龍宮 [Ryūgū]

by Hiromi Kawakami, 川上弘美

いとおしき“異類”との交情を描いた8つの幻想譚
霊力を持つ小柄な曾祖母、人間界に馴染めなかった蛸、男の家から海へと帰る海馬。日常と非日常を行き来する玉手箱のような作品集

231 pages, Paperback Bunko

First published June 27, 2002

About the author

Kawakami Hiromi (川上弘美 Kawakami Hiromi) born April 1, 1958, is a Japanese writer known for her off-beat fiction.

Born in Tokyo, Kawakami graduated from Ochanomizu Women's College in 1980. She made her debut as "Yamada Hiromi" in NW-SF No. 16, edited by Yamano Koichi and Yamada Kazuko, in 1980 with the story So-shimoku ("Diptera"), and also helped edit some early issues of NW-SF in the 1970s. She reinvented herself as a writer and wrote her first book, a collection of short stories entitled God (Kamisama) published in 1994. Her novel The Teacher's Briefcase (Sensei no kaban) is a love story between a woman in her thirties and a man in his sixties. She is also known as a literary critic and a provocative essayist.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second Kawakami short story collection I've read, and I really appreciate her surreal, sometimes rambling style. The stories here are also a lot hornier than her other works that I've read, uncomfortably so at times, but this is still a great read.

The English translation also came out sometime recently and I read a few stories. It seemed a little flat in comparison, so I'm not sure if I'd recommend it.