Shot by Both Sides

by Meisei Goto, Tom Gill (Translation)

Critically acclaimed when first published in Japanese, the late Meisei Goto’s novel Shot by Both Sides climbs inside a mind forever wounded by the childhood trauma of war, following one man’s pursuit of his own history through an intense stream of consciousness with loops, flashbacks, and multiple digressions. Akaki, a middle-aged Japanese man in a business suit and overcoat, stands on a bridge in Tokyo, waiting for a friend to show up for an appointment. He recalls how he awoke that morning, suddenly overwhelmed with a desire to locate the military greatcoat he was wearing when he first arrived in Tokyo from his hometown in rural Kyushu twenty years before. Memories of the day he has just spent fruitlessly searching for the coat mingle with memories of his lonely, lust-drenched teen years as a poor country boy in Tokyo—and with older memories from his childhood in northern Korea under Japanese colonial rule, when his dreams of becoming a military hero were lost along with his father in Japan’s defeat. Shot by Both Sides is an enlightening adventure of introspection and a stylistic triumph of unique power.

Genres: Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Meisei Gotō (後藤 明生 Gotō Meisei, April 4, 1932–August 2, 1999), also known as Akio Gotō, was a Japanese author.

Goto was born in North Korea, but fled with his family to Kyūshū, Japan while in junior high school. He studied Russian literature at Waseda University, with particular interest in Nikolai Gogol. He then worked at an advertising agency and a publishing house, before becoming a professional novelist in 1968.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Dianna Dinno · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are made of the vestiges of our memories - that is what I thought of about this book. It showed how a simple event that happened on present time will encourage old memories to replay at the back of our mind. Memories without proof of physical evidence. For me, this is the most beautiful thing, and it showed that we are alive and is a human being composed of feelings and attachments. Memories in itself are different from the physical object, so when it is separated from the physical object (eg: object is lost or destroyed), then only the memory will show its worth.

However, from this version, one could really see the struggle to translate Japanese into English as you read through the paragraphs. It is just bearable that I could go through it since I have (very) elementary Japanese covered, so I could barely understand what the translator was trying to convey. But it is still a good read, and it will take you to understand the mind of a severe introvert, who would have most of his conversation and train of thoughts laid out in chaos, all within his head. It is about the slice of life, or more appropriately, what it means to be human (in the narration of a conscious middle age man).

It is also a story of going through mid-life crisis. The writer started the plot with dull progress through out the story, but eventually adding several remnants of references to his predecessor existentialist such as Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, and etc. Throughout, one could see how those literary works affected the mind of the protagonist, whereby, although he had a very dull life, he was brave enough to take the left turn that would bring him to his very old, stagnant memory well. Or he that he'd get the service of a prostitute (several times, in fact) just because he was reminded of Ogai Mori's similar experience as rendered in Vita Sexualis; showing that a person without own individualistic values are so easily influenced by external factors. Was the consequences of such visits worth it? the memories gained weren't even interesting, nor does the STD he contracted afterwards even slightly pleasant.

Well, in the end, it's just telling how fast our lives move forward, and that the 'I' now will never be the same 'I' from 20 years ago. And this was beautifully described by the writer, who, for some reason, separated the now-conscious (of his past 20 years of memories) protagonist to another character (that depicted as the non-conscious version of himself, before he embarked on the one-day pilgrimage).

3 stars, because it really just a story about how a man in his middle age going through his daily life going on about things, overthinking and making wrong conclusions on every single chain of events. Would it change the way I think? no. Does it make me feel happy while reading this? also no.

[Sisyphus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Need more books from this guy translated. Or I just actually learn nihongo seriously (#notaweab)