Die einsame Bodybuilderin

by Yukiko Motoya, Ursula Gräfe (Translator)

»Das kraftvolle In-Erscheinung-Treten einer Künstlerin.« Kenzaburo Oe, japanischer Literaturnobelpreisträger

Eine Hausfrau wird zur Bodybuilderin, aber ihrem arbeitssüchtigen Ehemann fallen die neuen Muskeln nicht einmal auf. Eine Verkäuferin in einer Boutique wartet stundenlang auf eine Kundin, die sich in der Umkleide verschanzt hat und die vielleicht auch ein Alien ist. Eine junge Frau bemerkt, wie sich das Gesicht ihres frischgebackenen Ehemanns plötzlich beginnt, ihrem eigenen anzugleichen.
In diesen 11 preisgekrönten Storys gewähren die Figuren einen Blick hinter die Kulissen ihrer scheinbar langweiligen Leben. Zum Vorschein kommt das Bizarre, das Groteske, das Fantastische, das Fremde. Und die - hinter all dem verborgen - Freiheit.

»Ich wünschte, ich könnte in Motoyas Buch leben. Ihre Wahrnehmung und ihre Weisheit lassen das alltägliche Leben magisch und aufregend erscheinen, und die merkwürdigsten Erfahrung fühlt sich plötzlich ganz vertraut an.« Etgar Keret

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Contemporary

235 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2018

About the author

Yukiko Motoya (本谷 有希子) is a seasoned Japanese author, playwright, voice actress and theatre director. She has won prestigious awards in most of those fields including the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, Mishima Yukio Prize, and the Akutagawa Prize.

Reviews

[Liong · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is made up of 11 short stories.

I like the stories below:

1. The Lonesome Bodybuilder - 4 stars

2. Fitting Room - 4 stars

3. An Exotic Marriage - 4 stars

Most of the stories are creative, fantasy, weird, and surreal.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lonely housewife takes up bodybuilding. A shop assistant tries to find the perfect outfit for a customer she never sees who’s locked in the fitting room. Broken umbrellas make people fly in typhoons, small musical instruments fall out of straw husbands and women duel with their male partners in the night - this is Yukiko Motoya’s short story collection, Picnic in the Storm!

I quite liked The Lonesome Bodybuilder though the ending was a bit of a flop. Overall though I liked aspects of the stories more than the stories as a whole. The surreal moments from The Straw Husband, where a woman discovers her husband is made of straw, and An Exotic Marriage, where a woman realises she and her husband are starting to look identical, were interesting. The fuck-it-ness of the dying Agony Aunt’s last column in Q&A was amusing.

I can see what Motoya’s going for thematically in most of her stories: an exploration of identity and gender dynamics in modern Japanese relationships, particularly from the women’s perspective and their experience of the disappointing realities of marriage with the expectation of the wife to be subservient to the husband. And while that kind of artiness can win literary prizes, which they have done, I didn’t find them all that engaging or impressive to read.

Husbands can take wives for granted, being grown-up doesn’t mean you’ve got it all figured out, yup, heard it all before! And the more obtuse stories’ meanings were totally lost on me - I’ve no idea what Paprika Joe or The Dogs were supposed to be about.

Many of the stories in Picnic in the Storm are well-written, some of the imagery is creative and fun but few are especially memorable or inspired and I wasn’t very taken with the collection overall.

[J.L. Sutton · Rating 3 out of 5]

“When I woke up and looked in the mirror, I saw that my face had finally begun to forget who I was."



I liked the modestly or serenely surrealistic tone of Yukiko Motoya's short story collection, The Lonesome Bodybuilder. Some of the stories engaged me more than others. They are bite-sized stories, often focused on women with disengaged and dispassionate partners looking for meaning in both their lives and empty relationships. Is there a chance of winning their partners back through bodybuilding or strange rituals at the river? Would that even be a good thing? Don't expect an answer. The story that advised taking on a bicycle saddle as a lover was not one of my favorites, but it illustrates some of the humor, “Of course, there’s likely to be the occasional jeer or heckle from an insensitive bystander, pointing out that your lover is a bicycle saddle, but let this minor obstacle only stoke the flames of your love." In some ways, these stories reminded me of the work of Clarice Lispector. Lots of the same themes, and a similar surrealistic quality, but I find a greater intensity in Lispector's work that elevates it for me. 3.25 stars

[Kazen · Rating 4 out of 5]

These surreal yet grounded stories are exactly my kind of thing.

Many start in the mundane - a happy or unhappy marriage, a scene at work. One strange but believable thing happens, then something a bit more odd, until Motoya leads you down a path to the absolutely absurd. It's ridiculous, but you can't imagine the story spinning out any other way.

Themes include knowing yourself, how we are changed by contact with other people, and the place of women in Japanese society. Even more so than in the West, Japanese women are expected to be wives and mothers first, putting husbands and children before themselves. These women are the protagonists and navigate their way through a world where many things don't go as planned.

The centerpiece, and one of my favorite stories, is the novella An Exotic Marriage. A wife realizes that she and her husband look more similar as time goes on. At first she thinks it's learned mannerisms or maybe sharing a taste in clothes, but one day she looks in the mirror and sees that her features have slipped slightly out of place, closer to those of her husband. As soon as she notices they jump back into position, like kids caught doing something they shouldn't, and the story spins on from there.

I was worried the longer length would mean absurdities would pile up to the point of being unbearable, but instead they're more nuanced and layered. The page count is a strength, giving Motoya more room to develop characters and sub-plots and draw us into the world. An Exotic Marriage won the Akutagawa Prize, arguably the highest literary honor in Japan, and it's easy to see why.

Yoneda is an accomplished translator and her skill is well applied here. I am in the unusual position of being able to read in both the source and target languages, but I never felt the Japanese poke through nor the need to back-translate. The reader is in good hands.

All in all I immensely enjoyed The Lonesome Bodybuilder. It's perfect for when you want to read something delightfully different.

Thanks to Soft Skull Press and Edelweiss for providing a review copy.

[Skyler Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

A collection of bizarre short stories The Lonesome Bodybuilder takes us from a woman whose husband is so completely oblivious to her that he is unable to notice her transformation as she goes from scrawny to a complete muscular bodybuilder, to a woman that believes she is slowly transforming into her husband physically, to a shop clerk stuck trying to help a mysterious being behind the changing room curtain, to a woman taking her boyfriend to the forest to challenge him to a duel. The array of stories all seem to be centred around relationships, loneliness and gender dynamics with Japanese culture.

Although a captivating read that I devoured quite quickly. I found some of the stories so bizarre that I was left wondering the meaning behind them (or if there was any) maybe they were absurd just for the sake of absurdity. Either way stories like Typhoon, Paprika Jiro and The Dogs left me scratching my head thinking what the hell did I just read? While stories like The Lonesome Bodybuilder, Q&A, and An Exotic Marriage I adored and came away from understanding the clear and relatable message.

All and all, easy read thats a bit of a mix bag. Short stories collection can be that way some stories really resonate with you while others just leave you thinking how the hell did this make the cut?

[Meike · Rating 3 out of 5]

English: The Lonesome Bodybuilder
Yukiko Motoya is a bona fide literary star in Japan, having won prestigious awards like the Akutagawa, the Mishima Yukio and the Kenzaburo Oe Prize - and a Noma Prize, just like her German translator Ursula Gräfe. This collection contains short stories about relationships between men and women in which at least one partner is rather lonely, and the plotlines take the concept of "strange" to a new level: Surreal twists abound, resulting in psychological tales that often disturb, but are also quite funny.

Disconnection and alienation, the urge to be seen or to disappear - Motoya ponders concepts in a world that stops making sense (literally). While I liked the title-giving story best, the star of the collection is the novella-length "An Exotic Marriage" (Akutagawa Prize 2016) about a married couple that looks more and more alike.

To me, it's rather weird that people try to compare this to Haruki Murakami (it's probably the reckless marketing's fault that tries to sell every Japanese author by connecting them to Murakami). While in Murakami, reality and imagination tend to collapse into each other, for Motoya, reality morphs into the surreal, so not into a world with its separate rules (Murakami), but into a world that stops functioning according to rules. It's (intentionally) way less enchanting than Murakami and takes a feminist angle.

So this is certainly an exciting book from an interesting new voice, but I remained slightly disaffected, marveling at this achievement from the sidelines instead of becoming fully immersed.

You can listen to me chatting to the German translator Ursula Gräfe about literature translated from the Japanese here (in German), and you learn more about The Lonesome Bodybuilder in our new podcast episode (in German).

[Jin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich liebe Literatur aus Japan. Japanische Autoren verstehen es so geschickt und natürlich Parallelwelten aufzubauen, die die Fantasie anregen. Dabei schaffen sie es auch meist mit direkten schnörkellosen Sätzen großartige Szenen zu schildern und unterschwellig Gesellschaftskritik auszuüben.

Es ist das erste Buch, das ich von Yukiko Motoya lese, und ich fand diese Kurzgeschichtensammlung genau richtig um ihren Stil kennenzulernen. Ihre Geschichten haben fantastische Elemente, die sich in das alltägliche einschleichen, wie ein Mann aus Stroh oder einer Horde Gestalten, die ohne Grund auftauchen und verschwinden. Die Sprache bleibt kurz und leichtfüßig und es liegt an dem Leser, das zu interpretieren, was dargeboten wird. Ich denke mal auch, dass man mehr Anschluss zu ihren Geschichten findet, wenn man weiß, dass in Japan Geschichten über Geister und andere Wesen wesentlich mehr im Alltag verankert sind als im deutschen Raum. Bei den Geschichten stehen insbesondere verheiratete Frauen im Mittelpunkt, die in verschiedenen Situationen mit ihren Männern Probleme haben. Diese Probleme werden durch fantasievolle Elemente hervorgehoben bis der Konflikt gelöst wird (oder auch nicht).

Die Kurzgeschichten pendeln sich irgendwo zwischen 3-4 Sternen, wobei ich manche Kurzgeschichten nicht ganz nachvollziehen konnte (Paprikajiro) und manche brillant fand (Ehe mit einer fremden Spezies, Die Freundinnen). Gerade auf die Eröffnungsgeschichte "Die einsame Bodybuilderin" hatte ich mich gefreut, aber das Ende war dann etwas fad.
Ich finde, dass dieses Buch auf jeden Fall für Fans der japanischen Literatur lesenswert ist. Es war auf jeden Fall anders und besonders gewesen.

** Dieses Buch wurde mir über NetGalley als E-Book zur Verfügung gestellt **

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀

Picnic in the Storm, also published as The Lonesome Bodybuilder, is a collection of 11 extremely weird tales. Yukiko Motoya imbues mundane settings with a sense of the surreal so that even a story about a saleswoman at a clothing shop who is trying to assist a customer who won't come out of their changing room ends is far from ordinary. My first story in the collection, which happens to be my favorite, is called 'The Lonesome Bodybuilder' and follows a woman who decides to go to the gym in order to attain a bodybuilder type of physique. Her trainer warns her that bodybuilders are often misunderstood by their society but our narrator finds that her colleagues are extremely supportive. Her husband, on the other hand, does not seem to notice her, regardless of how big she gets. This story had a whimsical tone that worked really well with its subject matter.
Most of the other stories, however, were not as vibrant as this first one. Some of them were so short and similar that they ended up blurring together in my mind.

The longest story, which takes up nearly half of the collection, was a great combination of playful and grotesque. A newlywed woman becomes aware that some married women end up morphing into their spouses, their features, and mannerisms engulfed by their husband's ones. I liked the subtle yet uneasy atmosphere in this story and the uncanny feeling it produced.

Most of these stories are dictated by an absurd logic, ordinary characters and their environments often morph into unfamiliar shapes, and Motoya succeeds in blending magical and realistic elements together. Many of the fantastical elements work as a metpahor for her to address a certain subject, and there seems to be a focus on married life. In spite of this, some of the stories were ultimately forgettable. One was rather gross, involving incest, and did not really add anything to the collection.
Still, I would happily read more by this author as this collection showcases both her inventiveness and playful style, which is exceedingly readable.

[Great-O-Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Die einsame Bodybuilderin" von Yukiko Motoya enthält elf Erzählungen. Darin geht es meist um die Rolle von Frauen in Japan. In der Gesellschaft, im Arbeitsleben, in der Familie, in der Ehe. Die Dinge, die geschehen, sind oft absurd, aber die Sprache, in der das geschildert wird, ist präzise. Das Absurde wirkt gar nicht mehr so seltsam, weil es durch die Genauigkeit der Darstellung nachvollziehbar wird. Dennoch entsteht durch diese Wendungen eine eigentümliche Spannung, die mir gut gefallen hat.

Die Geschichten haben ein nahezu durchgängig hohes Niveau. Lediglich zwei der Erzählungen sind etwas schwächer. Ich habe im Folgenden die einzelnen Texte bewertet. In Summe komme ich auf einen Schnitt von 4,36 Sternen.

1 | Die einsame Bodybuilderin ***** Eine etwa dreißigjährige Frau beginnt mit Bodybuilding, ohne ihrem Mann etwas davon zu sagen. Sie entdeckt sich dabei neu und erkennt gleichzeitig die Entfremdung von ihrem Mann.
2 | Die Umkleidekabine oder warum ich beim Anblick einer Picknickdecke immer lächeln muss ***** Eine Kundin hält sich seit drei Stunden in einer Umkleidekabine auf. Die Ich-Erzählerin ist Angestellte in der Boutique. Sie wundert sich. Schließlich probiert die Kundin sämtliche Kleider der Boutique an. Die Situation entwickelt sich ins Absurde.
3 | Taifun **** Während eines Taifuns trifft die Ich-Erzählerin einen heruntergekommenen Mann an einer Bushaltestelle. Die Geschichte nimmt eine surreale Wendung.
4 | Ich rief deinen Namen ***** Die Chefin eines nur aus Männern bestehenden Teams ist in einer Sitzung von einem sich bauschenden Vorhang irritiert. Dann kommt es zu einer absurden Entwicklung.
5 | Ehe mit einer fremden Spezies **** Dies ist die längste Geschichte, die etwa ein Drittel des Buches einnimmt. Es wird die Ehe zwischen der Ich-Erzählerin und ihrem Mann geschildert. Anlass ist, dass sie glaubt, dass sie ihrem Mann im Laufe der Ehe optisch immer ähnlicher wird. "Ob ich irrtümlich ein nicht menschliches Geschöpf geheiratet hatte?"
6 | Paprikajiro *** Der titelgebende Held im Kampf mit Anzugkerlen. Überaus seltsam.
7 | How to Burden the Girl **** Über ein gefährliches Mädchen. Sie hat als Racheengel eine Gang ausgeschaltet. Kill-Bill-Vibes. Oder geht es um Missbrauch? Oder ist sie eine Psychopathin?
8 | Die Freundinnen ***** "Es war zwecklos, sie mit Fragen zu bedrängen. Sie wiederholte sowieso nur unablässig, sich mit mir duellieren zu wollen."
9 | Q & A *** Die Kolumnistin, die mittlerweile über achtzig Jahre alt ist, beendet ihre Arbeit. In einer abschließenden Sonderausgabe stellt sie sich den Fragen der Leserinnen.
10 | Die Hunde ***** Eine einsame Hütte im Schnee. Eine Ich-Erzählerin, die sich mit Hunden umgibt. Menschen, die verschwinden. Ein kleines bisschen Stephen King. Eine der besten Geschichten des Bandes.
11 | Was raschelt im Stroh? ***** Tomoko ist seit einem halben Jahr verheiratet. Gemeinsam mit ihrem Mann aus Stroh (!) ist sie beim Lauftraining. "Seine Bewegungen waren auffallend kantig, aber das störte Tomoko nicht."

[JimZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this short story collection overall, “quite a bit”. How can I not like it when on the back cover are names of two other Japanese authors I like a lot — Hiromi Kawakami (Strange Weather in Tokyo, The Nakano Thrift Shop) and Yoko Agawa (Revenge, The Memory Police)?

Hiromi Kawakami had this to say about the book:
• I could never try to explain Yukiko Motoya’s stories. For me, the joy of reading fiction isn’t to analyze it, but to feel it in my body. In that sense, her writing offers enormous satisfaction to the sensitive organ inside me that is attuned to the pleasure of reading.

And Carmen Maria Machado (In the Dream House [2019]; Her Body and Other Parties [2017]) compared her to Ogawa:
• Charming, bizarre, and uncanny. ‘The Lonesome Bodybuilder’ is Etgar Keret by way of Yoko Ogawa. I’d follow Yukiko Motoya anywhere she wanted to take me.

This is a writer who I have a suspicion we will see more of in the same say we have seen more of Yoko Ogawa…in which the author’s earlier works get translated into English. At least we can hope that they get translated, and given the reviews of this collection and the literary prizes she has garnered, that might occur. It is so frustrating when coming across a wonderful writer to realize that the majority of her oeuvre is in another language (see this link for a biography of her, prizes she has won, and a list of her novels that have been written to date along with the novel’s themes…they sound interesting to me!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukiko_... ).

There are 11 short stories….actually there are 10 consisting of 10-20 pages and then a long short story, almost of novella length, 85 pp, An Exotic Marriage (actually in Japan it was published as a novella). I liked 8 of the stories in particular which contributed to the 4-star rating: The Lonesome Bodybuilder; Fitting Room (very very good); Typhoon (published in Catapult, October 29, 2015, by a different title, The Reason I Carry Biscuits to Offer to Young Boys [https://catapult.co/stories/the-reaso... ]); How to Burden the Girl (weirdddddddd); The Women; Q&A; The Dogs (sorta scary…a page turner);The Straw Husband (weird).

I was not too jazzed on the very long short story, An Exotic Marriage. However, other people apparently did:
• In 2016, on her fourth nomination, Motoya won the 154th Akutagawa Prize for her story Irui konin tan (Tales of Marriage to a Different Sort), in which a wife discovers that she and her husband look more and more alike as they grow older together. At the prize ceremony the press commented on her mismatched socks, leading Motoya to admit that she had not expected to win, and had rushed to the prize ceremony without any special preparation.
• This has to be An Exotic Marriage, because that is what the story is about.

Two of the stories in this collection have been published in the literary periodical, Granta:
• Why I Can No Longer Look at a Picnic Blanket Without Laughing (Fitting Room in the short story collection) and available here: https://granta.com/why-i-can-no-longe...
• The Dogs (Volume 127, Japan issue, Spring 2014)

A variation of this short story collection Arashi no pikunikku (Picnic in the Storm), Kodansha, 2012 won the 2013 7th Kenzaburo Oe Prize.

Reviews:
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertain...
https://kenyonreview.org/reviews/the-...
https://www.bookforum.com/culture/the...

[Resh (The Book Satchel) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag of stories. The common themes include marriage, gender dynamics, loneliness and intimacy. Most stories have a magical realism twist as well - people turn into flowers, people fly away in umbrellas. While some stories are bizarre, some are excellent because of the way they deal with human psychology (An Exotic marriage). There are 11 stories in the collection;Some of the stories stood out more than the others. Here are my favs:

Favourites: (5 stars)
-The Lonesome body builder : A favourite. I loved the woman who enrols for body building sessions and her relationship with her husband. The husband does not notice the muscles of his wife and this is a testament to their relationship. Definitely one that I want to re read.

-Fitting room : This one was so good! It was the second story and once I finished it, I really thought the collection would be a five star read. A sales woman tries to get the perfect dress for an unknown customer who would not leave the fitting room.

- The Dogs - I had read this story previously before reading this collection. I loved it then and I loved it now too. Though it has small pricks of bizarre, it is the writing that drew me to this one. I have already read this story three times. Read an online version here - https://granta.com/the-dogs/


Noteworthy:
-An exotic marriage : I didn't love it but the story was pretty good and it was one that kept me thinking. A newly wed woman feels like she is beginning to look like her husband. The ending made my heart stop. So in a way I loved it. Also LOTS OF FOOD. The story reminded me of Murakami

- The Straw Husband - about a marriage and a wife realising her husband may not be who he thought he was.

- How to Burden a girl : This was a good story and creepy but personally I was disturbed because a girl has kids with her father. Not my kind, but a good one.

ALSO, women have a centre place in most of the stories which was really refreshing to read. Definitely interested in reading more from the author. She is wonderful.

[Uriel Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's weird and then there's "Oh my goodness, what the heck did I just read?" weird. The stories collected in Yukiko Motoya's "The Lonesome Bodybuilder" belong to the latter group.

These stories are incisive explorations of domestic life fraught with tension and "out-of-left-field" bizarre field trips into the dark woods of the mind.

Immersive, captivating, I can't get enough of Yukiko Motoya!

[Audra (ouija.reads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

For fans of the modern stylings of Haruki Murakami, Etgar Keret, Carmen Maria Machado, Karen Russell, and Kelly Link, comes another uniquely brilliant voice in short fiction, and one we are lucky to have.

Most of the stories here center around themes of gender and power dynamics, as well as the problems, loneliness, and loss of true feelings and intimacy that can go along with being in relationships.

Motoya has a strangely specific ability to find a very realistic situation, like a married couple losing touch with each other, and turning it on its head, introducing a completely absurd component that shifts the story into the realm of heightened realism, or even all the way to magical realism.

I loved every story.

There is something really special about the way Motoya focuses on the women in her stories. Mostly, her protagonists are women who are stuck in some type of situation—unhappy in their marriage, with their life, with who they are becoming, with how the past is affecting them. They very clearly see how the problems are rooted deep in the threads of their daily lives, but it is shaking the issues that prove difficult.

How do you get back to a relationship with you husband when he doesn’t notice that you’ve become a bodybuilder, insane muscles rippling over your body? How do you stay independent and keep your life separate from your life as a couple when you notice that day by day your face is beginning to look more and more like your husband’s? What about if as a boyfriend, you only wanted to spice up your relationship and instead your girlfriend challenges you to a duel?

These are the types of stories where you just have to let the weird wash over you. I love becoming immersed in these other worlds where at any moment, the strangest things might happen—people can fly away using umbrellas, turn into flowers, cry blood.

My favorite three stories in the collection for me were: “The Lonesome Bodybuilder,” “An Exotic Marriage,” and “The Women,” though I really loved them all. I would adore to read a novel from Motoya!

My huge thanks to Soft Skull Press for sending me this one to read and review, and I also want to thank them for their continued commitment as a company to publishing unique and brilliant voices.

[Kate♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5stars

Faves;
- The lonesome bodybuilder
- the fitting room
- I called you by name
- an exotic marriage

Least faves;
- how to burden the girl
- the women

[hannaღ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yukiko Motoya wird mit dem jungen Haruki Murakami verglichen - natürlich bedient sich Motoya vieler surrealistischer Elemente, allerdings fehlt ihren Erzählungen diese ganz besondere Magie, die Murakami in seinen Werken erschafft. Motoya startet sehr stark mit der titelgebenden Story "Die einsame Bodybuilderin", danach driften die Kurzgeschichten für meinen Geschmack zu sehr ins Komische ab, sind für mich einfach zu schräg und lassen mich den Sinn darin nicht mehr erkennen.

Vielen Dank an den aufbau Verlag für das via NetGalley zur Verfügung gestellte eBooK!

[fatma · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Motoya's stories start out promising and interesting enough, but then they take that interesting premise and draw it out for so long that it absolutely loses any of the appeal it once had. The ideas were there; the execution was not.

These stories were too long or too convoluted or too nonsensical, often padded out with a lot of filler that felt like it added nothing to the stories' narratives. Seeing as I only really enjoyed one story from this collection, "Fitting Room," I can't say that I especially enjoyed this collection.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird and wonderful, The Lonesome Bodybuilder is a delightfully odd collection of short stories. Using magical realism and the absurd, Yukiko Montoya explores gender roles, social convention, and marital power dynamics in small, powerful bursts.

Motoya’s eleven stories all begin with the ordinary, if not mundane, and slowly splinter into the fantastic. A young housewife transforms her body while weightlifting at the gym, yet her husband remains oblivious. A saleswoman gives superb customer service to a guest who refuses to leave the fitting room. Is the customer simply shy? Or is she some unknown creature? A new wife notices that her and her husband’s faces are slowly shifting to look like each other. Is it her imagination? Or is it a symptom of losing her autonomy?

Motoya’s stories directly challenge the expectations we have for women’s bodies. She celebrates women who refuse to submit to their partner’s—or society’s—will. I’ve always been a sucker for a unique, experimental story, so I loved this collection. It reminded me of The Vegetarian or Her Body and Other Parties, although the writing is less lyrical and more direct.

These stories are easy to read, fun, feminist, and joyfully unique! Pick The Lonely Bodybuilder up if you are looking for a some variety in your reading life!

[Jerrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

These unique stories filled with magical realism take a tongue-in-cheek look at the relationships between men and women. The stories can seem weird at first, but once you get used to the author’s sly humor this is a great read.

[Bill Hsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spotted this on Marie-Therese's feed, and immediately added it to my shelves. I enjoyed most of these surreal, funny, and twisted narratives (with the possible exception of "The Straw Husband"). The (mostly female) protagonists have to navigate some frustrating relationships, with an admirable can-do attitude. The longest piece, "An Exotic Marriage", starts:

One day, I realized that I was starting to look just like my husband.

Being a Brian Evenson fan, I of course expected this to darken into a solipsistic abyss of identity confusion and paranoia. Instead, Motoya weaves a tangled, almost light-heartedly absurd tale of facial deformations, cat abandonment, and deep frying.

Motoya reminds me vaguely of other magic-realist (?) Asian writers like Dorothy Tse and Lai-chu Hon. However, Motoya's writing here is light and almost frictionless, largely free of the annoying artifacts I've complained about in Tse and Hon's writing. Or maybe Asa Yoneda is just a much better translator.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was utterly riveted by Motoya’s short stories.

I am not much of a short story reader and am very picky about those I do read. But I have found I really enjoy Asian fiction, so I was curious to read The Lonesome Bodybuilder.

Motoya’s stories are weird, but not a disturbing or uncomfortable weird. More like an engrossing blend of the human mundane and surreal minutia which fluctuates and grows as the story progresses.

There is nothing lost in translation. The writing is succinct and sharp; no flowery detail or unnecessarily long sentences. Just the sort of diction I gravitate to.

[hans · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I love magical realism and metaphorical writing, this collection was a bit bizarre to me. Despite the great ideas of relationship and friendship also one's concern and lifestyle, the absurdities were too unique and 'sly'. I love the characters, most of them were relatable, and their perspectives and experiences portraying the slice of life fairly well.

I enjoyed both The Lonesome Bodybuilder and An Exotic Marriage (from characters, narratives and storytelling). Fitting Room was okay but I did not fancy the ending that much even though I love the characters so much. I Called You By Name was mysteriously engaging, I like that it was 'awkward' and mundane at the same time.

Most of the pieces having a weird aftertaste to me, either too strange (in a good way) or too bland (not my cup of tea). Nevertheless, it was an imaginative collection although with nonsensical ending and sort, I still find it quite captivating.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read 6 of the 11 stories, so feel that I've given the book a fair shake ... but this just wasn't for me. I'm okay with fiction that is absurd and/or surreal as long as the writer can capture my attention with a well told story. The deeper I got into this collection, the less I wanted to turn the page. Reading this book had become a chore so it was time to stop.

There's something here, I'd give this author another chance, but this book, for me, was not a good read.

[Nathanimal · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Fitting Room' and 'The Dogs' were great. Worth a revisit. 'An Exotic Marriage' was good, too, but weird domestic tales of cats and preparing/eating food seems maybe already done in Japanese fiction?

[Queralt✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to do bodybuilding so I’ve always been curious about this collection. I didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out to be a quirky collection of short stories with a weird feminist undertone (that i don’t think worked well in some stories).

The story Q and A suggested women who get bored of relationships with men because men can’t talk, they should just date a bike saddle - won’t talk, will support your butt. I agree with this.

4 stars.

[Hosein · Rating 3 out of 5]

دوتا داستان اول خیلی خوبن، اینقدری که انتظارم رو بردن بالا و در ادامه کاملا خراب شدن. تمام داستان‌هایی که بعدش از اون دوتا میان به شدت معمولین، حتی چندتاشون می‌رسن به مرحله‌ای که بد به حساب میان. ایده‌هاشون خیلی آماتوریه و پرداخت خاصی هم ندارن که تبدیلشون کنه به یک چیز بهتر.
اگه این کتاب رو دارین، به خودتون زحمت ندین که از دوتا داستان اول جلو برین، وقتتون تلف میشه.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightfully weird short stories! My favorites in the collection were the title story "The Lonesome Bodybuilder" and the sprawling "An Exotic Marriage".

[melodram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seid ihr immer noch mit einem menschlichen Wesen zusammen oder auch schon darauf gekommen, dass mit einem Fahrradsattel so einiges einfacher sein kann? Nörgelt nicht, widerspricht nicht und fügt sich ohne Ausnahme deinem Willen! Perfekt, oder?!😉
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Yukiko Motoya erzählt in „Die einsame Bodybuilderin“ elf Kurzgeschichten, die verblüffen, verwirren und verzaubern. Ihre Geschichten beginnen meist recht unspektakulär. Es sind Szenen des Alltags einer Ehe, einer Beziehung oder Familie, die von Motoya auf grandiose Weise ad absurdum geführt werden. So bekommen wir es mit übernatürlichen Phänomenen, Gestaltwandlern und anderen bizarren Wesen zu tun.
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In ihrer bunt gemischten „Geschichtentüte“ setzt die Autorin auf etwas zwielichtige, düstere Elemente des magischen Realismus, die einen zwar nicht offensichtlich gruseln lassen sondern eher ein subtiles Gefühl des Unwohlseins zurücklassen.
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„Ist das jetzt echt passiert?“ habe ich mich beim Lesen öfter gefragt und gestaunt. Zum Beispiel als die Verkäuferin in einer Boutique einen Alien in der Umkleidekabine vermutet, nachdem es sich stunden-, fast tagelang dort verschanzt hatte. Satz für Satz werden Motoyas Geschichten immer verrückter. (Das coole verrückt!😉) Ich habe diese Stories mit „Wow-Effekt“ sehr genossen! Insbesondere „Die einsame Bodybuilderin“, „Ehe mit einer fremden Spezies“ und „Die Hunde“ haben mich besonders fasziniert.✨
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Einziger Kritikpunkt, wenn man es so nennen möchte: manche Stories enden etwas abrupt. Sie lassen den Lesenden weiter denken, sinnieren aber ich hätte doch so gerne noch weitergelesen!😅🥲 Ich hoffe auf eine baldige deutsche Übersetzung ihrer weiteren Literatur!

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange. Surreal. Weird. All of these descriptions capture a facet of Motoya's stories, but no one word can really communicate the unique way the twisted is treated so naturally. It's almost like the magical aspects are the most normal part of the stories. The longest story, "An Exotic Marriage," had me the least interested and thinking I might rate the whole collection 3 stars, but almost every other story intrigued, surprised, and transfixed me. Many of the stories deal with relationships and female power and form within those dynamics. A couple of these are available online if you'd like to take a test drive ("The Lonesome Bodybuilder" courtesy of Electric Literature, and "The Dogs" courtesy of Granta).

My favorites of the 11 stories in this collection are below. The cross-reference between the last two is rather brilliant with "The Women" challenging all their men to duels due to the men desiring more "ideal" lovers, and "Q&A" being the last advice column of a lifelong female relationship and style guru--I won't give anything more away than general summaries. Favorites:
- "The Lonesome Bodybuilder"
- "Fitting Room"
- "Paprika Jiro"
- "The Women"
- "Q&A"

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories in Motoya's collection revolve around love, intimate relationships and individuality. Motoya explores the niches of modern society, bringing out the magical in the everyday, in a slightly more up-front and surprising manner than the famed Haruki Murakami. Each story delves deep into the main character's mind, examining their reactions to those around them and the world they inhabit. To express these complex thoughts, Motoya often relies on magical realism, creating bizarre, unexpected relationships and events to explain the nuances of our lives. I thought this collection was well put together; all the stories are well-developed and revolve around similar themes while maintaining some individuality from each other. I am very interested in reading more from this author as more of her work is translated into English.

[Sara Klem · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a fan. It has all the outlandishness of a Moshfegh story collection with a Japanese bent and a dose of magical realism. I think what tied these stories together for me was that many of them are about how women make themselves smaller or compromise their wants in various forms of relationships, though other than that, the stories are too bizarre to be "alike." There were two stories, Paprika Jiro and The Straw Husband, for which the meaning was totally lost on me, but the rhetorical creativity and subversive plot structure made all the stories, at very least, entertaining. Stories like the eponymous, Q&A, and An Exotic Marriage will stick with me.