God's Boat

by Kaori Ekuni, Chikako Kobayashi (Translator)

Yoko teaches piano during the day, works at a bar at night and dreams of her disappeared lover every single minute. "Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, I swear I will find you again," he promised, and Yoko never stopped believing he would return. Her ten-year-old daughter Soko, born out of this brief passionate affair that marked her mother for ever, has had her life shaped by Yoko's constant yearning, as the desperate search for the elusive man of her dreams means moving house more times than either of them can remember. The two travel through life on what Yoko calls "God's boat," moving from town to town, and for Soko from school to school, just as the narrative too shifts between the perspectives of the daughter and her mother, tracing them through the years as little by little the story of Yoko's past emerges, and Soko tries to somehow build herself a future.

This haunting and sensitive novel combines the everyday patterns of the lives of mother and daughter, their rituals, their conversations, while always beyond these ordinary daily events lies what is hidden by Yoko's seemingly unshakeable certainty: the spectre of madness and the indescribable pain of loss, so inextricably linked to the dazzling joy that only love can bring.

Genres: Japan, Japanese Literature, Fiction, Asian Literature, Contemporary

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Is a Japanese author, dubbed the 'female Murakami'. She is the daughter of the Haiku poet and essayist Shigeru Ekuni.

See 江國 香織.

Reviews

[GD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book I just picked up at the library on a funny whim because it looked like something I'd never ever ever read. It's called God's Boat and has a bird flying through a clear sky? And on top of that the cover was printed onto glossy boards with no dustjacket, which always looks kind of lame. But lo, this book was incredible.

There isn't much of a plot, the book alternates in first person between a mother and daughter who move every year or so to a new town, the mother hoping that a whirlwind romance lover (and the girl's father) will find them. It sounds weird, and it is, the daughter being the normal one, and wishing she could have some stability, and the mother, while attractive and friendly, is absolutely alone and cuts herself off from everyone to make moving easier. As the book goes along, we begin to think that the mysterious lover is much less than he is seen to be by the mother. We have not one but TWO unreliable narrators, but unreliable in different ways: the daughter because she's never known her father, the mother because we begin to see how unhinged she is.

The ending is maddeningly ambiguous. I'm going to get online and see what some other dudes and dudettes think about it.

Overall a breezy, short, absolutely badass book.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really absorbing read, this brief novel is told in two narratives, one from the mother, Yoko, and the other from her young daughter, Soko. Yoko travels from city to city, working at bars in the evenings and teaching the piano by day, through the narratives the details of Yoko's past begin to slowly emerge. Through recollections Yoko's marriage to a man named only as the professor is described, but parallel to this the story of an affair begins to become apparent.

Often heartbreaking to read, the novel follows the couple as Soko gets older and progresses through school, Yoko is a reader's character as whenever the couple move she hunts out for the nearest library. As Soko grows older she wants to settle, although Yoko fears that this will make it difficult for Soko's father to find them again. The narrative accuratley taps into Yoko's concerns at loosing a true love, and her feelings of estrangement from her previous life, and the disapproval of her parents, through Yoko's narrative the novel subtley gives a portrait of a woman ostracized due to her breaking from her wedlock.

[JimZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first got introduced to the author from an interesting short stories collection, The Book of Tokyo. Ekuni wrote a short story called The Picnic and I liked it so I ordered 'God's Boat'. Don't want to give anything away but it's about a mother and her daughter, Soko, narrated across a time span of some 7 years. Within the very short chapters mother and daughter narrate their lives....and how they react to the world and to each other. The mother is waiting for her lover, Soko's father, to find them. One learns over the course of the short novel the story of the mother and her lover (the daughter's father), or at least as told by the mother. There's also an ex-husband in the book (the Professor). Extremely well written. I liked her Ekuni's style (very short chapters, narration switches between mother and daughter, the story switching across the 4 cities in Japan in which they live and move to). I read it in one sitting (138 pp.)...I couldn't put it down.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library because of a recommendation of a different book by this author. This story was fantastic. The story alternated in the first person between mother and daughter. The mother had her daughter in an affair, with her lover leaving her shortly after the child was born. He told her he would come back for her one day, wherever she is, and she lives in constant total belief that her true love will come back for her one day. The daughter lives in this world with her mother, moving every few years and not being able to settle in anywhere. The character development is so well done and I could really feel the madness and desperation unwinding through the story. I would love to read more from this author.

[Theyoungdeer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally a beautiful, heart breaking book. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[Clare Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really got to me. Love this author.

[Temy · Rating 3 out of 5]

From May 2018 to Apr 2019, the Japan Times ran a very informative and interesting "Works by Japanese Women" series which highlighted "some of the lesser read in translation but equally deserving female writers". Kaori Ekuni was one of them.

In God's Boat, Yoko was married to her former college professor when she met her "true love" who was also married. They had a "bone melting love affair" and the result was the little girl Soko.

When her true love suddenly disappeared, Yoko divorced the professor and left Tokyo. She and her little daughter started their journey in life on a "God's boat", moving from one city to the next after living for about a year in each city. Yoko didn't want to settle down in any place, for fear of not being able to "catch" her true love.

Wherever she went, Yoko worked as a piano teacher by day, and a bar waitress at night. She daydreamed about her love and made up stories to tell Soko about her perfect father.
Or not.

The novel was narrated by two unreliable narrators, Yoko and Soko, interchangeably in each chapter. Soko had never met her father, yet she claimed her mother's stories were not true.

Ekuni's writing is simple yet very captivating. Her writing draws you in with charming details of daily life, a maddening you-can-die-for love, and the touching and tense mother-daughter relationship.

Filled with lots of beach scenes and sweating hot summer days, God's Boat is a perfectly light and entertaining summer read, even though the ending is vague, be it happy or devastating depending on how you interpret it.

"Summer is a special time.
Every one of my cells has preserved its memories. And summer is when each one if them is suddenly awakened, trembling restlessly."

3.5/5

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un livre très mélancolique, presque amer à mon goût, mais vraiment une bonne lecture.
L'histoire de la fille qui grandit et découvre la réalité sur l’absence de son père et la maman qui vieillit mais n'abandonne jamais ses espoirs de retrouvailles avec celui-ci...
Elles entretiennent une très belle relation et ce même avec les années qui passent et l'écart qui se creuse entre elles, entre réalité et rêve.
C'est assez incroyable que le père ait une présence si prononcée alors qu'il n'est pas vraiment là... On serait presque nous aussi, lecteurs, triste de son absence.

Je me demande si la conclusion du livre s'est vraiment produite.
ça semble si irréel, si soudain, si facile, peut-être peut-on interpréter cela autrement...

[Waka · Rating 2 out of 5]

久しぶりに苛々させられる本と出会ってしまった。夏のおすすめの中の一冊だったのになぜこの本をよりによって選んでしまったのか...
まず、葉子の痛すぎる現実逃避と、自分勝手さに呆れた。ダブル不倫のあげく妊娠し、迎えに行くからという約束を信じて娘の人生を振り回している毒親っぷりに耐えられない。娘の事を不倫相手の分身のように扱い、あの人と似てるから愛してると言って娘自体を愛そうとせず、全てが男中心の自己満足の世界に生きている。自分に酔い、自分を棚に上げ、娘を1人の人格として扱わずにいつもパパの分身扱いしたあげくに自分の放浪に付き合わせる。そして放浪の言い訳は"私は慣れてしまったから"。娘の草子はその共依存の関係から自ら抜け出し、現実を葉子に見せようとする立派な自立した娘だと思う。
私は失恋を経験して余計に恋愛に冷めてしまったと思うが、経験していなくてもここまで入り浸った大人を見て共感はしていないと思う。ひたすら現実を見る事から目を背け続けた痛い毒親の話としか思えなかった。
桃井先生は自分の言う事を聞いてくれ、優しくていつまでも自分を待ってくれているかのような表現を草子はしていたが、結局桃井先生は再婚して違う人生を歩んでいた。葉子がまだあの人を追い、あの人中心の人生を何年も歩んでいる事を桃井先生はすでにわかっていた。桃井先生の方が何倍も上手であったことになる。
最後の再会シーンは、葉子が自殺した後のシーンではないのかと私は思った。酒量が増え、死にたいとの表現があったし、しっくり来るのではないかと思った。草子は祖父母と暮らした方がよっぽど干渉し合わずに幸せになるのではないかと思った。

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite slow paced compared to Twinkle Twinkle. It seemed that Yoko's character never changed even a bit until possibly the very end. These characters were not interesting, and behaved in unrealistic ways. For example, teenage Soko's total compliance with her mother's suggestion that she stay All summer with the grandparents she can't remember meeting.


WSU library

[ASP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terriblement émouvant!

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

omg why was she so obsessed like girl chill it's just a man

[Annalise]

A book on living with sorrow. sad. Ekuni keeps you painfully aware of the sorrow by showing it through the eyes of another.

[Carola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite good, just not for me.