecting a baby myself, and there is an unshakable vigilance in my reading now. I might have missed certain aspects of storytelling here, poised as I was to scan the story for possible solutions to the mother and child's dilemmas -- for possibilities of achieving greater safety and a separation from threats. But that pulls the reading into a fairy-tale quest, and in real life babies arrive in all manner of circumstances and situations. Given the difficult hand she's been dealt, Tsushima's protagonist approaches challenges with greater serenity than this impatient reader.
January 17, 2023
Have you ever read a book that speaks to you? A book that touches the most vulnerable part of yourself? This is how I feel with Woman Running in the Mountains.
This is an astonishing book that narrated the experience of a young single mother named Takiko Odaka. The book is written from the moment Takiko was about to give birth (with little flashbacks of her pregnancy) to her life as a mother, which was at the time a single unmarried mother is rare and often stigmatized. Through ruminative narration, Yūko Tsushima explored the loneliness, self-doubt, and anxiety that Takiko experienced. This book captured the feelings really well, from Takiko’s thoughts to her struggle to raise her son. From the changes her body experienced during pregnancy to the sleepless nights where Akira, her son, couldn’t stop crying. I specifically wanted to mention the part where Akira was crying out loud but Takiko–exhausted–ignored him for a while until her mother scolded her to take care of him. It reminded me of a TikTok video where a mother locked herself in the bathroom due to the amount of stress she has while dealing with her toddler who couldn’t stop throwing tantrums; this is something everyone rarely talks about when they talk about motherhood. So to see the rawness, the exhausted feeling, was shown in the pages–it moved me.
Not to mention this book highlights the double role women have to play once they enter motherhood. Takiko struggled to balance her roles as both working woman and a mother, in which these two parts of herself often clashed and caused trouble in her workplace. Although, I admire her determination to raise Akira while reminding her family that they could stop pretending Akira was a blessing when they–especially her mother–wished Takiko to abort him.
Another thing I love from Woman Running in the Mountains is the vivid details of Takiko’s surroundings that makes the book feel atmospheric. You can feel the cold rain, the heat in Takiko’s cramped house, the dark cafe where Takiko was a regular–Yūko Tsushima didn’t miss every single detail that needed to be added in her book.
In a way, Woman Running in the Mountains is a timeless classic literature. Yūko Tsushima did not only write an important woman fiction, but she created a masterpiece that everyone should read at least once in their life.
This is an astonishing book that narrated the experience of a young single mother named Takiko Odaka. The book is written from the moment Takiko was about to give birth (with little flashbacks of her pregnancy) to her life as a mother, which was at the time a single unmarried mother is rare and often stigmatized. Through ruminative narration, Yūko Tsushima explored the loneliness, self-doubt, and anxiety that Takiko experienced. This book captured the feelings really well, from Takiko’s thoughts to her struggle to raise her son. From the changes her body experienced during pregnancy to the sleepless nights where Akira, her son, couldn’t stop crying. I specifically wanted to mention the part where Akira was crying out loud but Takiko–exhausted–ignored him for a while until her mother scolded her to take care of him. It reminded me of a TikTok video where a mother locked herself in the bathroom due to the amount of stress she has while dealing with her toddler who couldn’t stop throwing tantrums; this is something everyone rarely talks about when they talk about motherhood. So to see the rawness, the exhausted feeling, was shown in the pages–it moved me.
Not to mention this book highlights the double role women have to play once they enter motherhood. Takiko struggled to balance her roles as both working woman and a mother, in which these two parts of herself often clashed and caused trouble in her workplace. Although, I admire her determination to raise Akira while reminding her family that they could stop pretending Akira was a blessing when they–especially her mother–wished Takiko to abort him.
Another thing I love from Woman Running in the Mountains is the vivid details of Takiko’s surroundings that makes the book feel atmospheric. You can feel the cold rain, the heat in Takiko’s cramped house, the dark cafe where Takiko was a regular–Yūko Tsushima didn’t miss every single detail that needed to be added in her book.
In a way, Woman Running in the Mountains is a timeless classic literature. Yūko Tsushima did not only write an important woman fiction, but she created a masterpiece that everyone should read at least once in their life.
February 23, 2023
A deeply felt novel about reconciling oneself with the world in the midst of an unplanned pregnancy in a time and place that shunned single mothers. Yūko Tsushima's Woman Running in the Mountains is psychologically deft work of fiction that probes deeply into the struggles of its young protagonist Takiko and the joys and sorrows of motherhood.
The novel begins with Takiko about to give birth to her first child. She is only 21 years old, lives with her emotionally abusive mother, physically abusive father, and aloof teenage brother in a cramped apartment in Tokyo. The soon-to-be-born child's father is a former colleague of Takiko who left town before she found out she was pregnant. He has his own family and doesn't know about the baby, so Takiko sees no reason to tell him about it. She is determined to raise this child by herself, to move out, to make this the beginning of her own, real life. After she gives birth, she begins to realise how difficult this will be.
The story is deliberately slight, highly realistic, but no less moving for it. Tsushima brings the reader along with prose that is deep in psychological insights, subtle in its social observations, and beautiful in its reveries on nature and one's place in the world. One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is how Tsushima moves so effortlessly from a form of writing similar to social realism to a highly personal impressionistic style. The artistry Tsushima demonstrates in this is really rather impressive. She writes with such a strong sense of truth that novels on similar themes often fail to achieve.
Woman Running in the Mountains is the work of a great writer who could use seemingly limpid prose to express profound ideas about the development of personality and the self. The way that Tsushima shifts from the interior to exterior world, and how she blurs the edges of these spaces, is as remarkable as it is moving.
The novel begins with Takiko about to give birth to her first child. She is only 21 years old, lives with her emotionally abusive mother, physically abusive father, and aloof teenage brother in a cramped apartment in Tokyo. The soon-to-be-born child's father is a former colleague of Takiko who left town before she found out she was pregnant. He has his own family and doesn't know about the baby, so Takiko sees no reason to tell him about it. She is determined to raise this child by herself, to move out, to make this the beginning of her own, real life. After she gives birth, she begins to realise how difficult this will be.
The story is deliberately slight, highly realistic, but no less moving for it. Tsushima brings the reader along with prose that is deep in psychological insights, subtle in its social observations, and beautiful in its reveries on nature and one's place in the world. One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is how Tsushima moves so effortlessly from a form of writing similar to social realism to a highly personal impressionistic style. The artistry Tsushima demonstrates in this is really rather impressive. She writes with such a strong sense of truth that novels on similar themes often fail to achieve.
Woman Running in the Mountains is the work of a great writer who could use seemingly limpid prose to express profound ideas about the development of personality and the self. The way that Tsushima shifts from the interior to exterior world, and how she blurs the edges of these spaces, is as remarkable as it is moving.
February 19, 2022
This is really good.
October 5, 2023
Na het intrigerende en soms ietwat onrustwekkende Domein van licht, wilde ik ook deze vertaling van Yūko Tsushima lezen, al was het alleen maar voor de sfeervolle cover. Opnieuw is het hoofdpersonage een bewust alleenstaande moeder die in het Japan van zo'n 50 jaar geleden probeert haar leven op de rails te houden. De tijdsgeest en de sociale context zijn daarin belangrijk, maar spelen geen expliciete rol. Toch weet de auteur, deels vanuit eigen ervaring, uitermate boeiend de impact te beschrijven van wat zo'n keuze voor vrouwen uit die tijd betekende.
Takiko, het hoofdpersonage, is eenentwintig als ze moeder wordt. Daarvoor heeft ze haar job opgezegd, waardoor haar bijdrage aan het inkomen van haar ouders wegvalt. Het liefst zou ze dat gezin, met een gewelddadige, drankverslaafde vader, zo vlug mogelijk verlaten, maar verantwoordelijkheidsgevoel en geldtekort maken dat voorlopig onmogelijk. Gelukkig is Takiko ondernemend en eigenzinnig genoeg en maakt de baby haar zo gelukkig, dat ze zich erdoorheen slaat, niettegenstaande haar twijfels en onzekerheden.
Misschien wel het boeiendst vond ik Takiko's vertedering en zelfs verbazing wanneer ze in contact komt met actieve jonge vaders die de opvoeding van hun kinderen mee op zich nemen en hun gevoelens daaromtrent durven uiten. Dat zal ongetwijfeld zeldzaam zijn geweest toen. Ook haar omgang met mannen als een vrouw die op tijd en stond haar seksuele verlangens bevredigd wil zien, moet voor die tijd een vooruitstrevend en gedurfd idee zijn geweest, zeker omdat de roman door een vrouwelijke auteur geschreven werd.
Tenslotte is er, net als in Domein van licht, die aparte manier van sfeerschepping, waarin de natuur een hoofdrol speelt. Takiko's fascinaties en dromen doorspekken deze roman met een blik die zich vanuit het stadsleven richt op wat zich daarbuiten als ongerept landschap aan haar voordoet en seizoen na seizoen verandert gedurende dat eerste jaar van haar moederschap. Met veel nuances en een vloeiend verhaalverloop zorgde dat voor een leeservaring die het mooie Domein van licht zelfs een klein beetje overtrof.
Takiko, het hoofdpersonage, is eenentwintig als ze moeder wordt. Daarvoor heeft ze haar job opgezegd, waardoor haar bijdrage aan het inkomen van haar ouders wegvalt. Het liefst zou ze dat gezin, met een gewelddadige, drankverslaafde vader, zo vlug mogelijk verlaten, maar verantwoordelijkheidsgevoel en geldtekort maken dat voorlopig onmogelijk. Gelukkig is Takiko ondernemend en eigenzinnig genoeg en maakt de baby haar zo gelukkig, dat ze zich erdoorheen slaat, niettegenstaande haar twijfels en onzekerheden.
Misschien wel het boeiendst vond ik Takiko's vertedering en zelfs verbazing wanneer ze in contact komt met actieve jonge vaders die de opvoeding van hun kinderen mee op zich nemen en hun gevoelens daaromtrent durven uiten. Dat zal ongetwijfeld zeldzaam zijn geweest toen. Ook haar omgang met mannen als een vrouw die op tijd en stond haar seksuele verlangens bevredigd wil zien, moet voor die tijd een vooruitstrevend en gedurfd idee zijn geweest, zeker omdat de roman door een vrouwelijke auteur geschreven werd.
Tenslotte is er, net als in Domein van licht, die aparte manier van sfeerschepping, waarin de natuur een hoofdrol speelt. Takiko's fascinaties en dromen doorspekken deze roman met een blik die zich vanuit het stadsleven richt op wat zich daarbuiten als ongerept landschap aan haar voordoet en seizoen na seizoen verandert gedurende dat eerste jaar van haar moederschap. Met veel nuances en een vloeiend verhaalverloop zorgde dat voor een leeservaring die het mooie Domein van licht zelfs een klein beetje overtrof.
August 30, 2024
Woman Running in the mountains touched on the theme of motherhood, pregnancy, single parenting, this slice of life narrative let us into the mind of young Takiko with her struggles in daily life. The story was beautifully told on desires & longing of a young woman raising her first child in a tumultous family home of her ageing mother, violent abusive father & a nonchalant brother. From her pained labors, to childbirth, finding nursery for baby Akira & to a job surrounded by plants. The melancholic tone of the story was captivating & occasional dream like quality as she wants to be in a better situation with her child but her love for the baby is real, raw & never a regret in her decision to keep the child. Such a beautiful story on motherhood by Tsushima that I love as much as Territory of light. Book 8 #WITMonth
April 2, 2022
I did find many things interesting in this novel. I don't think I've read many books based in Japan, and the descriptions of food, culture etc. were fascinating. But it was hard to connect to the main character, Takiko, whose thoughts form most of the plot. She seems very removed from the events of her own life, some of which are very intense, like (bit of a spoiler alert) single motherhood and family violence. But even in her daily thoughts and interactions, she seems to be a passive observer. Maybe...maybe she is experiencing a sort of dissociation and distancing to manage her trauma and stress, which spreads to everything she does. I guess I'll conclude by saying that Takiko doesn't seem completely real to me as a reader, because her life is apparently not completely real to her.
February 18, 2023
A powerful book about a young woman who decides to become a single mother against the backdrop of her society's prejudice. She's paving her own path in life, despite having to contend with her mother's conservatism and her father who drinks heavily and is physically abusive toward her. She enrolls her son in a daycare and takes on random jobs, from working in a restaurant to selling cosmetics until she finally lands in an idyllic, but very physical job working for a plant nursery. She's such a rebel!
June 6, 2022
Was a grim , migraine inducing book
Dealt with a girl who gets pregnant after casual sex and who decides to keep the baby and the aftermath of her decision.
Portrayed a grey and glum Japan throughout.
Gave me a headache.
Dealt with a girl who gets pregnant after casual sex and who decides to keep the baby and the aftermath of her decision.
Portrayed a grey and glum Japan throughout.
Gave me a headache.
Read
August 26, 2023Did like it in a few chunks here and there. But don’t know what to make of it as a whole. Also unable to decide how to rate so leaving it as it is.
April 3, 2024
Takiko's life is hard and always has been. She is the child of a drunk, violent and abusive father and a passive-aggressive mother living in squalor and poverty. For her this is a fact of life against which she doesn't rebel. She accepts the repeated sight of her bruised face as the inevitable aftermath of her altercations with her father, she accepts his drunken shouting, her own high pitched cries, her mother's constant weeping, and her younger brother's impunity from it all. Her pregnancy and subsequent motherhood force her to continue living with her family in their miserably unhappy home, with no hope of being able to leave.
Twenty one year old Takiko manifests as a narcissistic, barely socialized young woman, drifting from one joyless casual relationship to another, never developing any feelings for any of these men she casually encounters, nor for that matter for any human being with whom she interacts. She seems to be emotionally stunted, and all her relationships are cold and meaningless. That has been her life.
Her decision to give birth to her son and keep him despite the continuous urgings of her family to give him up and the difficulty of raising him on her own is, I believe, supposed to mark a change in Takiko. Indeed, for the first time in her life she is invested in another human being. She loves her child and cares for him as best she can.
But my take on it (and from reviews I've read I know that I'm in the minority), is that her decision to go through with her unplanned pregnancy is an extension of her narcissism rather than a selfless decision favoring the unborn child. As she herself admits, the pregnancy seems to have nothing to do with her. She can't even refer to the being she is carrying as a baby. He is "the fetus". Takiko has no qualms about bringing the baby into her dysfunctional family home, disrupting their already chaotic existence, living at their expense and feeling no empathy for her mother who is working her fingers to the bone to make ends meet.
When she begins to work in the (garden) nursery, she is infatuated by the quiet and serious Kambayashi, a man whose challenges are as difficult as hers, if not more so, but whose outlook on life is so very different from hers. Their friendship, like the birth of her child, seems like a potential turning point.
In Kambayashi she finally meets a character with values, with true inner strength, with a generous, altruistic and optimistic outlook on life. Kambayashi is the complete opposite of Takiko in every respect.
Perhaps her exposure to this man will change the vector of her life and, combined with her true and sincere love for her son, set her on a different path.
Twenty one year old Takiko manifests as a narcissistic, barely socialized young woman, drifting from one joyless casual relationship to another, never developing any feelings for any of these men she casually encounters, nor for that matter for any human being with whom she interacts. She seems to be emotionally stunted, and all her relationships are cold and meaningless. That has been her life.
Her decision to give birth to her son and keep him despite the continuous urgings of her family to give him up and the difficulty of raising him on her own is, I believe, supposed to mark a change in Takiko. Indeed, for the first time in her life she is invested in another human being. She loves her child and cares for him as best she can.
But my take on it (and from reviews I've read I know that I'm in the minority), is that her decision to go through with her unplanned pregnancy is an extension of her narcissism rather than a selfless decision favoring the unborn child. As she herself admits, the pregnancy seems to have nothing to do with her. She can't even refer to the being she is carrying as a baby. He is "the fetus". Takiko has no qualms about bringing the baby into her dysfunctional family home, disrupting their already chaotic existence, living at their expense and feeling no empathy for her mother who is working her fingers to the bone to make ends meet.
When she begins to work in the (garden) nursery, she is infatuated by the quiet and serious Kambayashi, a man whose challenges are as difficult as hers, if not more so, but whose outlook on life is so very different from hers. Their friendship, like the birth of her child, seems like a potential turning point.
In Kambayashi she finally meets a character with values, with true inner strength, with a generous, altruistic and optimistic outlook on life. Kambayashi is the complete opposite of Takiko in every respect.
Perhaps her exposure to this man will change the vector of her life and, combined with her true and sincere love for her son, set her on a different path.
Read
September 25, 2024This was my second encounter with Yuko Tsushima's writing having read Territory of Light by her. Set in 1970's Tokyo, the novel opens with Takiko Odaka, a 21 year old single mother about to give birth and novel follows up until her child is about a year old. It is a really subtle and nuanced story on the societal pressures and intolerance towards a single mother at the time in Japan. Tsushima presents the ultra-conservative nature of society and the taboo associated with an unmarried single woman raising a child on her own.
It's stifling and oppressive, both in temperate, the August heat that permeates the novel and figuratively as well, Takiko being stifled and oppressed by her family and struggling to find that freedom and independence to be whoever she wants to be and being able to raise her child however she pleases. The novel feels very slice of life and I took my time with it. It isn't one to be rushed through. You almost need to let the pages wash over you and slowly but surely see Takiko find her bearing, acceptance and self worth.
There is much to admire in this book, but somehow I felt it was missing something, or left more to be desired. And I can't quite put my finger on what exactly didn't fully work for me with this book. Nonetheless, it's one I'd recommend. Its merits certainly outweigh the shortcomings that I'm struggling to adequately explain.
It's stifling and oppressive, both in temperate, the August heat that permeates the novel and figuratively as well, Takiko being stifled and oppressed by her family and struggling to find that freedom and independence to be whoever she wants to be and being able to raise her child however she pleases. The novel feels very slice of life and I took my time with it. It isn't one to be rushed through. You almost need to let the pages wash over you and slowly but surely see Takiko find her bearing, acceptance and self worth.
There is much to admire in this book, but somehow I felt it was missing something, or left more to be desired. And I can't quite put my finger on what exactly didn't fully work for me with this book. Nonetheless, it's one I'd recommend. Its merits certainly outweigh the shortcomings that I'm struggling to adequately explain.
Read
August 30, 2022Somewhere in the range between 3.5 - 4.5. This book had an unknown effect on me. I can’t quite pin down or name the emotion it stirs. Takiko’s narrative is both emotionally and mentally heavy, yet the atmosphere from which Tsushima writes feels strangely calm as if a sheet of lavendar lays over the frame of the novel.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this.
October 11, 2023
I’ve adored just about everything I’ve ever read from Yuko Tsushima. At first I thought I was feeling luke warm on this, but the book builds in the softest, most brilliant way and somehow Tsushima again envelops a story of single-motherhood with light and longing and love.
September 25, 2023
Going to keep my opinions to myself until I chat with Shawn (the Book Maniac) ;)
I've met with Shawn, and we've chatted about this novel! I've posted my thoughts on my blog here.
I've met with Shawn, and we've chatted about this novel! I've posted my thoughts on my blog here.
March 14, 2020
Everyone else who rated this book is dumb so I'm giving it the score it deserves
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