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Things Remembered and Things Forgotten
'If we want to understand what has been lost to time, there is no way other than through the exercise of imagination ... imagination applied with delicate rather than broad strokes'. So wrote the award winning Japanese author Kyoko Nakajima of her story, Things Remembered and Things Forgotten, a piece that illuminates, as if by throwing a switch, the layers of wartime devastation that lie just below the surface of Tokyo's insistently modern culture.
The ten acclaimed stories in this collection are pervaded by an air of Japanese ghostliness. In beautifully crafted and deceptively light prose, Nakajima portrays men and women beset by cultural amnesia and unaware of how haunted they are - by fragmented memories of war and occupation, by fading traditions, by buildings lost to firestorms and bulldozers, by the spirits of their recent past.
The ten acclaimed stories in this collection are pervaded by an air of Japanese ghostliness. In beautifully crafted and deceptively light prose, Nakajima portrays men and women beset by cultural amnesia and unaware of how haunted they are - by fragmented memories of war and occupation, by fading traditions, by buildings lost to firestorms and bulldozers, by the spirits of their recent past.
265 pages, Paperback
First published May 13, 2021
240 people are currently reading
7411 people want to read
About the author
Kyōko Nakajima
41 books75 followersNakajima (中島 京子) is an award-winning essayist and novelist from Japan. She studied at the Tokyo Woman's Christian University. Her many prizes include: the Naoki Prize, and the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature. And her story Chiisai Ouchi (The Little House), was adapted for cinema in 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 248 reviews
August 7, 2022
I really enjoyed this collection – intriguing and moving. My favourite story was When My Wife Was a Shiitake.
June 7, 2021
3.5 stars
This book started off incredibly strong - I loved the first three stories in this collection which were all 5 star reads for me, the fourth story was (imho) very slow and I really didn’t enjoy it, the fifth story was another strong entry but the last five stories all seemed to be conveying similar things and just merged into underwhelming and repetitive reads which is a great shame as I was certain this was going to be a new favourite.
These stories are subtle and discuss familial loss twinned with ghostly goings-on. Japan has an incredibly rich culture and it was wonderful to see the various rituals they undertake at certain festivals to remember their ancestors but ultimately I found that a lot of these stories were pretty samey and few really stood out or packed an emotional punch.
A nice read for those who enjoy subtle Japanese literature.
This book started off incredibly strong - I loved the first three stories in this collection which were all 5 star reads for me, the fourth story was (imho) very slow and I really didn’t enjoy it, the fifth story was another strong entry but the last five stories all seemed to be conveying similar things and just merged into underwhelming and repetitive reads which is a great shame as I was certain this was going to be a new favourite.
These stories are subtle and discuss familial loss twinned with ghostly goings-on. Japan has an incredibly rich culture and it was wonderful to see the various rituals they undertake at certain festivals to remember their ancestors but ultimately I found that a lot of these stories were pretty samey and few really stood out or packed an emotional punch.
A nice read for those who enjoy subtle Japanese literature.
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September 2, 2025I don't really know why I started this book, or who recommended it to me. But I couldn't quite connect with it. The stories are certainly worth reading, but the themes and writing style are very strange to me, too clinical, too depressing even. Not surprising when you see that it's primarily about loneliness, about the lack of warm relationships between people and generations. And what also struck me: it frequently deals with the Second World War and the period of the American occupation. Not surprising, of course, when the title story itself alludes to what people remember and what they (consciously or unconsciously) forget. The touch of magical realism that pops up regularly wasn't for me either. After the fourth story, I gave up (hence the no rating). To each their own, of course.
July 16, 2021
Review by Tina deBellegarde
Kyoko Nakajima tackles the past and present, the mundane and the ethereal in her delightful collection of short stories Things Remembered and Things Forgotten, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori and Ian McCullough MacDonald. The glue that holds these stories together is memory: how the characters remember, wish to remember, or even remember events they never experienced.
This collection includes love stories, narratives of lost memories, and several tales where time-slips and parallel worlds work their magic. Along with other flights of fancy, ghosts make appearances or are implied in almost all the stories. Subtle, charming, they are not always even clearly ghosts, but rather a wish or desire. The apparitions serve a purpose; they are there to blur the past and present, and as they do, they blur reality as well. As readers we begin to understand that perhaps some of the ghosts aren’t there at all, that the character’s desire for the encounter is enough for it to transpire.
Among my favorites, in “Kirara’s Paper Plane” (transl. MacDonald) a ghost remembers when he was alive, and in “The Life of a Sewing Machine” (transl. Takemori) a thrift shop customer experiences nostalgia for times and places she’s never seen, setting the stage for the telling of the “life” of a dilapidated old sewing machine. Through the history of the appliance we learn the evolving struggles of the humans in its orbit. These two stories are particularly rich in cultural and historical details of wartime Japan. They demonstrate how the war, post-war and then modernity changed the world these characters inhabited and how that, in turn, shaped them. The translators are very successful in conveying the nuances of the culture of Japan while not losing the intimacy or immediacy of the story.
“When My Wife Was a Shiitake” (transl. Takemori) is the most fanciful in the collection. A grieving widower is introduced to an unknown side of his wife when he discovers her cooking journal. In it she shares not only recipes but her reflections on life. One of her musings is about remembering when she was a shiitake; she lingers in this memory with all her senses. He learns to cook, fashions a new memory of his wife, and soon he too learns to remember when he was a shiitake.
The final and capstone story is the longest and my personal favorite. In “The Last Obon,” (transl. MacDonald) all the elements of the prior stories converge. Here memories lost and found blur, and the corporeal and the ethereal are indistinguishable. It is also the story where the main character is most self-aware. As Satsuki prepares the festival to honor her ancestors, the last Obon in her ancestral home before it is sold, her faulty memory causes her to stumble through the process. Consequently, each event, conversation, and image evokes a faint memory, reminds her of her childhood, and dredges up long forgotten memories.
“…an image flitted through her mind of her and her two sisters running around the garden with some children whose names she had long since forgotten. Who was the girl in a red pinafore she was chasing? Satsuki sensed that her real childhood had been gradually overwritten with scenes from movies and TV shows set in an imagined, nostalgic past, and the unexpected shallowness of her memories appalled her.” (p. 233)
Finally, Satsuki comes to the realization that her intentional engagement with her ancestors allows the past to take its rightful place.
“Obon wasn’t something mystical or paranormal, nor was it a metaphor for human existence – it was an expression of how the dead were resurrected through the gestures and actions of the living in the performance of traditional customs and practices.” (p. 256)
Each story in Things Remembered and Things Forgotten shimmers with nostalgia and delight, yet at the same time reminds us how ineffective our memory is. The inaccuracy of our recollections and our desire to remember things a certain way blur our reality and intrude on our ability to see the present clearly. These stories assure us that we are not alone in these shortcomings. This collection leaves the characters and reader with the unsettling yet familiar feeling of trying to remember something just beyond reach.
For more on Japanese short stories, see the BOA Issue 8: The Art of the Short Story where you’ll also find a podcast episode with Tina deBellegarde about what makes a good short story and why some short-story writers are so appealing.
Read the full review at Books on Asia
Kyoko Nakajima tackles the past and present, the mundane and the ethereal in her delightful collection of short stories Things Remembered and Things Forgotten, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori and Ian McCullough MacDonald. The glue that holds these stories together is memory: how the characters remember, wish to remember, or even remember events they never experienced.
This collection includes love stories, narratives of lost memories, and several tales where time-slips and parallel worlds work their magic. Along with other flights of fancy, ghosts make appearances or are implied in almost all the stories. Subtle, charming, they are not always even clearly ghosts, but rather a wish or desire. The apparitions serve a purpose; they are there to blur the past and present, and as they do, they blur reality as well. As readers we begin to understand that perhaps some of the ghosts aren’t there at all, that the character’s desire for the encounter is enough for it to transpire.
Among my favorites, in “Kirara’s Paper Plane” (transl. MacDonald) a ghost remembers when he was alive, and in “The Life of a Sewing Machine” (transl. Takemori) a thrift shop customer experiences nostalgia for times and places she’s never seen, setting the stage for the telling of the “life” of a dilapidated old sewing machine. Through the history of the appliance we learn the evolving struggles of the humans in its orbit. These two stories are particularly rich in cultural and historical details of wartime Japan. They demonstrate how the war, post-war and then modernity changed the world these characters inhabited and how that, in turn, shaped them. The translators are very successful in conveying the nuances of the culture of Japan while not losing the intimacy or immediacy of the story.
“When My Wife Was a Shiitake” (transl. Takemori) is the most fanciful in the collection. A grieving widower is introduced to an unknown side of his wife when he discovers her cooking journal. In it she shares not only recipes but her reflections on life. One of her musings is about remembering when she was a shiitake; she lingers in this memory with all her senses. He learns to cook, fashions a new memory of his wife, and soon he too learns to remember when he was a shiitake.
The final and capstone story is the longest and my personal favorite. In “The Last Obon,” (transl. MacDonald) all the elements of the prior stories converge. Here memories lost and found blur, and the corporeal and the ethereal are indistinguishable. It is also the story where the main character is most self-aware. As Satsuki prepares the festival to honor her ancestors, the last Obon in her ancestral home before it is sold, her faulty memory causes her to stumble through the process. Consequently, each event, conversation, and image evokes a faint memory, reminds her of her childhood, and dredges up long forgotten memories.
“…an image flitted through her mind of her and her two sisters running around the garden with some children whose names she had long since forgotten. Who was the girl in a red pinafore she was chasing? Satsuki sensed that her real childhood had been gradually overwritten with scenes from movies and TV shows set in an imagined, nostalgic past, and the unexpected shallowness of her memories appalled her.” (p. 233)
Finally, Satsuki comes to the realization that her intentional engagement with her ancestors allows the past to take its rightful place.
“Obon wasn’t something mystical or paranormal, nor was it a metaphor for human existence – it was an expression of how the dead were resurrected through the gestures and actions of the living in the performance of traditional customs and practices.” (p. 256)
Each story in Things Remembered and Things Forgotten shimmers with nostalgia and delight, yet at the same time reminds us how ineffective our memory is. The inaccuracy of our recollections and our desire to remember things a certain way blur our reality and intrude on our ability to see the present clearly. These stories assure us that we are not alone in these shortcomings. This collection leaves the characters and reader with the unsettling yet familiar feeling of trying to remember something just beyond reach.
For more on Japanese short stories, see the BOA Issue 8: The Art of the Short Story where you’ll also find a podcast episode with Tina deBellegarde about what makes a good short story and why some short-story writers are so appealing.
Read the full review at Books on Asia
October 11, 2024
Jedna z tych niedocenianych książek, które powinny mieć dużo więcej uwagi.
January 1, 2023
3/5 star
I’m not sure how to feel about this book.
This book has 10 short stories about people, history, love, life, and family and shares some ghost stories with a tune of melancholy. It goes back and forth and back from world war I and II to the present where Japan has grown and changed. Some stories were beautiful and full of love, however, others were not quite entertaining. All of those stories share the beauty of Japan’s atmosphere. Some stories had food in them and filled the book with a sweet aroma.
The stories were:
- Things remembered and things forgotten
- When My Wife Was a Shiitake
- The Life Story of a Sewing Machine
- Global Positioning System
- Kirara’s Paper Plane
- A Special Day
- The Pet Civet
- Childhood Friends
- The Harajuku House
- The Last Obon
Those I loved the most and I would give them 4 stars were (When My Wife Was a Shiitake, Kirara’s Paper Plane, The Pet Civet, and Childhood Friends). Others were 2.5 stars.
And to tell how those stories were, I will speak about one of them, and the second short story from the collection is When My Wife Was a Shiitake. It was a sweet story.
Shiitake is a type of Japanese mushroom, and the story starts with a retired man named Tahei. Tahei’s wife passed away from subarachnoid hemorrhage. A week after her death, Tahei receives a call from his daughter. She asks her dad to attend a cooking class because her mother booked cooking class and she can’t attend it since she is dead. And then Tahei agrees to take it because he finds a diary of his wife with food recipes. We as a reader as we see the grief and bittersweet of the journey we fill for our protagonist Tahei.
Overall, most of the stories were beautiful. Even though it was slow-paced and some stories weren’t that great, I still recommend it.
I’m not sure how to feel about this book.
This book has 10 short stories about people, history, love, life, and family and shares some ghost stories with a tune of melancholy. It goes back and forth and back from world war I and II to the present where Japan has grown and changed. Some stories were beautiful and full of love, however, others were not quite entertaining. All of those stories share the beauty of Japan’s atmosphere. Some stories had food in them and filled the book with a sweet aroma.
The stories were:
- Things remembered and things forgotten
- When My Wife Was a Shiitake
- The Life Story of a Sewing Machine
- Global Positioning System
- Kirara’s Paper Plane
- A Special Day
- The Pet Civet
- Childhood Friends
- The Harajuku House
- The Last Obon
Those I loved the most and I would give them 4 stars were (When My Wife Was a Shiitake, Kirara’s Paper Plane, The Pet Civet, and Childhood Friends). Others were 2.5 stars.
And to tell how those stories were, I will speak about one of them, and the second short story from the collection is When My Wife Was a Shiitake. It was a sweet story.
Shiitake is a type of Japanese mushroom, and the story starts with a retired man named Tahei. Tahei’s wife passed away from subarachnoid hemorrhage. A week after her death, Tahei receives a call from his daughter. She asks her dad to attend a cooking class because her mother booked cooking class and she can’t attend it since she is dead. And then Tahei agrees to take it because he finds a diary of his wife with food recipes. We as a reader as we see the grief and bittersweet of the journey we fill for our protagonist Tahei.
Overall, most of the stories were beautiful. Even though it was slow-paced and some stories weren’t that great, I still recommend it.
August 8, 2021
"Surveying the little scene around her, it occurred to Satsuki that the belief that the ancestral spirits returned at Obon wasn't something mystical or paranormal, nor was it a metaphor for human existence it was an expression of how the dead were resurrected through the gestures and actions of the living in the performance of traditional customs and practices."
Nakajima's stories are quiet, not resorting to flashy tactics to make their mark, employing rich tiny details and subdued flights of fancy in order to pull contemporary Japan on the page. The past sits very close to the present, the dead with the living, the forgotten & the remembered. Ghosts appear frequently, out of time and place in limbo yet the sense they generate isn't one of horror or terror but this deeply familiar feeling of great loss, the relentless passage of time and the marks it has left on the country and its inhabitants. A pervading nostalgia, a constant echo of the ephemeral.
The Second World War's dark shadow looms large over the narrativescape of her stories, perceptible and unbroken. Its sustained trauma, personal and collective, manifests itself in different forms in our rapidly changing new world where no matter how strongly we hold on to the old days, they slip & slide out of our grasp. The prose is simple but engaging and the stories usually progress linearly, working with cuts to flashbacks and reminisces that fill in the gaps. They can be clunky, basic, easily figured out, but reading pleasure lies in the way they are told & narrated, full of unsettlement.
My favourites were "The Last Obon", about one family saying farewell to an ancestral home which has been told, coming together for a final memorial. "Kirara's Paper Plane", about the ghost of a homeless boy stuck in a death loop who has fun with the daughter of a sex worker who's been left on her own. "Childhood Friends" follows a trans woman and her friend getting together in their late forties when he finally returns to Tokyo. In "Global Positioning System" an old man is set up with a trackable phone to make him locatable as he has dementia. Overall, it i a capable collection looking at memory & its recollection. Ian McCullough MacDonald and Ginny Tapley Takemori have translated five stories each.
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
May 19, 2021
Beautiful short stories mostly about ghosts and families. I couldn't go on reading them back to back quickly as usual since each story made me stop for a while and think about them. My favorite story among them was "Kirara's Paper Plane". I'll probably think about that one for a long time.
August 25, 2022
Dearly love all the 10 stories in here as it was so delicately written with combination of themes that I favoured; from historical backdrop to magical realism setting, of lifestyle and culture, stories on friendship, love and an engrossing family bond narrative that giving me both surreal and a comfort aftermath.
I love how each story was tied in the same nuances having those nostalgic reminiscing of the past through the character's recollection of memories and personal musings (I love When My Wife Was A Shiitake-- this has won a literary award previously, The Harajuku House and The Last Obon stories the most for this). Descriptive and whimsically narrated with an unexpected twist or uncanny incident that somehow leaving me with a delightful surprise-- that plot twist for Things Remembered and Things Forgotten was so unforeseen but I love it the most along with the end twist for Kirara's Paper Plane and Childhood Friends.
The characters were my most fav part of this collection as I think the author managed to fascinate me with their life-like and bizarre behaviours adding such wit and wonder-- Kenta the ghost protagonist from Kirara's Paper Plane, the three sisters from both Global Positioning System and The Last Obon, even that scandalous sewing machine in The Lifestory of A Sewing Machine gets me enthralled. Few stories having a gripping perspective from an older character highlighting on grief and their forgetfulness-- quite riveting and bit heartwrenching too. An ambiguous narrative for A Special Day, The Harajuku House and The Pet Civet yet I still enjoyed these stories a lot because the absurdities were too tempting.
Giving 5 startling stars to this collection!
I love how each story was tied in the same nuances having those nostalgic reminiscing of the past through the character's recollection of memories and personal musings (I love When My Wife Was A Shiitake-- this has won a literary award previously, The Harajuku House and The Last Obon stories the most for this). Descriptive and whimsically narrated with an unexpected twist or uncanny incident that somehow leaving me with a delightful surprise-- that plot twist for Things Remembered and Things Forgotten was so unforeseen but I love it the most along with the end twist for Kirara's Paper Plane and Childhood Friends.
The characters were my most fav part of this collection as I think the author managed to fascinate me with their life-like and bizarre behaviours adding such wit and wonder-- Kenta the ghost protagonist from Kirara's Paper Plane, the three sisters from both Global Positioning System and The Last Obon, even that scandalous sewing machine in The Lifestory of A Sewing Machine gets me enthralled. Few stories having a gripping perspective from an older character highlighting on grief and their forgetfulness-- quite riveting and bit heartwrenching too. An ambiguous narrative for A Special Day, The Harajuku House and The Pet Civet yet I still enjoyed these stories a lot because the absurdities were too tempting.
Giving 5 startling stars to this collection!
February 13, 2022
Each of ten stories in Kyoko Nakajima’s “Things Remembered and Things Forgotten” could make a delightful film, ideally made by Naomi Kawase. She’s the perfect director to gently explore the role of memory and senses in life and this is exactly what Nakajima addresses in her utterly beautiful stories.
Many of the stories feature ghosts but there is nothing scary or evil about them. In Japanese culture many ghosts just are. They don’t mean to do any harm, they appear to accompany humans for a period of time. This is what happens in these stories; whereas it’s the ghost of a resident of an old mansion off Omotesandō in Tokyo or spirits of people from three sisters’ mother’s past who visit her old house in Gunma for Obon, they are benevolent and kind. Many stories reveal hardships people had to endure during the war and in post-war years and shed a light on the decades of transformation and economic growth in Japan. The level of detail is often evocative and I believe many Japanese readers can relate to the mentions of specific tastes, scents or other sensory experiences being described. This also made me think of Kawase’s films.
I adored “Things Remembered and Things Forgotten” as it warmed my heart towards people. These are extremely well crafted stories, with brilliant endings (and often superb last sentences, really closing each narrative), very well translated (dialogues, often so hard to translate from Japanese into English, here flow smoothly) and they showed me how much goodness there is in people and how much of it we can see if we actually open our eyes.
Many of the stories feature ghosts but there is nothing scary or evil about them. In Japanese culture many ghosts just are. They don’t mean to do any harm, they appear to accompany humans for a period of time. This is what happens in these stories; whereas it’s the ghost of a resident of an old mansion off Omotesandō in Tokyo or spirits of people from three sisters’ mother’s past who visit her old house in Gunma for Obon, they are benevolent and kind. Many stories reveal hardships people had to endure during the war and in post-war years and shed a light on the decades of transformation and economic growth in Japan. The level of detail is often evocative and I believe many Japanese readers can relate to the mentions of specific tastes, scents or other sensory experiences being described. This also made me think of Kawase’s films.
I adored “Things Remembered and Things Forgotten” as it warmed my heart towards people. These are extremely well crafted stories, with brilliant endings (and often superb last sentences, really closing each narrative), very well translated (dialogues, often so hard to translate from Japanese into English, here flow smoothly) and they showed me how much goodness there is in people and how much of it we can see if we actually open our eyes.
March 20, 2022
The translation is straightforward and easy to understand. Many of the works deal with the war and its aftermath, which are terrible truths in the world now, as well as in the past for the Japanese.
This was a heartfelt read. Keeping my eyes on Nakajima!
This was a heartfelt read. Keeping my eyes on Nakajima!
May 14, 2021
Things Remembered and Things Forgotten by the Japanese author Kyoto Nakajima is a collection of short stories with that melancholic and ethereal undertone I've come to expect from Japanese literature.
There's a subtlety about these ten short stories and a silvery chord that connects one to another like a delicate spiderweb. Each story deals with similar themes, bringing together reflections upon the past and musings of times and possessions left hidden or buried, only to be resurfaced or unearthed. An air of ghostliness pervades throughout the prose, echoed within descriptions of the ephemeral spirits of dead loved ones, the haunting remnants of war, the fading of memory, and the destruction of the landscape (through natural disasters and at the hands of man). One of my favourite short stories was 'When My Wife Was a Shiitake’.
Newly translated into English by Ian McCullough MacDonald and Ginny Tapley Takemori, this collection is worth reading if you've enjoyed books by other Japanese women in translation, such as Sayaka Murata (Convenience Store Woman), Hiromi Kawakami (Strange Weather in Tokyo) and Yūko Tsushima (Territory of Light).
*Thank you to the publisher for kindly gifting me an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.
There's a subtlety about these ten short stories and a silvery chord that connects one to another like a delicate spiderweb. Each story deals with similar themes, bringing together reflections upon the past and musings of times and possessions left hidden or buried, only to be resurfaced or unearthed. An air of ghostliness pervades throughout the prose, echoed within descriptions of the ephemeral spirits of dead loved ones, the haunting remnants of war, the fading of memory, and the destruction of the landscape (through natural disasters and at the hands of man). One of my favourite short stories was 'When My Wife Was a Shiitake’.
Newly translated into English by Ian McCullough MacDonald and Ginny Tapley Takemori, this collection is worth reading if you've enjoyed books by other Japanese women in translation, such as Sayaka Murata (Convenience Store Woman), Hiromi Kawakami (Strange Weather in Tokyo) and Yūko Tsushima (Territory of Light).
*Thank you to the publisher for kindly gifting me an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.
June 18, 2022
"Surveying the little scene around her, it occurred to Satsuki that the belief that the ancestral spirits returned at Obon wasn’t something mystical or paranormal, nor was it a metaphor for human existence – it was an expression of how the dead were resurrected through the gestures and actions of the living in the performance of traditional customs and practices."
Things Remembered and Things Forgotten (おぼえていること、忘れてしまったとこ) 3/5
When My Wife Was a Shiitake (妻が椎茸だったころ) 5/5
The Life Story of a Sewing Machine (マシンの履歴)4/5
Global Positioning System (全地球測位システム) 4/5
Kirara’s Paper Plane (きららの紙飛行機) 5/5
A Special Day (今日はなんだが特別な日) 3.5/5
The Pet Civet (ハクビシンを飼う) 3.5/5
Childhood Friends (おさななじみ) 2/5
The Harajuku House (原宿の家) 2/5
The Last Obon (最後のお盆) 3.5/5
The stories considered together, create a glimpse into the ways we construct our memories, and the ways we forget—through the natural process of time, and even deliberately.
Overall rating: 3.5/5
Things Remembered and Things Forgotten (おぼえていること、忘れてしまったとこ) 3/5
When My Wife Was a Shiitake (妻が椎茸だったころ) 5/5
The Life Story of a Sewing Machine (マシンの履歴)4/5
Global Positioning System (全地球測位システム) 4/5
Kirara’s Paper Plane (きららの紙飛行機) 5/5
A Special Day (今日はなんだが特別な日) 3.5/5
The Pet Civet (ハクビシンを飼う) 3.5/5
Childhood Friends (おさななじみ) 2/5
The Harajuku House (原宿の家) 2/5
The Last Obon (最後のお盆) 3.5/5
The stories considered together, create a glimpse into the ways we construct our memories, and the ways we forget—through the natural process of time, and even deliberately.
Overall rating: 3.5/5
January 15, 2022
4.5/5 ⭐️
October 22, 2021
4.5
Most stories in this book are kind and sweet without being cloying or patronizing. Some, like the title story, are extremely painful, without Nakajima manipulating her readers or torturing her characters. She only needs half-sentences to create and destroy. Left me once again convinced that as literary form the short story is superior to the novel.
Most stories in this book are kind and sweet without being cloying or patronizing. Some, like the title story, are extremely painful, without Nakajima manipulating her readers or torturing her characters. She only needs half-sentences to create and destroy. Left me once again convinced that as literary form the short story is superior to the novel.
April 7, 2023
Charming but uneven collection of stories. “When My Wife Was a Shiitake” is marvelous.
February 12, 2025
I've wanted to read Kyoko Nakajima's short story collection 'Things Remembered and Things Forgotten' for a while. So I picked it up and finished reading it yesterday.
This collection has ten short stories. Some of them feature ghosts or ghostly apparitions. In one story, a man and his wife go to meet his elder brother who is in a home, and who is suffering from dementia. The story goes back in time, and we discover what happened to them as children. Towards the end, there is a huge revelation, which turns everything upside down. I didn't see that coming. I'd have missed it if I'd blinked.
In another story, a man is grieving for his wife, when he discovers that she has enrolled for a cooking class. He goes to the class in her place, and beautiful things start happening after that. The man's love for his wife grows even after she'd passed. It was one of my favourite stories from the book.
In another story, a young woman spots an old sewing machine in a store. The store owner invites her in and explains to her about the different items there. There is one more sewing machine inside the store, and we discover its history, how it started its life, how people fought for it, how it was part of historical events, and how it ended up at the store. It was also one of my favourite stories from the book.
In another story, a ghost who frequently ends up in the real world, finds himself in the company of a young girl and he ends up taking care of her and making her happy. But the clock is ticking and soon it will be time for him to leave and he feels sad that he has to leave this young person behind, and he worries about her. This was also one of my favourite stories in the book. The affection and friendship between the ghost and the young girl is so beautifully portrayed in the story.
In another story a young woman strays into an unknown part of the city, where she finds a huge building filled with amazing art galleries. What happens after that is the story. In another story, an old woman who lives in the countryside, in the middle of nowhere, finds a civet in the top floor of the house. She calls a guy who'll help to catch it. But after he catches it, she falls in love with the civet, and the unusual friendship between these three forms the rest of the story. I know that Kopi Luwak coffee comes from the civet, but this is the first time I'm reading a story featuring a civet. It was beautiful.
In another story, a young man visits a house for a survey. There is a young woman living in the house and there appears to be no one else there. The young man falls in love with her. A mysterious young woman living alone in a house in the middle of nowhere, well, there definitely have be some ghosts or some haunting stuff there, isn't it?
In another stories three sisters decide to celebrate Obon in their family's ancestral home in the village. This festival is celebrated in honour of ancestors. Soon people from their past visit their home and light incense sticks. But new strange facts about these visitors emerge after a while, which gives a whole new perspective to the story.
These were all some of my favourite stories from the book. I have deliberately not included their titles, so that if you decide to read the book, you discover the pleasures of the book yourself.
I enjoyed reading 'Things Remembered and Things Forgotten'. Happy to have read my first Kyoko Nakajima book. Hoping to read more.
Sharing some of my favourite parts from the book.
From 'A Special Day'
"When a sculptor of Buddhist images carves a statue, he uses his chisel to carve out the soul latent in the wood, and I believe we doll makers feel the same way about our work. In other words, we do not pull our creations out of thin air, we merely help to give form to something that already exists so that everyone can see it. I created each and every piece you see here today with precisely this sentiment."
From 'The Last Obon'
"Surveying the little scene around her, it occurred to Satsuki that the belief that the ancestral spirits returned at Obon wasn’t something mystical or paranormal, nor was it a metaphor for human existence – it was an expression of how the dead were resurrected through the gestures and actions of the living in the performance of traditional customs and practices."
"Satsuki sensed that her real childhood had been gradually overwritten with scenes from movies and TV shows set in an imagined, nostalgic past, and the unexpected shallowness of her memories appalled her."
Have you read 'Things Remembered and Things Forgotten'? What do you think about it?
This collection has ten short stories. Some of them feature ghosts or ghostly apparitions. In one story, a man and his wife go to meet his elder brother who is in a home, and who is suffering from dementia. The story goes back in time, and we discover what happened to them as children. Towards the end, there is a huge revelation, which turns everything upside down. I didn't see that coming. I'd have missed it if I'd blinked.
In another story, a man is grieving for his wife, when he discovers that she has enrolled for a cooking class. He goes to the class in her place, and beautiful things start happening after that. The man's love for his wife grows even after she'd passed. It was one of my favourite stories from the book.
In another story, a young woman spots an old sewing machine in a store. The store owner invites her in and explains to her about the different items there. There is one more sewing machine inside the store, and we discover its history, how it started its life, how people fought for it, how it was part of historical events, and how it ended up at the store. It was also one of my favourite stories from the book.
In another story, a ghost who frequently ends up in the real world, finds himself in the company of a young girl and he ends up taking care of her and making her happy. But the clock is ticking and soon it will be time for him to leave and he feels sad that he has to leave this young person behind, and he worries about her. This was also one of my favourite stories in the book. The affection and friendship between the ghost and the young girl is so beautifully portrayed in the story.
In another story a young woman strays into an unknown part of the city, where she finds a huge building filled with amazing art galleries. What happens after that is the story. In another story, an old woman who lives in the countryside, in the middle of nowhere, finds a civet in the top floor of the house. She calls a guy who'll help to catch it. But after he catches it, she falls in love with the civet, and the unusual friendship between these three forms the rest of the story. I know that Kopi Luwak coffee comes from the civet, but this is the first time I'm reading a story featuring a civet. It was beautiful.
In another story, a young man visits a house for a survey. There is a young woman living in the house and there appears to be no one else there. The young man falls in love with her. A mysterious young woman living alone in a house in the middle of nowhere, well, there definitely have be some ghosts or some haunting stuff there, isn't it?
In another stories three sisters decide to celebrate Obon in their family's ancestral home in the village. This festival is celebrated in honour of ancestors. Soon people from their past visit their home and light incense sticks. But new strange facts about these visitors emerge after a while, which gives a whole new perspective to the story.
These were all some of my favourite stories from the book. I have deliberately not included their titles, so that if you decide to read the book, you discover the pleasures of the book yourself.
I enjoyed reading 'Things Remembered and Things Forgotten'. Happy to have read my first Kyoko Nakajima book. Hoping to read more.
Sharing some of my favourite parts from the book.
From 'A Special Day'
"When a sculptor of Buddhist images carves a statue, he uses his chisel to carve out the soul latent in the wood, and I believe we doll makers feel the same way about our work. In other words, we do not pull our creations out of thin air, we merely help to give form to something that already exists so that everyone can see it. I created each and every piece you see here today with precisely this sentiment."
From 'The Last Obon'
"Surveying the little scene around her, it occurred to Satsuki that the belief that the ancestral spirits returned at Obon wasn’t something mystical or paranormal, nor was it a metaphor for human existence – it was an expression of how the dead were resurrected through the gestures and actions of the living in the performance of traditional customs and practices."
"Satsuki sensed that her real childhood had been gradually overwritten with scenes from movies and TV shows set in an imagined, nostalgic past, and the unexpected shallowness of her memories appalled her."
Have you read 'Things Remembered and Things Forgotten'? What do you think about it?
August 16, 2024
Jestem pod wrażeniem – dawno nie czytałam tak nijakiej książki.
Szumnie pisano, jakich to istotnych tematów nie porusza (rodzina, tradycje, „chimeryczność wspomnień”), ale przecież nie wystarczy, by cokolwiek z tej listy było wątkiem – chyba powinno mieć jakąś głębię, poruszać czytelnika, jakkolwiek oddziaływać? Tymczasem opowiadania po prostu sobie są. Tak o napisane. Niektóre czytało się ciekawiej niż inne (np. „Ostatnie Święto Zmarłych” czy „Papierowy samolocik Kirary”), lecz ostatecznie nie zawierały w sobie nic wartościowego. Początkowe opowiadania były tak beznadziejne, że sekundę po skończeniu nawet nie pamiętałam, o czym były.
Te opowiadania nie zasługiwały na druk.
Szumnie pisano, jakich to istotnych tematów nie porusza (rodzina, tradycje, „chimeryczność wspomnień”), ale przecież nie wystarczy, by cokolwiek z tej listy było wątkiem – chyba powinno mieć jakąś głębię, poruszać czytelnika, jakkolwiek oddziaływać? Tymczasem opowiadania po prostu sobie są. Tak o napisane. Niektóre czytało się ciekawiej niż inne (np. „Ostatnie Święto Zmarłych” czy „Papierowy samolocik Kirary”), lecz ostatecznie nie zawierały w sobie nic wartościowego. Początkowe opowiadania były tak beznadziejne, że sekundę po skończeniu nawet nie pamiętałam, o czym były.
Te opowiadania nie zasługiwały na druk.
January 3, 2023
A strong 4.5 out of 5 stars. Did not expect to like this short story collection so much. Reading this felt like having a cozy blanket and a warm cup of tea at the same time. So comforting. My favorite story is definitely When My Wife Was a Shitake ✨️
December 22, 2025
Tried to keep an open mind but this book was good in the beginning. unfortunately the last few chapters, what was that? the hell🥲
August 29, 2021
Li esse livro por conta de um clube do livro na minha cidade. Eu não conhecia a autora e provavelmente não teria escolhido esse livro por conta própria, mas lendo a sinopse parecia interessante.
As histórias permeiam um tema geral de memória; como nós vivemos com nossa própria memória, mas também sobre as memórias coletivas e relacionadas à cultura. Algumas histórias tem partes fantásticas ou sobrenaturais, mas eu achei que dava pra acreditar bem nessas partes, e que as partes sobrenaturais não eram assustadoras.
Achei melhor dar nota separadamente para cada conto, e decidi que a experiência geral de ler o livro foi 4 estrelas. A maioria dos contos é bem curtinha, achei eles mais curtos que os contos de outros livros que eu já tinha lido (pra mim não foi uma coisa ruim não, na maioria das vezes eles acabavam de repente e de uma maneira surpreendente).
THINGS REMEMBERED AND THINGS FORGOTTEN 5*
A história que dá título ao livro e tem um dos finais mais chocantes do livro todo. Daí já deu pra eu perceber que a autora gosta de contar a história e revelar os detalhes importantes só no fim, pra você ficar um tempão pensando no que leu. Tanto que as vezes eu não conseguia terminar uma história e ir direto para a próxima, gostava de ficar pensando sobre o que tinha acabado de ler.
Talvez eu esteja pensando nesse final até agora, e com raiva do Masaru.
WHEN MY WIFE WAS A SHIITAKE 4*
Achei fofinha, mas não achei tão maravilhosa como muitas pessoas do clube do livro acharam. O que me deixou mais tocada foi mostrando que nós somos capazes de mudarmos nosso modo de vida a qualquer momento, e que pessoas que ainda não nos conhecem conhecerão apenas nosso novo lado. Essa percepção veio com um misto de liberdade e alegria.
THE LIFE STORY OF A SEWING MACHINE 1*
Eu penso com frequência sobre o caminho que objetos passam até chegar a mim (talvez porque eu use roupas que já tinham sido usadas pela minha mãe, meu pai e minha avó), mas mesmo assim essa história não me cativou tanto e achei um pouco cansativa.
GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM 3*
Também achei fofinha, mas achei que o final foi muito abrupto e que eu não peguei a mensagem geral da história.
KIRARA'S PAPER PLANE 5*
Nossa, o que foi essa história? Tive que parar depois que ela acabou pra sentir todos os sentimentos que vieram com ela. Acho que ainda não superei o que aconteceu. Foi muito linda, de aquecer o coração, e muito triste ao mesmo tempo. Se você tivesse que escolher só um conto desse livro pra ler eu sugeriria esse!
A SPECIAL DAY 2*
Não entendi o final, e aparentemente ninguém do meu clube do livro entendeu.
THE PET CIVET 4*
Uau. Mas me incomodou muito a menina, que nunca nem teve contato com a tia, ficar achando que ela não era o tipo de se relacionar com homens simplesmente tinha um estilo de vida diferente do comum.
CHILDHOOD FRIENDS 3*
Totalmente chocada no fim, mas eu precisava de muito mais esclarecimento do que o que foi dado. Tive tantas perguntas que eu queria respondidas.
THE HARAJUKU HOUSE 3*
Me manteve curiosa até o fim, porque eu queria muito saber o que estava acontecendo. Cheguei em uma conclusão, mas a conclusão de uma das meninas do clube do livro foi infinitamente melhor que a minha.
THE LAST OBON 4*
Acho que depois de um tempo lendo as histórias da mesma autora, centradas num mesmo tema, elas acabam ficando menos surpreendentes. Acho que se eu tivesse lido essa sem ler as outras eu teria ficado bem mais surpreendida. Mas essa teve uma passagem bem especial pra mim.
"Surveying the little scene around her, it occured to Satsuki that the belief that the ancestral spirits returned at Obon (algo um pouco parecido com o dia de los muertos) wasn't something mystical or paranormal, nor was it a metaphor for human existance - it was an expression of how the dead were ressurected through the gestures and actions of the living in the performance of traditional customs and practices."
E aqui eu não levei tanto para o sentido literal de costumes culturais, mas de costumes que a própria família ou até amigos tem, como uma receita feita em alguma ocasião específica. Pra mim sempre é tempo de criar algum costume que poderá se tornar uma tradição familiar no futuro.
As histórias permeiam um tema geral de memória; como nós vivemos com nossa própria memória, mas também sobre as memórias coletivas e relacionadas à cultura. Algumas histórias tem partes fantásticas ou sobrenaturais, mas eu achei que dava pra acreditar bem nessas partes, e que as partes sobrenaturais não eram assustadoras.
Achei melhor dar nota separadamente para cada conto, e decidi que a experiência geral de ler o livro foi 4 estrelas. A maioria dos contos é bem curtinha, achei eles mais curtos que os contos de outros livros que eu já tinha lido (pra mim não foi uma coisa ruim não, na maioria das vezes eles acabavam de repente e de uma maneira surpreendente).
THINGS REMEMBERED AND THINGS FORGOTTEN 5*
A história que dá título ao livro e tem um dos finais mais chocantes do livro todo. Daí já deu pra eu perceber que a autora gosta de contar a história e revelar os detalhes importantes só no fim, pra você ficar um tempão pensando no que leu. Tanto que as vezes eu não conseguia terminar uma história e ir direto para a próxima, gostava de ficar pensando sobre o que tinha acabado de ler.
Talvez eu esteja pensando nesse final até agora, e com raiva do Masaru.
WHEN MY WIFE WAS A SHIITAKE 4*
Achei fofinha, mas não achei tão maravilhosa como muitas pessoas do clube do livro acharam. O que me deixou mais tocada foi mostrando que nós somos capazes de mudarmos nosso modo de vida a qualquer momento, e que pessoas que ainda não nos conhecem conhecerão apenas nosso novo lado. Essa percepção veio com um misto de liberdade e alegria.
THE LIFE STORY OF A SEWING MACHINE 1*
Eu penso com frequência sobre o caminho que objetos passam até chegar a mim (talvez porque eu use roupas que já tinham sido usadas pela minha mãe, meu pai e minha avó), mas mesmo assim essa história não me cativou tanto e achei um pouco cansativa.
GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM 3*
Também achei fofinha, mas achei que o final foi muito abrupto e que eu não peguei a mensagem geral da história.
KIRARA'S PAPER PLANE 5*
Nossa, o que foi essa história? Tive que parar depois que ela acabou pra sentir todos os sentimentos que vieram com ela. Acho que ainda não superei o que aconteceu. Foi muito linda, de aquecer o coração, e muito triste ao mesmo tempo. Se você tivesse que escolher só um conto desse livro pra ler eu sugeriria esse!
A SPECIAL DAY 2*
Não entendi o final, e aparentemente ninguém do meu clube do livro entendeu.
THE PET CIVET 4*
Uau. Mas me incomodou muito a menina, que nunca nem teve contato com a tia, ficar achando que ela não era o tipo de se relacionar com homens simplesmente tinha um estilo de vida diferente do comum.
CHILDHOOD FRIENDS 3*
Totalmente chocada no fim, mas eu precisava de muito mais esclarecimento do que o que foi dado. Tive tantas perguntas que eu queria respondidas.
THE HARAJUKU HOUSE 3*
Me manteve curiosa até o fim, porque eu queria muito saber o que estava acontecendo. Cheguei em uma conclusão, mas a conclusão de uma das meninas do clube do livro foi infinitamente melhor que a minha.
THE LAST OBON 4*
Acho que depois de um tempo lendo as histórias da mesma autora, centradas num mesmo tema, elas acabam ficando menos surpreendentes. Acho que se eu tivesse lido essa sem ler as outras eu teria ficado bem mais surpreendida. Mas essa teve uma passagem bem especial pra mim.
"Surveying the little scene around her, it occured to Satsuki that the belief that the ancestral spirits returned at Obon (algo um pouco parecido com o dia de los muertos) wasn't something mystical or paranormal, nor was it a metaphor for human existance - it was an expression of how the dead were ressurected through the gestures and actions of the living in the performance of traditional customs and practices."
E aqui eu não levei tanto para o sentido literal de costumes culturais, mas de costumes que a própria família ou até amigos tem, como uma receita feita em alguma ocasião específica. Pra mim sempre é tempo de criar algum costume que poderá se tornar uma tradição familiar no futuro.
April 26, 2024
wow wow wow. this book is a gem. all the stories in it are gems. this book is a five star read for me because ALL the stories in it are five stars omg i cannot wait to post my full review of this beautiful book!!!
October 13, 2022
i really-really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately something just didn't click. it might be totally on me though!
July 5, 2021
Barring for one or two stories, this collection felt like a warm chamomile tea with honey on a sun-kissed winter day. The sewing machine story was particularly one that will not be forgotten.
June 19, 2024
halfway through it was starting to lose steam and I was so afraid the rest of the stories would be just kind of okay but OH was I wrong.. short story collections are so tricky because there's bound to be some that are Way better than the others and it makes you uncertain of how to rate the overall project. though not every story in "things remembered and things forgotten" is worthy of 5 stars(which is completely normal) I can confidently say they were at the very least enjoyable to read even if I wouldn't necessarily go back to them again. that being said the majority were simply a delight!
"things remembered and things forgotten"; "childhood friends" and "the last obon" being the standouts in my eyes. transsexual joy and happiness in MY japanese short story collection? it's far more likely that you think! for the umpteenth time kyoko nakajima I was UNFAMILIAR with your game but I'm so glad I became aquatinted with it! the exploration of memory, the way the past and the present constantly intertwine, the anxiety surrounding the passage of time, living on through someone else's memory, etc. the central themes were right up my alley and were explored beautifully!!
ranking of the stories for my and perhaps some else's convenience:
1)things remembered and things forgotten 5/5
2)when my wife was a shiitake(3.5/5)
3)the life story of a sewing machine(4/5)
4)global positioning system(I read this like 2-3 months ago and it's the only one I remember nothing about🥲)
5) kirara's paper plane(5/5)
6)a special day(5/5)
7)the pet civet(3/5)
8)childhood friends (5/5)
9)the harajuku house (3.5/5)
10)the last obon(5/5)
a quote to end on an even more sentimental note:
"Surveying the little scene around her, it occured to Satsuki that the belief that the ancestral spirits returned at Obon wasn't something mystical or paranormal, nor was it a metaphor for human existence — it was an expression of how the dead were resurrected through the gestures and actions of the living in the performance of traditional customs and practices."
"things remembered and things forgotten"; "childhood friends" and "the last obon" being the standouts in my eyes. transsexual joy and happiness in MY japanese short story collection? it's far more likely that you think! for the umpteenth time kyoko nakajima I was UNFAMILIAR with your game but I'm so glad I became aquatinted with it! the exploration of memory, the way the past and the present constantly intertwine, the anxiety surrounding the passage of time, living on through someone else's memory, etc. the central themes were right up my alley and were explored beautifully!!
ranking of the stories for my and perhaps some else's convenience:
1)things remembered and things forgotten 5/5
2)when my wife was a shiitake(3.5/5)
3)the life story of a sewing machine(4/5)
4)global positioning system(I read this like 2-3 months ago and it's the only one I remember nothing about🥲)
5) kirara's paper plane(5/5)
6)a special day(5/5)
7)the pet civet(3/5)
8)childhood friends (5/5)
9)the harajuku house (3.5/5)
10)the last obon(5/5)
a quote to end on an even more sentimental note:
"Surveying the little scene around her, it occured to Satsuki that the belief that the ancestral spirits returned at Obon wasn't something mystical or paranormal, nor was it a metaphor for human existence — it was an expression of how the dead were resurrected through the gestures and actions of the living in the performance of traditional customs and practices."
February 28, 2024
"Niektóre rzeczy się pamięta, a niektóre zapomina" - ta prosta prawda pojawia się w pierwszym opowiadaniu zbioru i może być mottem dla kolejnych.
Jakimi zaskakującymi drogami porusza się nasza pamięć! Jak chroni nas przed cierpieniem, spychając najgorsze wspomnienia w zakamarki umysłu, jak z tego mroku wyłania je w najmniej oczekiwanym momencie. Kim byśmy byli bez wspomnień? Szczęśliwymi ludźmi czy wręcz przeciwnie?
Rodzinne tajemnice, które pamięta tylko jeden brat. Gotowanie jako sposób na zachowanie więzi ze zmarłą żoną. Maszyna do szycia model 100-30, która kryje opowieść o życiu krawcowej. Demencja, która wyklucza z rodziny, ale daje chwile dziecięcej radości. Dom, w którym mieszkają duchy. Zmarli wracający na ziemię, by pozałatwiać swoje sprawy... Sporo dzieje się w tych opowiadaniach. Sporo w dialogach, ale i równie dużo w ciszy między nimi. Tu nie tylko ludzie mają tajemnice - sekrety skrywają i przedmioty, i budynki. "Ludzie umierają i zostawiają po sobie rzeczy" - pamięć o właścicielach zaklęta w sprzętach. Inni ludzie zapomną, pozostanie odcisk naszych dłoni na kubku, wgniecenie głowy na poduszce, oddech na lustrze.
"Gdybym wiedział..." - powtarza mąż, który dopiero po śmierci żony odkrywa, jaką była kobietą. W kilku opowiadaniach pojawia się ten wątek straty, zaniechania, nieuwagi, która pozostawia człowieka z poczuciem zmarnowania jakiejś szansy.
Trochę nierówne to opowiadania, ale każde daje czytelnikowi pole do przemyśleń. Kyōko Nakajima zawsze świetnie je kończy - ostatnie zdania zaskakują, wywracają nasze wyobrażenia do góry nogami. Doceniam też subtelność w opisywaniu emocji i czułość, z jaką autorka traktuje swoich bohaterów.
Podobało mi się.
Jakimi zaskakującymi drogami porusza się nasza pamięć! Jak chroni nas przed cierpieniem, spychając najgorsze wspomnienia w zakamarki umysłu, jak z tego mroku wyłania je w najmniej oczekiwanym momencie. Kim byśmy byli bez wspomnień? Szczęśliwymi ludźmi czy wręcz przeciwnie?
Rodzinne tajemnice, które pamięta tylko jeden brat. Gotowanie jako sposób na zachowanie więzi ze zmarłą żoną. Maszyna do szycia model 100-30, która kryje opowieść o życiu krawcowej. Demencja, która wyklucza z rodziny, ale daje chwile dziecięcej radości. Dom, w którym mieszkają duchy. Zmarli wracający na ziemię, by pozałatwiać swoje sprawy... Sporo dzieje się w tych opowiadaniach. Sporo w dialogach, ale i równie dużo w ciszy między nimi. Tu nie tylko ludzie mają tajemnice - sekrety skrywają i przedmioty, i budynki. "Ludzie umierają i zostawiają po sobie rzeczy" - pamięć o właścicielach zaklęta w sprzętach. Inni ludzie zapomną, pozostanie odcisk naszych dłoni na kubku, wgniecenie głowy na poduszce, oddech na lustrze.
"Gdybym wiedział..." - powtarza mąż, który dopiero po śmierci żony odkrywa, jaką była kobietą. W kilku opowiadaniach pojawia się ten wątek straty, zaniechania, nieuwagi, która pozostawia człowieka z poczuciem zmarnowania jakiejś szansy.
Trochę nierówne to opowiadania, ale każde daje czytelnikowi pole do przemyśleń. Kyōko Nakajima zawsze świetnie je kończy - ostatnie zdania zaskakują, wywracają nasze wyobrażenia do góry nogami. Doceniam też subtelność w opisywaniu emocji i czułość, z jaką autorka traktuje swoich bohaterów.
Podobało mi się.
August 12, 2021
Things remembered and Things forgotten” by Kyoko Nakajima is a collection of 10 short, simple, yet deeply completive and hauntingly written stories, all tied to themes of loss -whether that a person, place, memory or culture.
While most are drawn from real life scenarios, there is a brush with the supernatural and surreal in parts -especially those in the latter half, which for me, didn’t work quite as well as some of the earlier stories.
An example of which, and one that was probably my favourite and most noteworthy of the lot, was “When my Wife Was a Shiitake”. Which was a heartwarming tale, all about a retired and recently widowed old man, who learns -through cooking, how to survive his grief and honour and keep alive his wife’s previous passions in life.
This is truly a delightful morsel of a book, which you can easily dip in and out of at your leisure.
3 stars
While most are drawn from real life scenarios, there is a brush with the supernatural and surreal in parts -especially those in the latter half, which for me, didn’t work quite as well as some of the earlier stories.
An example of which, and one that was probably my favourite and most noteworthy of the lot, was “When my Wife Was a Shiitake”. Which was a heartwarming tale, all about a retired and recently widowed old man, who learns -through cooking, how to survive his grief and honour and keep alive his wife’s previous passions in life.
This is truly a delightful morsel of a book, which you can easily dip in and out of at your leisure.
3 stars
November 20, 2024
Dit was mijn eerste boek van Kyoko Nakajima, bestaande uit tien korte verhalen. Het is altijd lastig om iets over een verzameling verhalen te schrijven, want elk verhaal heeft zijn eigen charme — of juist niet. In dit geval richten alle verhalen zich op verlies, eenzaamheid en hoe het verleden zijn schaduw werpt op het heden. Een prachtig thema, maar het brengt het risico met zich mee dat de verhalen na verloop van tijd minder verrassend aanvoelen. Zo vond ik de eerste paar verhalen origineel en ontroerend, maar voelden de latere verhalen als een herhaling van zetten. Desondanks is het boek goed vertaald en prettig om te lezen.
January 7, 2022
Must read na dziady, wszystkich świętych i zaduszki
March 11, 2022
First read of 2022 and what a lovely way to start. These short stories are beautiful; tied together by the themes of war, grief and loss and how the past informs the present. Some were so so sad and others were more sweet.
I think the strongest story is 'When my Wife was a Shitake' - just a beautiful story about a man finding comfort in cooking, his wife's main hobby, after she passes away.
Very easy short story collection to read, and very worth it in my eyes, so highly recommend.
I think the strongest story is 'When my Wife was a Shitake' - just a beautiful story about a man finding comfort in cooking, his wife's main hobby, after she passes away.
Very easy short story collection to read, and very worth it in my eyes, so highly recommend.
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