Ô vent, ô vent qui parcours le ciel

by Yūko Tsushima

Pendant que sa mère agonise, l'auteur se remémore sa propre vie, en " inventant " le personnage de son double, Ritsuko Takasé, dont elle va raconter l'enfance, puis l'entrée dans le monde adulte et l'incapacité à établir des relations sexuelles stables. Peu à peu, la narration s'oriente vers l'histoire familiale de Fumiko, une camarade de classe, et de Kiyoko, la sœur adoptive de cette dernière. Kiyoko part pour les États-Unis et aura deux filles, élevées l'une au Japon, l'autre à Paris. Pendant que le livre s'écrit, Kiyoko elle-même tombe malade. Le récit tout entier est construit sur cet effet de miroir entre les agonies de deux femmes avec lesquelles la narratrice a des rapports très différents. Que peut la littérature face au deuil ? Comment raconter la mort, la maladie, le sentiment filial, le regard d'une fille sur sa mère, d'une mère sur sa fille ?

379 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Yūko 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.

Reviews

[Elisatlfsse · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was such a beautiful story! Still very much in line with Tsushima Yûko's work, this novel is very reflective of motherhood, womanhood, and girlhood. I really enjoyed the layers of female experiences with children and men, and I liked the fact that some characters's stories were set abroad (i.e., France, the US). I could really feel the migration experience there. I think this work might eventually be considered an autofiction since the protagonist shapes a fictional character aiming to embody her own experience while she deals with grief.

I'm really looking forward to writing on this novel, honestly, and I wish there was an English translation for international readers; fans of Annie Ernaux but also simply readers who already read and liked Tsushima's work will love this book.

(read in French, in my case)

[iqrah · Rating 1 out of 5]

2/9 - Flames, Yuko Tsushima