風葬的教室

by Amy Yamada, 山田詠美, 郭淑娟 (Translator)

在我心裡有一片墓地，對於死去的屍骸，我可是吝於用土去埋葬她們的。將死去的人曝屍荒野，任憑風吹雨打，最後成為枯骨，稱為風葬……

原本是青梅竹馬的朋友，在發現對方矯飾討好的笑臉下，如何走出長期被操控的陰影，獨立勇敢的做自己……

一個從都市到鄉下的轉學生，在面臨到全班同學因嫉妒而聯手排擠時，如何從自殺的邊緣，逆轉成在心裡將教室裡凌辱她的每個人處死，送進風裡……

懵懂的小女孩，遷入一間牆上濺滿血跡的房子，卻把父母信口說說的話拼貼成事實，反而成了桎梏她一生的可怕夢魘……

243 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Amy Yamada (AKA 山田 詠美, Yamada Eimi) born February 8, 1959, is a popular but controversial contemporary Japanese writer who is most famous for her stories that address issues of sexuality, racism, and interracial marriage, topics not typically discussed openly in Japanese society.

Born in Tokyo as Futaba Yamada, she lived in several places around Japan due to her father's job. This transient lifestyle forced her to confront issues of separation and bullying, issues that many of her protagonists also deal with.

According to her interview with the Japanese magazine Bungei, during middle school she was moved by African-American soul music and began to read any novels she could find written by black people, or featuring black people. She held a job in the Roppongi district of Tokyo, an area rich with foreigners.

After graduating from high school in 1977, she entered Meiji University's Literature Department, but dropped out before graduating. After a short stint writing and drawing manga, she began writing novels in 1980. Though her works garnered some attention, even receiving praise from Japanese literary critic Jun Eto (江藤淳 Eto Jun?), she only achieved widespread recognition in 1985, when Bedtime Eyes won the Bungei Prize. In writing Bedtime Eyes, Yamada drew upon her experiences with black people and black culture and combined them with the Japanese literary tradition.

In 1996, "Trash" was published in English translation by Kodansha International (translator: Sonya L. Johnson). In May 2006, three of Yamada's novellas (Bedtime Eyes 「ベッドタイム･アイズ」, The Piano Player's Fingers 「指の戯れ」 and Jesse 「ジェシーの背骨」) were published in English translation (translators: Yumi Gunji and Marc Jardine) as a single volume by St Martin's Press under the collective title Bedtime Eyes.

In Yamada's second collection of works, Jesse's Spine, Yamada depicts the experiences of a woman who is learning to adjust to life with her lover's child from another relationship. The writing style of this work has been compared to William Saroyan's novel, Papa You're Crazy. Through her depiction of the child's perspective on the world, her book was a critical success, earning her a nomination for the Akutagawa Prize for new authors. In her short novels Classroom for the Abandoned Dead, Afterschool Music, and I Can't Study, Yamada tackles the topics of childhood life, bullying, and school life. In an interview with Bungei Shunjū upon winning the Akutagawa Prize, Risa Wataya and Hitomi Kanehara named Yamada's Afterschool Music as one of their major influences, explaining that her works were one of the greatest depictions of modern Japan.

Reviews

[Mari Kato · Rating 4 out of 5]

大人びた主人公の物事の捉えかた、冷静さがスッキリしていてすき。なぜか共感してしまう、自分は他の人とは違うんだと客観的な立場で見ていても感じてしまう共感。女なお姉さんが好き

[ツバキ · Rating 4 out of 5]

看了這個影片之後，突然想到我好像也有讀過這本書，有點想回味，就借來看了。沒想到翻開之後發現什麼都不記得XDDD

雖然我讀過的山田詠美的書大概只有兩本（本來以為只讀過這本，但發現這本沒有我有印象的某個片段，那大概就是出自其他本吧）而已，但對於這個人的作品中性慾的比重很高這件事有點記憶，還是少女的時候其實滿受不了這個部分，但現在重讀之後，雖然還是覺得書中出現的早熟的女孩很沒真實感，根本就是披著少女外皮的大人，但性慾的描寫比我記憶中還要文學多了。

少女微妙的心理其實也滿有意思的，不管是《風葬的教室》還是《蝶之纏足》中，主角的心理跟看待周邊同年女孩們的方式我覺得滿異於其他故事的，倒不是說這是很嶄新的想法，而是她著墨的多是其他故事中不會描寫的部分。讀完有種難以形容的感受，我還是不喜歡這個故事，但故事卻留給我很深的印象。

不過我滿討厭故事裡瞧不起同年女孩的穿著之類的描寫，仔細想想《風葬的教室》的主角可以將其他人曝屍於荒野不是因為她長得很可愛的關係嗎XDDDD 不過這真的是一篇角度很特殊的霸凌故事。

[Hiroko · Rating 5 out of 5]

多感な中学時代にこれを読んだ。まだ世の中のこともなにもしらない、自分の周りだけが世界の全てだった私にとって、何という革命的な一冊だっただろう。
鬱屈した日常から、今まで抜け出せなかった何かから、世界から、すっと解放してもらえた気がする。
今の時期に出会っていたら、あのときのように影響されなかったかもしれない。思春期の、何かよくわからない疎外感を抱える少年少女に読んでもらいたい一冊。

ですます調で書かれた文体もよく効いている。