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Keshiki - new voices from Japan #5
The Girl Who Is Getting Married
An unnamed narrator visits her friend, the girl who is getting married, in her apartment on the fifth floor of an anonymous building. With each flight of steps, the narrator recalls different memories of the time they have spent together their time in high school, their first jobs, a chance encounter on the train. However, just as the building's corridor twists and turn toward the flat, we realise that the story, too, is shifting under our feet. As details go missing and memories are contradicted, we are left wondering whose eyes we re looking through.
Translated by Angus Turvil.
Design by Nigel Aono-Billson.
Translated by Angus Turvil.
Design by Nigel Aono-Billson.
36 pages, Chapbook
First published March 31, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
July 27, 2017
So beautifully written and so amazing that so much could be said with so few words.
February 5, 2018
Premise: A woman’s on her way to visit the girl who is getting married. They’re colleagues. No, they went to the same Uni. No, they're strangers who met on a train. No, they're childhood besties. No, she was a customer at my beauty salon. Wait—do they even know each other at all?
Thoughts: Aoko Matsuda is Karen Russell's translator, so it is tempting to compare her writing to Russell's. However, 'The Girl Who Is Getting Married', at least, is a completely different beast from my favourite of Russell's stories—altogether wilder and more unsettling. I don't know what the sentences are like in the original, but, in Turvill's English, they are short, simple, and repetitive—the phrase "the girl who is getting married" appears dozens of times on the same page. And yet, I was never bored: watching sentence follow sentence was like seeing brick after brick stacking up into a huge towering building—exactly the kind of building the narrator thinks is unnatural because it's important for humans to stay close to the earth. And when the inconsistencies in the narrator's memories became more and more obvious, it was like realising that the building we're seeing rise has deep structural flaws. I spent much of the story waiting with bated breath to see whether it would fall spectacularly, or crumble bit by bit, or remain standing in spite of everything, a Jenga tower that's survived way more rounds than it should.
For a complete guide to the Keshiki series, head over to my blog, Strange Bookfellows: https://strangebookfellowsblog.wordpr...
Thoughts: Aoko Matsuda is Karen Russell's translator, so it is tempting to compare her writing to Russell's. However, 'The Girl Who Is Getting Married', at least, is a completely different beast from my favourite of Russell's stories—altogether wilder and more unsettling. I don't know what the sentences are like in the original, but, in Turvill's English, they are short, simple, and repetitive—the phrase "the girl who is getting married" appears dozens of times on the same page. And yet, I was never bored: watching sentence follow sentence was like seeing brick after brick stacking up into a huge towering building—exactly the kind of building the narrator thinks is unnatural because it's important for humans to stay close to the earth. And when the inconsistencies in the narrator's memories became more and more obvious, it was like realising that the building we're seeing rise has deep structural flaws. I spent much of the story waiting with bated breath to see whether it would fall spectacularly, or crumble bit by bit, or remain standing in spite of everything, a Jenga tower that's survived way more rounds than it should.
For a complete guide to the Keshiki series, head over to my blog, Strange Bookfellows: https://strangebookfellowsblog.wordpr...
January 5, 2020
This was a chapbook with an Introduction by the author Karen Russell. Turns out that the author of this chapbook translated Ms. Russell’s books, 'St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves' and 'Vampires in the Lemon Grove', into Japanese.
This was an interesting read about a woman who was visiting a woman who lived on the fifth floor of an apartment building who was getting married. I think in the 36-page chapbook “the girl who is getting married” was stated over 100 times. The girl’s name is never stated. It appears the woman narrating the story went to grade school with the girl getting married and shared a dormitory room in college with her and they started off working at the same place of employment. And then they separated but still kept in contact. Sounds boring, huh? It’s not. There is something off about this woman doing the narration.
Two series of sentences particularly struck me…the narrator is washing dishes with the girl who is getting married and is wondering why people call washing dishes housework and she says: “I do not want to turn the act of washing dishes into housework. How far can we get without making washing dishes ‘housework’? But then it is because I think we can manage it that I want to marry the girl who is getting married...”
And then” “It may be that I am the reason why the girl who is getting married is tired. That frightens me. That’s what he says. What does that matter? I say. We can deal with it when it happens. That’s what I think, but men can be so sensitive sometimes, can’t they?”
Hmmm….
This was an interesting read about a woman who was visiting a woman who lived on the fifth floor of an apartment building who was getting married. I think in the 36-page chapbook “the girl who is getting married” was stated over 100 times. The girl’s name is never stated. It appears the woman narrating the story went to grade school with the girl getting married and shared a dormitory room in college with her and they started off working at the same place of employment. And then they separated but still kept in contact. Sounds boring, huh? It’s not. There is something off about this woman doing the narration.
Two series of sentences particularly struck me…the narrator is washing dishes with the girl who is getting married and is wondering why people call washing dishes housework and she says: “I do not want to turn the act of washing dishes into housework. How far can we get without making washing dishes ‘housework’? But then it is because I think we can manage it that I want to marry the girl who is getting married...”
And then” “It may be that I am the reason why the girl who is getting married is tired. That frightens me. That’s what he says. What does that matter? I say. We can deal with it when it happens. That’s what I think, but men can be so sensitive sometimes, can’t they?”
Hmmm….
April 4, 2017
This very short volume presents an exercise in floating away. What first appears to be a puzzle of shifting narration ultimately says as much about what the reader brings into the story than what the author tries to present. I have my theory about what the author is trying to say, but like a just-wrong puzzle piece, it doesn't fit perfectly. I am torn between jamming it in anyway and sitting in the ambiguity of contradictory conclusions, but it's entirely likely that that's where the reader is supposed to end up.
Recommended broadly for those who want an interesting and brief reading challenge that demands a second look.
Recommended broadly for those who want an interesting and brief reading challenge that demands a second look.
January 10, 2024
3.25* i could not have predicted how this story would go. in the beginning, everything seemed perfectly normal: the narrator is on her way to visit the girl who is getting married while reminiscing their memories together as she goes. but with each memory, holes start to appear–did they know each other since childhood? did they meet at work? on the train? and so, the facade slowly crumbles.
from then on, the calm and steady cadence of the narration, which hides shifting currents beneath the surface, brings an increasing sense of unease. i don’t think i have ever read a story that contained such a juxtaposition between the simple, repetitive way of its delivery and the inconsistency of it as a whole, and i quite appreciated it.
the author scattered all the puzzle pieces on the floor and left them as that. nothing fell into place. nothing was resolved. the story ended abruptly, and i have to admit that i was not fully satisfied. but this book is the kind of book that demands a second read just to see if there are any signs you might have missed. so i think i am bound to pick up on things i did not on my first read when i give this book another read.
from then on, the calm and steady cadence of the narration, which hides shifting currents beneath the surface, brings an increasing sense of unease. i don’t think i have ever read a story that contained such a juxtaposition between the simple, repetitive way of its delivery and the inconsistency of it as a whole, and i quite appreciated it.
the author scattered all the puzzle pieces on the floor and left them as that. nothing fell into place. nothing was resolved. the story ended abruptly, and i have to admit that i was not fully satisfied. but this book is the kind of book that demands a second read just to see if there are any signs you might have missed. so i think i am bound to pick up on things i did not on my first read when i give this book another read.
January 11, 2021
I have no idea how the author has managed to write something that flows so calmly and beautifully and yet is so unsettling; or how they've managed to leave the story so thoroughly unresolved but have it be satisfying. Must find her other books.
December 2, 2023
I liked this a lot, but I couldn’t figure out who the narrator was to the unnamed Girl Who is Getting Married. Maybe that wasn’t the point.
The writing was beautiful and engaging and slightly disturbing. I would definitely be interested in more by this author.
The writing was beautiful and engaging and slightly disturbing. I would definitely be interested in more by this author.
September 13, 2020
Fascinating. I will read anything that Matsuda writes.
August 12, 2024
a pleasant read but also some mind boggling big brain energy
May 26, 2019
The Girl Who Is Getting Married is a lovely puzzle box of a short story. The unnamed narrator is going to visit “the girl who is getting married,” but who is the narrator, and what is her relationship with the girl who is getting married? Instead of revealing its answer, the question twists and turns in on itself as the possible answers fracture and multiply.
The mystery of the narrator’s identity is ultimately less compelling than the odd rhythm and tempo of her narrative voice, however. As she gradually climbs the stairs to a fifth-floor apartment, she takes the reader along with her, step by step by step, with the expression “the girl who is getting married” repeated like a talismanic refrain. Just as the relationship between the two women shifts and changes, so too does the architecture of the building, which gradually begins to take on its own character.
Just as it’s difficult to grasp the identity of the narrator, it’s also impossible to visualize the building whose staircase she climbs, which is described in terms of the sensations it evokes. The girl who is getting married could be anyone, but the ascent to her apartment is like a description of a surrealist painting. Matsuda plays with words to create and reshape concrete images and abstract illusions; and, in many ways, this short story feels like an extended prose poem. The story is carefully translated and delightfully easy to read, and it’s a lot of fun to get lost in its labyrinth.
The mystery of the narrator’s identity is ultimately less compelling than the odd rhythm and tempo of her narrative voice, however. As she gradually climbs the stairs to a fifth-floor apartment, she takes the reader along with her, step by step by step, with the expression “the girl who is getting married” repeated like a talismanic refrain. Just as the relationship between the two women shifts and changes, so too does the architecture of the building, which gradually begins to take on its own character.
Just as it’s difficult to grasp the identity of the narrator, it’s also impossible to visualize the building whose staircase she climbs, which is described in terms of the sensations it evokes. The girl who is getting married could be anyone, but the ascent to her apartment is like a description of a surrealist painting. Matsuda plays with words to create and reshape concrete images and abstract illusions; and, in many ways, this short story feels like an extended prose poem. The story is carefully translated and delightfully easy to read, and it’s a lot of fun to get lost in its labyrinth.
July 3, 2018
The heart of the story is the structure. Climbing up to the 5th floor to see "the girl who is getting married" (repeated/used in almost every few sentences, instead of a simple 'she' or 'her'), the narrator reminisces about their time together, how they knew each other, and all the tiny details that make up a kinship with someone (from borrowing money that's no longer accounted to wearing stockings). However, the relationship between them is questionable: once we reach the 5th floor (after so many warnings by the narrator of being under or above ground level), we see a woman wearing a flu mask, afraid of who's outside, and who also happens to mention, "your feet's still bad, right?" Is there someone inside the room? Is the woman a projection of the narrator? Is she imagined? There are no clear-cut answers, but what remains is how the story was 'built up' by our storyteller, with nothing (?) on top, just as she fears high-rise buildings because, as she says, one day it will topple down. I liked the metaphor but the sound/style of the writing didn't much appeal to me.
July 27, 2020
I had no idea what to make of this story. The rhythm is odd, yet strangely comforting, with the repetition of "the girl who is getting married" (she is never given a name, nor even referred to as 'she' or 'her').
Unlike normal stories, however, the more that is told of this story the more it falls apart. By the end I didn't know if I was imagining things or not. I had to go back and make sure I had understood other sections correctly.
This book is also a steady path into the uncomfortable (for lack of a better word); from an innocuous "There was not the slightest tension in the smile of the girl who is getting married", to a girl who is getting married who is wearing a flu-mask, surprised to see the narrator, trying to communicate by mouthing something with her lips which are obscured.
This is a very short read, but very involving. I loved it.
Unlike normal stories, however, the more that is told of this story the more it falls apart. By the end I didn't know if I was imagining things or not. I had to go back and make sure I had understood other sections correctly.
This book is also a steady path into the uncomfortable (for lack of a better word); from an innocuous "There was not the slightest tension in the smile of the girl who is getting married", to a girl who is getting married who is wearing a flu-mask, surprised to see the narrator, trying to communicate by mouthing something with her lips which are obscured.
This is a very short read, but very involving. I loved it.
May 19, 2017
Skillful, playful and intriguing. I don't claim I 100% get what is going on with the structure but that doesn't really detract from the book, it's the heart of it. Plus it has gorgeous detail and observations (the annoying and disgusting men in the subway ugh too relatable).
November 14, 2017
twisty turny, tumbly.
March 18, 2018
Loved it. It was such a calming, pleasant read
April 18, 2023
|| the girl who is getting married von Aoko Matsuda (2010)
Übersetzt ins Englische von Angus Turvill (2017) ||
Teil der Kurzgeschichtensammlung Keshiki - new voices from Japan.
Eine namenlose Erzählerin ist auf dem Weg zu einer namenlosen Freundin, die im fünften Stock wohnt. Sie wird fast hundert Mal im Text nur “ the girl who is getting married” genannt. So fragt man sich direkt, in welcher Beziehung die beiden zueinander stehen. Auf dem Weg nach oben werden Erinnerungen an ihre gemeinsame Zeit wach. Von der gemeinsamen Schulzeit, über den ersten Job bis hin zu zufälligen Begegnungen. Aber waren sie überhaupt gemeinsam in der Schule? Kennen Sie sich überhaupt? Aus welcher Perspektive erleben wir die Geschichte? Wer ist die namenlose Erzählerin? Welche Verbindungen haben die beiden? Durch die erzählten gemeinsamen Erinnerungen verändert sich die Beziehung der beiden Frauen und auch das Gebäude ändert sich, so höher sie steigt.
Auf den gerade Mal 35 Seiten wird sehr viel mit uns gespielt. Matsuda spielt mit Worten und den erzeugten Bildern. Gestaltet dann diese Bilder wiederum, so muss man sich beim Lesen immer wieder neu orientieren. Der Text und die Geschichte fließen dahin, man wird einfach mitgenommen. Obwohl die Erzählstimme einen seltsamen Rhythmus besitzt. Oder vielleicht gerade deshalb. Man kann überhaupt nicht mehr aufhören, die Verwirrung steigt, je weiter man liest. Die Geschichte ist einfach ein wunderbares Puzzle, das man lösen möchte.
Übersetzt ins Englische von Angus Turvill (2017) ||
Teil der Kurzgeschichtensammlung Keshiki - new voices from Japan.
Eine namenlose Erzählerin ist auf dem Weg zu einer namenlosen Freundin, die im fünften Stock wohnt. Sie wird fast hundert Mal im Text nur “ the girl who is getting married” genannt. So fragt man sich direkt, in welcher Beziehung die beiden zueinander stehen. Auf dem Weg nach oben werden Erinnerungen an ihre gemeinsame Zeit wach. Von der gemeinsamen Schulzeit, über den ersten Job bis hin zu zufälligen Begegnungen. Aber waren sie überhaupt gemeinsam in der Schule? Kennen Sie sich überhaupt? Aus welcher Perspektive erleben wir die Geschichte? Wer ist die namenlose Erzählerin? Welche Verbindungen haben die beiden? Durch die erzählten gemeinsamen Erinnerungen verändert sich die Beziehung der beiden Frauen und auch das Gebäude ändert sich, so höher sie steigt.
Auf den gerade Mal 35 Seiten wird sehr viel mit uns gespielt. Matsuda spielt mit Worten und den erzeugten Bildern. Gestaltet dann diese Bilder wiederum, so muss man sich beim Lesen immer wieder neu orientieren. Der Text und die Geschichte fließen dahin, man wird einfach mitgenommen. Obwohl die Erzählstimme einen seltsamen Rhythmus besitzt. Oder vielleicht gerade deshalb. Man kann überhaupt nicht mehr aufhören, die Verwirrung steigt, je weiter man liest. Die Geschichte ist einfach ein wunderbares Puzzle, das man lösen möchte.
July 26, 2022
A slice of life. A slice of lonely, mundane life. A big fucking slice of cherry pie. The writing was haunting despite the commonplace events. The words read normal and yet the seemingly ordinary will make you feel every loneliness all at once. There wasn’t ever an ounce of melodrama. It was never required to produce empathy for our narrator. Her thoughts slipped off the pages and invaded our minds. Attaching itself to our own longings and wringing them to exhaustion. I was trapped, unable to feel anything apart from what author told me to feel. Every time the girl who was getting married was reintroduced, I never felt a perspective change. It was as if they were all different people, which kind of isolated the narrator. Creating a barrier that was never addressed but was never transparent. It became a situation of I vs Them. Getting married was a symbol of growth for the narrator. In her eyes, everybody else was getting married, everybody else was able to experience that kind of growth except for her. She longed to be older, to experience the growth which eluded only her. The short novel also took time to detail the narrator’s daily vexations, which can be familiar if you are a woman. These habitual annoyances made her feel unremarkable. She was held captive in a single day of her life.
May 7, 2022
A funny, relatable literary puzzle. Reads like a chat with a friend ruminating on life and relationships, albeit a friend who you don't quite understand. Matsuda's joyfully haunting style, introduced to English readers through her short story collection 'Where the Wild Ladies Are' (tr. Polly Barton), keeps the tone light and fun throughout even as some unease begins to creep in regarding what is actually happening here. Having got to the end I still didn't fully understand it, but I'll be glad to go back to it in a month or so to get a new perspective, then the next month, and again, and again, and again.
February 3, 2023
I think it’s safe to say, Aoko Matsuda is quickly becoming one of my favourite contemporary Japanese authors.
Playing around with themes of memory, ageing and social constructs -especially when those pertaining to gender, Matsuda (with the translational help of Angus Turvill) has created a beautiful -if eerily written, short story.
Yes it may be “unresolved” or at least ambiguous in its ending, but it certainly managed to satisfy this voracious readers appetite (27th book this year already?!)
Definitely the strongest in the Keshiki series so far.
3.5 stars (4 if only it were longer!!)
Playing around with themes of memory, ageing and social constructs -especially when those pertaining to gender, Matsuda (with the translational help of Angus Turvill) has created a beautiful -if eerily written, short story.
Yes it may be “unresolved” or at least ambiguous in its ending, but it certainly managed to satisfy this voracious readers appetite (27th book this year already?!)
Definitely the strongest in the Keshiki series so far.
3.5 stars (4 if only it were longer!!)
May 30, 2019
3.5. Tässä novellissa tarina muuttuu jatkuvasti. Kertoja kiipeää rappusia pitkin viidenteen kerrokseen tapaamaan "tyttöä, joka on menossa naimisiin". Hän tuntee "tytön, joka on menossa naimisiin" päiväkodista, ei kun yliopistosta, ei kun tämä onkin tuntematon vieressäistuja metrosta. Kuka on tyttö? Kuka on kertoja? Mikä on totta vai onko totuutta olemassa? Hämmentävä teos, jota en voi sanoa täysin ymmärtäneeni. Kuitenkin pystyin kuvittelemaan todellisuuden muutokset - kaikki naksahti hetkittäin uuteen asentoon kuin kaleidoskoopin sisällä olevat värilliset lasinsirut.
July 3, 2019
Det er ikke historien i sig selv, der er interessant i "The Girl Who Is Getting Married" af Aoko Matsuda. Det er det, der ikke står på linjerne. Sprækkerne i sproget, hvorigennem der siver en i stigende grad foruroligende følelse, der hos læseren lejrer sig som en mistanke om, at noget er helt galt med den navnløse fortæller ...
Læs min anmeldelse af den femte chapbook i udgivelsesserien #Keshiki fra #StrangersPress på K's bognoter: https://bognoter.dk/2019/07/03/aoko-m...
Læs min anmeldelse af den femte chapbook i udgivelsesserien #Keshiki fra #StrangersPress på K's bognoter: https://bognoter.dk/2019/07/03/aoko-m...
December 3, 2022
This is an interesting short story where an unnamed narrator is going to meet her friend who is simply called The Girl Who is Getting Married and as she is going to the apartment she is recounting various memories and times of her life, however the narrative starts to become more vague and timelines seem not to add up and the relationship between them is not clear. I really liked how this was written with the deliberately repetitive phrasing and how it was faintly sinister and also I kind of liked how I did not entirely understand even by the end.
February 20, 2020
Patience is a virtue and my patience does not betray me. At first, it was hard for me to read "the girl who is getting married" as a repetitive subject. But then that's the form of this short story/novella. At the end of the story, we leave confused; so who is this girl who is getting married? But it's a bittersweet confusion.
June 3, 2023
Short but incredibly well written and packs an emotional and wistful punch.
RTC
RTC
January 22, 2024
3.5/5.
November 22, 2019
This is not one of those stories that you get to read every day.
https://elifthereader.com/books/the-g...
https://elifthereader.com/books/the-g...
April 13, 2017
Poetic imagery and intriguing story. Were there multiple narrators? Does life move in straight lines or along parallel tracks? Perhaps these were sliding doors. Lovely novella.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews