英子の森

by Aoko Matsuda, 松田青子

彼女たちを「違う世界」へ連れて行ってくれる魔法、それは――
『スタッキング可能』でわたしたちが〈洗脳〉されている「社会」の「不確定さ・不安定さ」と「個人」の「代替可能性」をシニカルに描いた松田青子が贈る、待望の第2作品集。

182 pages, Tankobon Hardcover

First published February 10, 2014

Reviews

[Nina (Momo) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opinions tend to split on Aoko Matsuda's experimental, magical-realism style works, but I personally love them and love analyzing them.

There were some stories that, for me, were slightly forgettable/less impressive in this collection (namely, I was less of a fan of スカートの上のABC and 博士と助手), but I really loved all the rest of the stories.

The final story, わたしはお医者さま？ was probably my favorite. What starts as a group of people playing a party game quickly turns into social commentary. Within an extremely short story, Matsuda delivers a heartbreaking, bittersweet post-apocalyptic science fiction the like of which I had never read before. That story on its own is enough to get five stars from me.

[Emma Nash · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novella and five shorts by the contemporary writer Aoko Matsuda, whom I first encountered through Polly Barton's translation of a short story called "The Woman Dies." In addition to publishing original fiction and essays, Matsuda has also translated work by Karen Russell and Carmen Maria Machado into Japanese. I mention this not only because knowing these other authors might help to give you some idea of Matsuda's own style—unsettling, fairytale-like, magical realist, lightly experimental—but also because Matsuda's English translation experience is directly tied to the themes of Eiko no Mori ("Eiko's Forest"), the first and longest story in this book. The main character, Eiko, is a professional interpreter unsatisfied with jobs that demand only the blandest applications of business English or otherwise fail to compensate her for her years of language study (the difference between a job that does and doesn't use English, we learn, is just ¥50/hr—5 dollars). She dreams of finding a job that uses the full extent of her English ability—and of leaving the Grimms' Fairy Tales-style forest where she lives with her overprotective mother.

"Eiko's Forest" is, essentially, an inventive critique of the false promises of English education in globalizing Japan. Learn English, they say, and you'll be invited to a whole new world of ideas. Spend tons of money on eikaiwa lessons and study abroad and you'll gain the skills to get ahead in the world of global business. The promise of English is the promise of infinite freedom and opportunity. Eiko, however, finds only low-paying jobs and is allowed to use her English ability only in ways already dictated by capital. (There is also a gendered element of this critique—Eiko's mom sees English as her daughter's ticket out of a life of feminine sacrifice etc—which I'm not fully capable of explicating right now). This is an interesting, timely subject, and one I'm happy to see dealt with as creatively and affectingly as it is here, even if I sometimes found some of the story's more experimental flourishes a little tedious.

That last criticism is occasionally true of the shorter pieces of this book, though I still find plenty to like in them. My favorite, which I liked even more than "Eiko's Forest," is actually the last story, "Watashi wa o-isha-sama?" ("Am I a Doctor?"), about a bunch of delivery workers (? I kind of don't remember) playing something like 20 Questions. They write different occupations (normal stuff like "doctor," "Catholic nun," and "Enma, King of Hell") on sheets of paper, tape them to each other's foreheads, and have whoever's 'It' guess what's on their forehead based on their questioning of the other people in the room. The results are very funny even before things take a turn for the absurd—and then poignant—when one woman throws "Penguin Petter" into the mix, based on her childhood dream of being a person whose only job is to pet the penguins at the zoo (this is important, of course, because otherwise the penguins won't be happy to greet visitors, and the zoo will suffer a huge financial loss). Then everyone else starts naming their own "dream jobs." I don't know how to describe why what happens next is so startling and moving, which is probably why I'll probably keep coming back to this story. Very excited to read more Aoko Matsuda, particularly as more of her work becomes available in translation 💕

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the premise of the titular story, but it didn't really land for me. The other stories were mixed, though I quite liked おにいさんがこわい and わたしはお医者さま? was particularly affecting as I find myself reconsidering what I want to do with my life.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bookoffで「スタッキング可能」の表紙に惹かれる→読んで見て結構気にいる→Amazonが他の松田青子の他の本を勧めてくる→「英子の森」？高校の友人に「瑛子」てのがいるな→読んでみる(今ここ)

「スタッキング可能」と同じく、「普通」にこの日本社会に生きている、「普通」の女性たちが主人公の話。
だが、そこにMagic Realism要素が入ってくる。←これがちょっと苦手。

表題作「英子の森」は、過保護な母親と、「英語が得意」な派遣社員英子の話。私自身、過保護な母親に育てられ、窒息しそうになり、「英語が得意」で、数年前まで派遣社員として働いていた。
なので、自分の話を読んでいるような気分になるかと思いきや、何だろう、何か違った。
英子の使う英語と私が仕事で使う英語は種類が違う。
それと、「森」の描写が、息苦しい。そう意図されているんだろうけど。母親(高崎夫人、と地の文で呼ばれている。この少し突き放した感じの描写は何だろう)が、壁から落ちた小花を一つ一つ付け直すシーンとか、気が滅入る。多分自分の母親を思い出して。

「＊写真はイメージです」
「スカートの上のABC」
「博士と助手」
の３作は、何だろう、何故か文字のレイアウトが他の２作と違い、ページの上下の余白が多め。(目次のページでも、この３作品は下付きで表記されている。このデザインの理由はなんだろう？？？)
そして、どれも詩のような、夢のような、ほわほわした感じの作品。

「お兄さんがこわい」
「わたしはお医者さま？」
は比較的長め。「お兄さんがこわい」では、作品の一番初めに「（」がある事に、最後に気づく仕掛けが面白い。

表紙のデザインも結構すきだけど、まぁわざわざ自分ようコピーはいらんな。
この作者、翻訳の仕事もしているらしい(だからこその「英子の森」か)ので、翻訳作品をcheck outしてみようかなと思う。