ポラリスが降り注ぐ夜

by Kotomi Li, 李琴峰

多様な性的アイデンティティを持つ女たちが集う二丁目のバー「ポラリス」。気鋭の台湾人作家が送る、国も歴史も超えて思い合う気持ちが繋がる7つの恋の物語。

Genres: Japan, China, Japanese Literature

265 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2020

Reviews

[Kai-Te Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

對於李琴峰作品居然會在日本矚目起來，一直有種怎麼可能的驚訝，並非她寫得差，而是她一貫的靜、收、私、酷，總是和其他主流日文作家格格不入。

這部小說集以二丁目一間酒吧Polaris裡發散而出的人物群像，角色彼此間也會穿插在不同的篇章，不變的是每個成色都囿於自身過去的傷痛與經驗，細究之後竟開展出許許多多的（個人與家國的）歷史，從台灣的太陽花學運、澳洲同志文化、中國的六四天安門事件、日本的同志運動史，乃至於二丁目自己本身的發展史。作為外國人的李琴峰，在小說裡總是有大量外國人角色，在這部裡又更加延伸到不只女同志，性別認同與傾向在這裡折射出更多的可定義與難以定義的光譜，喜歡作者溫柔的碰觸跨性別角色，他們不再只是故事裡的配角，而是衝撞主流世界的血肉之軀，是跟書裡其他角色一樣擁有許多傷痛、許多期許、許多喜怒哀樂；李琴峰也巧妙地不把二丁目塑造成酷兒的天堂，這裡一樣有階級，一樣有歧視，弱勢族群間的螺旋歧視在這裡時常上演，即便這裡安放了一批又一批在外面無處可去的靈魂。

[Becky]

喜歡短篇各自獨立角色和場景又互有連結的設計，描寫以新宿二丁目為背景的性少數眾生相，但所有角色都有點未完成，讀著常看到作者而不是角色。

[CJ Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty conflicted on this cause the good stories were great but some of these really failed to capture my interest. I really like the stories that felt connected to the bars and cafes that show up in the story (the Polaris owners story was by far the best and was really moving). I think the setting of Nichome is poorly used in a lot of the other cases and the stories delve into the characters backstories without providing them with a “current” story. I also feel like some of these stories are just an introduction into LGBT issues and lifestyles for straight people. In general. Queerness is explored in a lot more interesting ways in the other books I have read by Li but there is still enough in this to make it a worthwhile read.