俺俺

by Tomoyuki Hoshino

なりゆきでオレオレ詐欺をしてしまった俺は、気付いたら別の俺になっていた。上司も俺だし母親も俺、俺ではない俺、俺たち俺俺。俺でありすぎて、もう何が何だかわからない。増殖していく俺に耐えきれず右往左往する俺同士はやがて――。他人との違いが消えた100％の単一世界から、同調圧力が充満するストレスフルな現代社会を笑う、戦慄の「俺」小説！　大江健三郎賞受賞作。

Genres: Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, Asian Literature, Dystopia

263 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Kinga · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is misleading. It most definitely does not do what it says on the tin. The reader goes in thinking it will be some fast-paced thriller (with possible sci-fi elements) based on a popular phone scam in Japan. What the reader gets instead is an opaque and concept-heavy tale about identity, a sense of self, and standardisation of society.

I found it tedious. The main character discovers there is another him who could (and does) easily take his place and no one would be the wiser. Initially this discovery excites him, especially when he finds a couple more “ME’s” and they form a circle of perfect understanding. Eventually of course, this endless self-replication of his own self makes him (them?) hostile towards each other. I suppose the moral here was that only by finding our true, unique selves can we form a healthy community. Maybe. Or maybe there was no moral at all.

There were some interesting passages around the relationships between parents and their children, with the former wanting the latter to fit a certain mould they had in mind for them, disregarding their children’s own identities, and thus making the parents susceptible to being scammed by impostors.

This novel was ultimately unsatisfying, because there was no way for me to relate to this amorphous blob of a main character. He was never much of a person, more of a walking concept. Although, I do like how a lot of the book took place in McDonald’s – the perfect, endlessly replicating symbol of uniformity.

[Keith Alverson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably a good book, but my ability to determine if this is indeed the case was undone by poor translation. The translator appears to have been, let me guess, a retired English as a second language teacher who has been living in Japan for the past 50 years. The main difficulty the translator obviously had was in rendering dialogue in a way that sounds like people actually speak English. Almost all of the dialogue comes across as strangely stilted - like one is reading some kind of google bot discussion or something. It is filled with cliches and slang terms dating from the 1960's or so that are simply not used today. It is also rife with obviously Japanese constructions (passive and negative ) that are translated literally rather than being put in reasonable English dialogue form. The result of this is none of the dialogue reads even remotely like actual people speaking. The other bits of prose - descriptions and the narrator's inner voice - are not as noticeably awkward since use of obtuse language and passive constructions aren't as glaringly wrong for inner thought. Unfortunately, there is an awful lot of dialogue in this book.

[Wes Benchoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I am this book. WE are this book.

Satisfies many of my own personal itches; if you at all share any of the following, read this book:

-love for crowded urban settings
-themes of personal identity and dissolution
-borderline unlikable protagonist that you feel bad for relating to
- surrealist metaphysical maze
-consistent themes and symbolism, repetition of the above for effect

I love this thing. Again, if you share my own tastes, give this thing a read and please discuss with me. If you hated it, I'd love to hear why, because for me this is a book I will cherish and re-read for years.

[Milliebot]

DNF at 50%

I won a copy of this book from Librarything in exchange for my review. I requested it because I thought it was going to be some sort of surreal sci-fi. Man steals another man's phone, answers when the other man's mother calls, cons her out of money, then suddenly she shows up at his house and now he IS that other man? Cool!

That's NOT what this book was. That's my problem. I didn't realize what type of book this was. After the cell phone swiping and the mother showing up at this guy's apartment, this book rapidly digressed from any sci-fi elements it might have contained and moved on to higher grounds, leaving me in the dust.

This book was too deep for me. I also think there are several cultural differences between like in America and Japan, where the book takes place, that I just couldn't reconcile. This book is more about being the same, being part of a whole where all people are in agreement and share the same mindset and where "others" are frowned upon. Honestly, it's more complex even than that, this is just all I could pick up on. I quickly became equal parts bored and confused and once the main character(s?!) started talking about how women couldn't be part of this 'ME' because they're too dimwitted, I called it quits.

Likely this is a book some people will read, but I expected a different tone and genre and couldn't get into it after I realized how I'd misunderstood the book. I'll be donating this to my local library.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contemporary writers in no other country rival the novelists of Japan in their exploration of issues of identity, authenticity, individuality and community. Perhaps it is because no other country has the same experience of melding a collectivist culture with capitalism and European individualism. Kobo Abe is the master of these themes, but there are many others. I have encountered similar themes in the works of Fuminori, Oyamada and Dazai. I’m sure that there are others that I am forgetting. Now Hoshino must be added to my list. And each of these authors has his own original way of grappling with these concerns. There are commonalities, but none of them are mere imitations of any of the others.

“Me” starts out as a conventional story of a young man who steals a cell phone and then uses it to con the owner’s mother out of a large amount of money by pretending to be the cell phone’s owner, but the joke is on him as he finds that against his will he has taken on the identity of the other man and when he tries to visit his own family finds that there is another young man who has taken over his own identity, so it starts as a story of identity theft combined with feelings of inadequacy and inauthenticity – imposter syndrome, but then it takes a turn when the people who have lost their own identities realize that the others with the same problem are all manifestations of a single personality – “me”. At first this is liberating. The “mes” find a bond closer to each other than they could possibly have with anyone else. But soon it starts to fray because of course at the same time that we are all our own best friend, we are our own worst enemy, tormented by self-doubt and self-deception. The end comes full circle in a way that is reminiscent of the famous zen ox hunting pictures, suggesting that perhaps the hero’s journey here has been a backwards quest for enlightenment, losing his identity, finding a new identity in the collective, seeing the collective disintegrate and then finding a new normal in a different sort of collective.

[Fatima Muhammad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt that I no longer knew a single human being. Who were my friends, my colleagues, my mother, my father, my siblings? I had no idea, and thus I was equally ignorant of my own identity.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I accepted an ‘Advance Reading Copy’ of ME by Tomoyuki Hoshino from Akashic Books in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.
The book was originally published in Japanese in 2010 by Shinchosha.
This edition was translated by Charles De Wolf with an afterword by Kenzaburo Oe.
There are 6 chapters with an afterword and a translator’s note.
The translator’s note was very interesting and helpful. The afterword was interesting (in that it tried to explain the plot a bit) but it left me even more confused. According to the book jacket and press release, this book ME and its author enjoyed much success and raving reviews.
I must confess (embarrassingly) that after finishing the book and rereading several passages multiple times, I still didn’t understand the story. It ‘seems’ to be about self-identity and takes place in contemporary Japan. It is a very strange story and, at times, feels like a story about zombies. But except for the ‘contemporary Japan bit, I am lost.
Notes/Reactions/Questions:
The language, while very descriptive, sharp and personal, is a bit ‘off’ in its cadence. Maybe it is the awkwardness of a translation or just Japanese speech patterns - I don’t know.
I am very put off by the constant trips to McDonald’s. I cringed every time it was mentioned. It was nauseating.
I am very confused. I started off by not liking the (I think) main character, Hitoshi Nagano, for being a petty thief and an immature whiney guy. But I didn’t like Daiki Hiyana, either (The guy at McDonald’s whose phone was taken by Hitoshi). When Daiki’s mother turned up at Hitoshi’s apartment, I was shaking my head. Huh? I don’t think I ever really followed the plot even when I read the ending, the afterword, the book jacket and press release. And then there is the Hitoshi imposter at Hitoshi’s house. Yikes!
Important words seem to be self-identity, self-worth, selfishness and self-absorption. He (I think I mean Hitoshi) kept feeling non-existent and belonging nowhere.
p. 109 MEs are US (3 people as 1) An attempt at an explanation.
Are MEs immature or symbols of immaturity?
We have multiple stabbings, a hanging, people pushed in front of trains, fires, cannibalism and zombie-like creatures. Is any of this real?
I have no sense of a Japanese consciousness/personality or sense of place.
As you can guess, I didn’t ‘get’ the book, but I did appreciate the opportunity to read something completely different and intriguing.

[A Storied Soul · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book. Was. Nuts. And that isn't necessarily a good thing. ME, or Ore Ore, started out as a tame story following a protagonist, named Hitoshi, who decides to initiate a phone scam. What follows is a bizarre descent down an even more bizarre rabbit hole as he begins to realize that he's one of millions of MEs--human replications that look like him and who share a consciousness. All of these MEs in turn end up wanting to "delete" others, and soon Hitoshi ends up on the delete list.

Hoshino writes a novel that is difficult to continue, yet difficult to put down, because while I started to hate it toward the middle, I still found myself needing to watch the train crash. Meaning, I still wanted to know what happened to Hitoshi. The plotting and pacing in this vein is good in the sense that it builds tension, but it isn't quick enough to build urgency or interest. It was such a struggle to continue reading.

It's hard to gauge the writing because I read this in translation, in English, but I feel like some nuances were lost from the Japanese. Even with my limited knowledge of the language, I can tell some thing are less impactful symbolically, and that some ideas didn't translate as they could have.

At the end of it now, it's just not a "good" book in the same way that reading Banana Yoshimoto or Haruki Murakami are enjoyable. I feel like this book works academically, but not as a recreational read. ME is more of a study on simulacra and identity within contemporary Japanese society wrapped up in a pseydo-dystopian setting. Yet, I would not pick this book up again given the choice. It was given to me by the publisher and that brings us to where we are now--me leaving this review.

[Devyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from Goodreads.

I've been racking my brain for hours trying to find enough words to write this review.
This is one of those book that I don't seem to have an opinion over, one way or another.
I can easily see how Me could be a huge hit....for someone other than me.
Me is simply the type of books that doesn't interest me, no matter how well it's written or the fact that it comes from Japan, the country I adore.
I don't think this is because of anything being lost in translation. In fact, I think it was translated quite well.
I think the primary problem is the difference in culture. America is all for individualism, while Japan is for the unity of the whole. Every cog must be the same and know it's place for the great Empire to function. If the other cog's start thinking one is different, then that single cog will cease to exist, because what is existence when you are an OTHER?
Or...something similar to that.
Okay. Look, this book befuddled the hell out of me while I was reading it. Now that I'm trying to review it, I feel more confused than I did before.
Just because Me is not MY cup of tea, does not mean that it isn't YOURS.
There, done.

[Miri Gifford · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW. Did not expect the direction this book ended up taking, on more than one level. Need some processing before I can do it justice in writing. Brilliant, disturbing, astonishingly incisive commentary on human nature and identity—and just a great story.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as interesting or as profound as you'd think it would be.

[Georgina Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

well, this was a very intriguing novel. at first I thought it was some kind of narcissistic fantasy moved into psychosis. later it became a distopian end of days novel. issues of rampant individualism and the steady loss of the communal in our modern sensibilities are explored with novelty and an idealism that is surprising.

[Ashley Mehrens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, my mind's been utterly blown to bits by Tomoyuki Hoshino's ME.

At first, I was intrigued by the premise. It sounded like your typical thriller or crime drama with a sci-fi twist. The nondescript narrator pulls a con that--in a fantastical reveal--results in a situation where his own identity appears to have been usurped by another ME while he has mysteriously assumed the life of the person he's stolen from.

Intrigue turned to complacent expectation as he meets with yet another ME. Identities begin to blend and blur, and I grew a bit confused at times (I wonder, was that the intention?). But hints of the identity crisis prevail as ME talks to ME about personal issues that inevitably must all revolve around the one central narrator.

Once the MEs begin proliferation, the complacent expectation grows to excitement and thought-provoking wonder. Here's where my mind grappled with the concept of ME. What does that mean? What distinguishes ME from THEM? What makes ME unique? What makes ME important? It's so easy to feel small and inconsequential in a society like ours, and I imagine in a more compact one like Tokyo the feeling is even more exasperated. Who hasn't felt that existential crisis? Who hasn't wondered about what impact they're making? Who hasn't felt lost in the crowd? The middle parts of the book really drew these issues forth and exaggerated them.

Then, things got twisty. The MEs start to turn on each other. People get "deleted." I love that word choice. It highlights how we dehumanize each other. We become so centered on ME that we undermine THEM. We fail to see our cruelty as cruelty. Open a history book. It's right there. No, not in history books. Open today's newspaper. It's still happening. We hurt each other because we don't see the other as equal to ourselves. We don't value the other. I think--I THINK--that Hoshino implies that this almost stems from the fact that we don't truly value ourselves. I think. Boy, this book made me do that a lot!

From intrigue and expectation and excitement came horror. Fascinated horror. I reached a point where the dystopia became so degrading that it turned my stomach and made me flinch. I couldn't believe what was happening, but I could perfectly, 100% believe it anyway. That doesn't make much sense. Sometimes, the book didn't make a whole lot of sense, and I grappled with it until I wrested some meaning from it.

In the end, the last chapter satisfied me. It settled the loose ends in my brain and helped me come to some resolution. I don't want to spoil this one, so I won't comment on my final thoughts toward the end. But it absolutely made me think. It absolutely made me feel. It absolutely manipulated what I thought I knew and made me reevaluate ME.

Dystopia has been done to death, but this is dystopian literature done a new way. That took talent. I was impressed.

I'll rate it 4 stars out of 5. I'm going to dock it 1 star for getting a bit too surreal toward the end and for confusing me a tad in the middle. But I want to read it again. I want to read it with a book club. I'd hand it to someone who likes thought-provoking literature and ask them to read it and talk about it with ME so that ME can become US.

[Michael Rieman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is "the self" a social construct, determined in relation to others? Do social expectations tend to blur the lines of individual identity, and in this age of social media, is identity itself not necessarily to be trusted? These concerns are explored in Hoshino's sometimes surreal novel, ME, in ways that are at times striking, and at other times simply confusing and unconvincing.
The surprising start of the novel, a man's decision to steal a cell phone left temporarily unattended at a McDonald's counter, starts an odd chain of events in which the man comes to assume the identity of the cell phone's original owner, is not recognized as "fake" even by the person's mother, and ultimately comes to feel threatened by an explosive increase in the number of ME's around him. At first the narrator is pleased to meet several other young men whose thoughts and experiences he begins to share, but this is temporary, and is soon replaced by a desire to escape the proliferation of ME's and the dangers that condition poses for him.
The beginning and closing segments of the novel were intriguing for me, but much of the central part of the book seemed concerned with issues, such as family expectations and job satisfaction, that seemed to me more appropriate for a young adult, someone just forming connections to adult society. In addition, it was very difficult to connect with the few characters who play meaningful roles in the novel. They exist as part of the exploration of the self the author has constructed.
A highlight of the book for me was an image of sardines, apparently swimming freely but actually just moving in conformity with the motions of the other fish, until the narrator would not even know which sardine he was.
There is a message in the book, but for me much of the effect was limited by weaknesses in the narrative.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance copy of ME Advance via LibraryThing.

What begins as a story that is about telephone scams quickly turns into a con artist being conned, but conned by his own self or the self he posed himself to be? While I was entertained while I read, I soon found myself trying to deconstruct the underlying message of the book, which to be honest, I found to be more complex than I thought.

The inter-weavings of “ME” left me thinking about what it means to be defined as one complete whole and how the “ME” in all of us is not always true given certain sets of circumstances. I found the juxtaposition of a Westernized Japan — McDonalds, with a stereotypical Japan — technology & cameras, perhaps the basis of the movement between traditional and modern Japanese paradigms expected by a broader reading audience.

While not my favorite read — certainly not a story I regret reading. Would I recommend this one? Yes….will I read it again down the road….probably not. But then again, that is just ME.

[Monica Gatmaitan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guess I was a little misled by the book. Thought it would revolve more around Japanese phone scams and relationships potentially built around them. I'd have to admit though, I didn't read the book flap too much so I was definitely surprised by the sudden turn the book took. It's a little hard to dissect and I found it tiresome to get through the chapters.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow I read the oddest translated fiction. And I love it. The concept of this novel is so unique yet so obvious, I'm surprised it isn't already an existing story. The main character steals a phone left on his food tray and gets a call from the guy's mother. She doesn't seem to notice anything amiss so he decides to scam her for money, as she thinks he is her son. But then she arrives in his apartment without warning, cooking him food. He then starts seeing MEs, people who look like him and seem to be the same person. It's so easy to get along with MEs, until it isn't... and it all goes downhill fast. Really dismally bad. I love the concepts -- of identity, self, personality (and maybe overpopulation?) And the main character is somehow very sympathetic though actually very shifty and changeable. But is evident from the few typos in the book that possibly the translation isn't as fluid as it could be. (But I never really like judging translation/versus original language if I don't actually know that language.) But the story and most things in the book are universal. If you like this one, try 'Silence Once Begun' by Jesse Ball, 'The Vegetarian' by Han Kang and Kafka (is it just what I read or is Kafka the champion of influence in books these days?! He would be proud and he deserves to be.)
Book received for GoodReads Giveaway program.

[Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

A startling but brilliant poster boy for the imperative of D&I in the modern world. Yes, a world of "us" versus "them" isn't healthy, but neither is a world of "just us" as cosy as you would expect when you fully carry the thought through.
It makes me wonder if it's easier or harder to lose sight of yourself in an English speaking world where there's only one way of saying "me/I," as opposed to Japanese where you define yourself by who you're talking to and what position you hold or distance you maintain relative to that person: watashi, boku, ore, oira, sensei, otosan, jibun, temae, watakushi, oresama, achiki, uchi, kochira... Does the pronoun switching make you any more aware of how many roles you shuffle through in one day, naively thinking that you're just being yourself.

And gee, he is a great writer. He puts the most horrid things on paper but you can't stop reading them. Morbid fascination accounts for some of that, but he's got a great way of dragging you in.

[Leslee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not at all what I thought it was going to be. I expected some kind of sci-fi thriller where the protagonist initiates a phone scam and then winds up becoming the person he was pretending to be. That is kind of what was promised as the description of the book. But it didn’t really go there and instead introduces us to other versions of the protagonist - so then I thought maybe we were going in a sort of “Orphan Black” direction and they’re clones - but it didn’t go there, either.

About halfway in I just got lost. I couldn’t remember if the protagonist was Daiki or Hiroshi or whoever. And then the amount of “MEs” started increasing and they all started killing each other. I started speed reading through because it just became super boring and introspective and a little more than my “books are junk food” mind could handle.

I’m glad to see people liked this one but it wasn’t for me. Or maybe my other MEs, either.

[Terry94705]

I read 90 pages of this book and Oe’s afterword before losing interest. Yes I can see there is some argument in formation about individual identity and its shaping in the age of mass reproduction, but there was nothing here that made me care about these young men— the “ME”s. I thought for a while that it might be a critique of options for young men in modern society — Japanese specifically (or maybe not). Their mothers play an odd nagging role; their fathers are largely absent. I wanted to WANT to continue reading, but I was overcome by an immovable reticence. The “power of literary thought” that Oe invokes needs an aesthetic or emotive kick to work. This was feeling too mechanistic.

But... even without finishing I can tell you that the reviews that see a “telephone scam” as the central feature of this book are missing the point.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

The underlying themes about the self and Japanese culture were nice to get into, though it was a little confusing at times differentiating who was speaking the dialogue (especially in the case of Daiki/Hitoshi/student).

The initial 'trigger' felt a little misleading because 'Daiki' was the only one that seemed to be replaced due to the prank, while Hitoshi and student seemed to have only found themselves in the circumstance, and then the other MEs weren't explained but it didn't seem like they had been replaced in a chain (but were just existing all along as a ME before 'Daiki' was 'awakened')? It was never mentioned what happened to the original Daiki. Did he simply cease to exist? Some parts of the original person seemed to continue on while other parts didn't (eg. occupation), so not entirely sure how the split was defined.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fantastic! I love the dread that comes preloaded within the human chest like a bad U2 album!! Feels fitting to have picked it up having read Sartre’s Nausea so recently as I could hear them having a conversation throughout.

Read with the libby app (I love free access to books) and tragically my hold period lapsed as I was about 40 pages to the end so the essay I wanted to write on this book has been backhanded into the nether for now with all my highlighted quotes and annotations. Physical dogeared novels smothered in biro ink would NEVER do me like THIS. Will need to reread at some point and looking forward to it.

[Daniel Fliederbaum · Rating 3 out of 5]

I... I think I liked this book? It's all so mind-bending and metaphorical that I only kind of felt like I could invest myself in the main character's (characters', plural????) struggles. I get that they're supposed to be one big conglomerate of ME, but they're also individuals. I think if the book had been less focused on its messages and ideas and taken more time to show us more of who Hitoshi/Daiki is as a person, the concepts would have hit home harder.

They ARE still cool messages though, and this is still fun for its sheer WTF-ery, so give it a shot if you this sounds like your thing.

[frog · Rating 5 out of 5]

It won the Kenzaburō Ōe prize for a good reason (the writing style reminded me of him, even). Brilliantly captured the atmosphere of one of Japan's biggest modern issues and tackled on the japanese mentality in a refreshing (and moderately disturbing) way.
However, I wouldn't recommend it to people not affiliated with japanese contemporary fiction and "Landeskunde".
The translation itself was fine, I didn't find it lacking in any sense.

[Ana Inés · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maravilla. Igual que la película de Satoshi Miki inspirada en esto... no, qué digo, ¡mejor que la película! jaja una alegoría surrealista y loca sobre la pérdida de la identidad y sus consecuencias que además en Japón pues tiene todo el sentido del mundo que se reflexione sobre ello. Me vuela la cabeza esta historia y fue un gusto descubrir que la novela va todavía un bastante más allá... De esas para filosofar jaja, se las recomiendo.

[Jeshika Paperdoll · Rating 2 out of 5]

If the point of this book was to advertise McDonald’s then it was perfect, 5 stars, I want Maccy D’s. Right. Now.

However, as I doubt that was the author’s intent I have to give it 2 stars. The narrative was confusing, convoluted and extremely tiring to listen to. When it finally bothered to reveal its big message it did it in such a heavy handed way that I could almost feel the pain of it being pounded repeatedly into my little noggin.

This book just wasn’t for ME.

[Inda · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always will put a longer review on the blog, but this one was not what I was expecting at all. That's a good thing. The writing style and character development remind me of Banana Yoshimoto, which is also not a bad thing. I won't say much more here because I don't want to give spoilers, but it's fascinating where Hoshino took the original idea and premise of the story.

[Adna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would probably echo this

[Vera Angelova]

Everyone is a 'me'. Personality theft, or rather migration, is not a big deal, when everyone follows the same flow of thought, same desicion making mechanism, same emotion triggers.
I bet that "me" is found in the text more than 10 000 times. Made me reconsider words like "me-diocre","me-dic", "me-tering", "me-dia".

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This started out as if it were going to be about telephone scams, but it turned into something else--a dystopian world of almost interchangeable ME's. Just when it seems to be headed in one direction, it makes a turn and is off somewhere else. A great read.

Advance review copy via LibraryThing