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Calico Series #11
Unusual Fragments: Japanese Stories
Composing a fuller picture of the literary era that brought us Osamu Dazai and Kōbō Abe, Unusual Fragments foregrounds stories of alienation with surprising humor and imagination.
A young storm-chaser welcomes a jaded woman into the eye of a storm. The last man of a peculiar family, implausibly tiny in stature, attends a Mozart opera with his dedicated wife. A medical student coolly observes an adolescent boy as he contorts his body into violent positions. With tension and wit, the writers of Unusual Fragments, among them Nobuko Takagi, Yoshida Tomoko, and Inagaki Taruho, trace their taboo, feminist, bizarre themes to complicate what we think of as 20th century Japanese literature. What’s hiding just beneath the fiction of our perfectly ordered, happy lives? Something unusual. Something far more interesting.
A young storm-chaser welcomes a jaded woman into the eye of a storm. The last man of a peculiar family, implausibly tiny in stature, attends a Mozart opera with his dedicated wife. A medical student coolly observes an adolescent boy as he contorts his body into violent positions. With tension and wit, the writers of Unusual Fragments, among them Nobuko Takagi, Yoshida Tomoko, and Inagaki Taruho, trace their taboo, feminist, bizarre themes to complicate what we think of as 20th century Japanese literature. What’s hiding just beneath the fiction of our perfectly ordered, happy lives? Something unusual. Something far more interesting.
200 pages, Paperback
First published March 11, 2025
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327 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 21, 2025
My favorite is Taruho Inagaki's sly and tantalizing "The False Mustache", about proto-sexual games between a young man and a boy. Jeffrey Angles' translation is clean and elegant.
I found the other stories to be disappointing. Maybe it's period prose or translation practices that I don't agree with, but Takagi and Takahashi's pieces are IMO both verbose and cluttered with incidental detail. I did enjoy Tomoko Yoshida's "Husband in a Box" for its (relative) obliqueness, but thought it could be tighter.
Finally, Taeko Kono's "Cage of Sand". I gave Toddler-Hunting & Other Stories (also translated by Lucy North) 3 stars and had some hope. But sorry, I can't take prose like this:
Etc etc. Argh.
I found the other stories to be disappointing. Maybe it's period prose or translation practices that I don't agree with, but Takagi and Takahashi's pieces are IMO both verbose and cluttered with incidental detail. I did enjoy Tomoko Yoshida's "Husband in a Box" for its (relative) obliqueness, but thought it could be tighter.
Finally, Taeko Kono's "Cage of Sand". I gave Toddler-Hunting & Other Stories (also translated by Lucy North) 3 stars and had some hope. But sorry, I can't take prose like this:
Nevertheless, once that scene had popped up in her mind, she found it unbearably endearing. That was her hope --- her ultimate ideal. The lovely tiny ideal shimmered like a golden charm way off in the distance. It would be impossible to attain it. The tiny golden speck seemed to her to be shining, the symbol of a perfect end. Even if it were forever out of reach...
Etc etc. Argh.
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July 21, 2025"...The stories here are truly bizarre, impenetrable beyond the fare on offer in the short stories of even the most avant garde contemporary Japanese writers available in English translation like, say, Sayaka Murata. Coolidge’s introduction promises Japanese writing at 'its strangest and most perverse'. The collection delivers.
Even for a reader familiar with Japanese literature, the connections between these five stories aren’t easy to find...
...For seasoned readers of Japanese fiction, the strongest appeal of Unusual Fragments may be the translators whose work appears in the volume...
...when it comes to 20th century literary fiction, the selection in English is sadly limited—especially the fiction by female authors. When English readers base their impressions of 20th century Japan on Osamu Dazai, Yukio Mishima and Haruki Murakami, they get a male-dominated, often sexist—and heteronormative—picture of life in Japan that goes unchallenged by the very Japanese voices who were challenging the Japanese literary establishment in Japan fifty or more years ago.
As promised, Unusual Fragments is a glimpse into a broader and richer world of 20th century Japanese fiction than most English readers even know exists."
See my full review in the Asian Review of Books:
https://asianreviewofbooks.com/unusua...
Even for a reader familiar with Japanese literature, the connections between these five stories aren’t easy to find...
...For seasoned readers of Japanese fiction, the strongest appeal of Unusual Fragments may be the translators whose work appears in the volume...
...when it comes to 20th century literary fiction, the selection in English is sadly limited—especially the fiction by female authors. When English readers base their impressions of 20th century Japan on Osamu Dazai, Yukio Mishima and Haruki Murakami, they get a male-dominated, often sexist—and heteronormative—picture of life in Japan that goes unchallenged by the very Japanese voices who were challenging the Japanese literary establishment in Japan fifty or more years ago.
As promised, Unusual Fragments is a glimpse into a broader and richer world of 20th century Japanese fiction than most English readers even know exists."
See my full review in the Asian Review of Books:
https://asianreviewofbooks.com/unusua...
May 16, 2025
3.75 rounding up to 4 - this is a short anthology of five short stories which lean to the surreal/bizarre side of things. My favorite story was the third, "The False Mustache," which looked at sexuality, namely a young boy discovering his homosexuality through a scene in a film he loves. The final story, which was the longest, also explored sexuality from the perspective of an older woman, which I enjoyed, but too much of the story felt irrelevant and lowered my rating of the book a little bit. But generally speaking I'd recommend this book if you want to explore some Japanese writers you probably haven't read before, and it's a gorgeous edition with each story having a beautiful cover art page.
March 3, 2025
The newest in the Calico Series of translated stories from around the world, Unusual Fragments: Japanese Stories edited by Sarah Coolidge features five short stories from under-known and under-translated Japanese authors, particularly from underrepresented groups.
The stories are strange, eerie, and enticing. In "Husband in a Box" by Tomoko Yoshida, tr. Margaret Mitsuani, a woman wants to bring her husband to the opera, but his strange body and needs require getting him there in stealth mode. In "The Hole in the Sky" by Nobuko Takagi, tr. Philip Price, a stubborn woman picks up a young boy in the middle of a typhoon who swears he can find its eye. Taruho Inagaki's "The False Mustache" (tr. Jeffrey Angles) features a middle-school boy obsessed with a silhouette, who becomes introduced to queer desire through the intervention of a college-aged man (CW for age-gap issues here). Takako Takahashi's "Hot Day," tr. Brian Bergstrom, and "Cage of Sand" by Taeko Kono ( tr. Lucy North, both deal with the fears and anxieties women feel as the men around them seem to move easily and without trouble through the world.
Kono is one of the most significant authors of the 20th century in Japan, and yet few of her works are translated into English; Taruho had a cult following in the 1970s and features queer desire in many of his works. The collection is an exciting addition to Japanese literature in translation, and hopefully serves as an encouragement to translate more of these authors' works. The Calico series continues to impress.
Content warnings for age-gap relationship, sexual assault.
The stories are strange, eerie, and enticing. In "Husband in a Box" by Tomoko Yoshida, tr. Margaret Mitsuani, a woman wants to bring her husband to the opera, but his strange body and needs require getting him there in stealth mode. In "The Hole in the Sky" by Nobuko Takagi, tr. Philip Price, a stubborn woman picks up a young boy in the middle of a typhoon who swears he can find its eye. Taruho Inagaki's "The False Mustache" (tr. Jeffrey Angles) features a middle-school boy obsessed with a silhouette, who becomes introduced to queer desire through the intervention of a college-aged man (CW for age-gap issues here). Takako Takahashi's "Hot Day," tr. Brian Bergstrom, and "Cage of Sand" by Taeko Kono ( tr. Lucy North, both deal with the fears and anxieties women feel as the men around them seem to move easily and without trouble through the world.
Kono is one of the most significant authors of the 20th century in Japan, and yet few of her works are translated into English; Taruho had a cult following in the 1970s and features queer desire in many of his works. The collection is an exciting addition to Japanese literature in translation, and hopefully serves as an encouragement to translate more of these authors' works. The Calico series continues to impress.
Content warnings for age-gap relationship, sexual assault.
March 31, 2025
I love short stories!!!! Moreover, Japanese story building and telling is something so grand. Their ability to create obscure characters and push storylines that are so unknown to western literature is PHENOMENAL. If you haven’t read Japanese literature, please bless yourself. These tales are full of alienation and they’re so tender— this was so fun to flip through over break.
October 6, 2025
3.5
tomoko yoshida
tomoko yoshida
June 20, 2025
A collection of 5 odd/weird short stories translated from Japanese.
I am not a huge short story fan, but I found the most unsettling to be Husband in a Box by Tomoko Yoshida. Hot Day by Takako Takahashi really set a mood--heat, anger, frustration, boredom.
I am not a huge short story fan, but I found the most unsettling to be Husband in a Box by Tomoko Yoshida. Hot Day by Takako Takahashi really set a mood--heat, anger, frustration, boredom.
January 27, 2026
Short story collections, more often than not, are usually a mixed bag. Some collections would charm the hell out of me, and some of them would bore me so bad that I'd rather read anything else. Most collections are in the middle: interesting enough to hold my interest, but dull enough that I forget about them in a couple days.
Unusual Fragments is right there in the middle, if slightly above average. It's a collection of five Japanese-authored stories, all strange and weird in their own ways. I would say that most of the collections are more eccentric than off-putting, similar to Yukiko Motoya's Picnic in the Storm.
The Hole in the Sky by Nobuko Takagi is a ghost story, or maybe a fractured memory, about a kid wanting to find the hole of the sky, the hurricane's eye. It's a story about grief, but also maybe it's a story about connecting with the most unlikely people. Takagi is amazing at writing magical realism, I enjoyed that aspect of it. But the kid's incessant monologue about the hurricane's eye was too tedious to get through for me.
Husband in a Box by Tomoko Yoshida is a fun one. A story about a wife whose husband and mother-in-law came from a generation of small, short-statured people. It's a critique on the roles of a housewife, and how the burdens and expectations put on them are severe and exhausting, even if the husband is not a bad person. Gender roles are discussed in a subtle way, prodding at the ridiculous ways housewives are expected to be. A quirky read, but I really enjoyed it. I think I was just expecting more of it though because I left the story feeling a little disappointed.
The False Mustache by Taruho Inagaki is weird, bizarre, an uncomfortable ride. It's a story of a young kid groomed by an older guy who lives in his house as an apprentice (or something similar to that). It's not just a story of grooming either, there's some weird army cosplay story there that I didn't really understand. Inagaki has a history of writing stories centered around younger men, but this story to me was less fetish-y and more macabre. It's a dark coming-of-age story, but definitely avoid this if you don't like reading stories that have pedophilic elements.
Hot Day by Takako Takahashi is atmospheric, in every sense of the word. You can truly feel the suffocation and the blazing heat the characters are going through. It's a story of a couple who went to an island to spend time alone, but all the inns are full and there's no cafes or anything. So they basically have to wait in the hot day, and the tensions between the characters bubble up between them, fracturing their relationship even more. The people on the island are also wary of them, staring and sometimes heckling them. It's a weird story that doesn't have a conclusion, instead opting for an open ending. The author is adept at teleporting you directly to where the characters are. I truly felt suffocated and frustrated reading this one. But I wished it had a more interesting plotline and conclusion because it also left me wanting for more.
Cage of Sand by Taeko Kono, the last story in the collection, and possibly the most powerful. A story of a housewife who stays at home, waiting for her kind-of-useless husband. He travels a lot for his job, so he often has to go somewhere, leaving her alone at home. This story took its time to set up its foundation and atmosphere, but I think it really pays off for me. The sexual revelations that the woman experience were the highlight of the story. The locks she used and her desire to take cautious care of her fidelity was interesting. I think I couldn't say a lot about this story because a lot of the metaphors eluded me, but honestly I was blown away by the way the author connects the setting and the rather dull events of the story to the more emotional and psychological parts of the woman. Taeko Kono is such a masterful author, and I can't wait to dive into her collection of short stories.
All in all, this was a fun collection. I would give it 3.5 stars.
#JanuaryInJapan
Unusual Fragments is right there in the middle, if slightly above average. It's a collection of five Japanese-authored stories, all strange and weird in their own ways. I would say that most of the collections are more eccentric than off-putting, similar to Yukiko Motoya's Picnic in the Storm.
The Hole in the Sky by Nobuko Takagi is a ghost story, or maybe a fractured memory, about a kid wanting to find the hole of the sky, the hurricane's eye. It's a story about grief, but also maybe it's a story about connecting with the most unlikely people. Takagi is amazing at writing magical realism, I enjoyed that aspect of it. But the kid's incessant monologue about the hurricane's eye was too tedious to get through for me.
Husband in a Box by Tomoko Yoshida is a fun one. A story about a wife whose husband and mother-in-law came from a generation of small, short-statured people. It's a critique on the roles of a housewife, and how the burdens and expectations put on them are severe and exhausting, even if the husband is not a bad person. Gender roles are discussed in a subtle way, prodding at the ridiculous ways housewives are expected to be. A quirky read, but I really enjoyed it. I think I was just expecting more of it though because I left the story feeling a little disappointed.
The False Mustache by Taruho Inagaki is weird, bizarre, an uncomfortable ride. It's a story of a young kid groomed by an older guy who lives in his house as an apprentice (or something similar to that). It's not just a story of grooming either, there's some weird army cosplay story there that I didn't really understand. Inagaki has a history of writing stories centered around younger men, but this story to me was less fetish-y and more macabre. It's a dark coming-of-age story, but definitely avoid this if you don't like reading stories that have pedophilic elements.
Hot Day by Takako Takahashi is atmospheric, in every sense of the word. You can truly feel the suffocation and the blazing heat the characters are going through. It's a story of a couple who went to an island to spend time alone, but all the inns are full and there's no cafes or anything. So they basically have to wait in the hot day, and the tensions between the characters bubble up between them, fracturing their relationship even more. The people on the island are also wary of them, staring and sometimes heckling them. It's a weird story that doesn't have a conclusion, instead opting for an open ending. The author is adept at teleporting you directly to where the characters are. I truly felt suffocated and frustrated reading this one. But I wished it had a more interesting plotline and conclusion because it also left me wanting for more.
Cage of Sand by Taeko Kono, the last story in the collection, and possibly the most powerful. A story of a housewife who stays at home, waiting for her kind-of-useless husband. He travels a lot for his job, so he often has to go somewhere, leaving her alone at home. This story took its time to set up its foundation and atmosphere, but I think it really pays off for me. The sexual revelations that the woman experience were the highlight of the story. The locks she used and her desire to take cautious care of her fidelity was interesting. I think I couldn't say a lot about this story because a lot of the metaphors eluded me, but honestly I was blown away by the way the author connects the setting and the rather dull events of the story to the more emotional and psychological parts of the woman. Taeko Kono is such a masterful author, and I can't wait to dive into her collection of short stories.
All in all, this was a fun collection. I would give it 3.5 stars.
#JanuaryInJapan
May 15, 2025
I really liked all the stories in this collection except for the last one, which wasn’t bad but did not seem to fully lead anywhere. I do like that it’s a collection of translated work, so you get exposed to not only a group of authors but also a group of translators.
November 22, 2024
My introduction to Two Lines Press and its Calico Series, Unusual Fragments is a truly bizarre and beautiful collection of 20th century Japanese fiction that may have otherwise been forgotten. A striking compilation of undertranslated writers with themes surrounding gender and sexuality-- four out of the five authors are women, and the fifth is renowned for his writing on queer male desire! Kono's short story to close out all of the works is a gorgeous finale of the collection's theme of dark thoughts and desires of women. Unusual Fragments has left me in awe, and eager to explore the rest of the Calico Series works! Also, a special kudos to the incredible translators who kept me immersed and wanting more!
May 10, 2025
Viisi japanilaista novellia, joita voi kuvailla sanalla "bizarre". Nainen päätyy etsimään taifuunin silmää eksyneen nuoren miehen kanssa. Vaimo vie pienikokoisen aviomiehensä oopperaan miehen äidin varoituksista huolimatta. Nainen kävelee miehensä kanssa kuumana päivänä laiturilla ja hänen todellisuudentajunsa horjuu. Jos kaipaat jotain yllättävää ja outoa, jota ei ole aiemmin käännetty englanniksi, niin tämä kokoelma voisi sopia sinulle! Mutta täytyy sanoa, että en ymmärtänyt ihan kaikkea kaikista novelleista.
November 17, 2025
I love Two Lines' Calico Series, but I found this collection of strange Japanese short fiction to be a mixed bag. I was alternately hypnotized and bewildered by it. Glad to have been able to read it though.
April 12, 2025
Mostly excellent stories, but I have to be honest, I could not follow the final story at all.
Read
June 11, 2025Interesting stories. Nice little blurbs about authors and translators at the back but I was annoyed that there were no original publication dates (or info) for the Japanese versions.
July 10, 2025
mainly because Kono Taeko is All That
September 13, 2025
This one was a little too out of the box and I slogged through it. The stores were out there and I could see the common thread.
September 28, 2025
I wonder if this collection might have felt stronger if there had been some added cultural context or analysis given for each of these stories.
November 30, 2025
indeed very unusual
December 1, 2025
What a strange collection of stories. Very unique in concepts, and no doubt well written, but just amount to very little.
November 24, 2025
To a mind as twisted as mine, these fragments are actually considered ordinary
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews