What do you think?
Rate this book
People from My Neighborhood: Stories
Take a story and shrink it. Make it tiny, so small it can fit in the palm of your hand. Carry the story with you everywhere, let it sit with you while you eat, let it watch you while you sleep. Keep it safe, you never know when you might need it.
In Kawakami’s super short ‘palm of the hand’ stories the world is never quite as it should be: a small child lives under a sheet near his neighbour’s house for thirty years; an apartment block leaves its visitors with strange afflictions, from fast-growing beards to an ability to channel the voices of the dead; an old man has two shadows, one docile, the other rebellious; two girls named Yoko are locked in a bitter rivalry to the death.
Small but great, you’ll find great delight spending time with the people in this neighbourhood.
In Kawakami’s super short ‘palm of the hand’ stories the world is never quite as it should be: a small child lives under a sheet near his neighbour’s house for thirty years; an apartment block leaves its visitors with strange afflictions, from fast-growing beards to an ability to channel the voices of the dead; an old man has two shadows, one docile, the other rebellious; two girls named Yoko are locked in a bitter rivalry to the death.
Small but great, you’ll find great delight spending time with the people in this neighbourhood.
176 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 6, 2020
974 people are currently reading
39684 people want to read
About the author
Hiromi Kawakami
111 books3,567 followersKawakami Hiromi (川上弘美 Kawakami Hiromi) born April 1, 1958, is a Japanese writer known for her off-beat fiction.
Born in Tokyo, Kawakami graduated from Ochanomizu Women's College in 1980. She made her debut as "Yamada Hiromi" in NW-SF No. 16, edited by Yamano Koichi and Yamada Kazuko, in 1980 with the story So-shimoku ("Diptera"), and also helped edit some early issues of NW-SF in the 1970s. She reinvented herself as a writer and wrote her first book, a collection of short stories entitled God (Kamisama) published in 1994. Her novel The Teacher's Briefcase (Sensei no kaban) is a love story between a woman in her thirties and a man in his sixties. She is also known as a literary critic and a provocative essayist.
(from Wikipedia)
Born in Tokyo, Kawakami graduated from Ochanomizu Women's College in 1980. She made her debut as "Yamada Hiromi" in NW-SF No. 16, edited by Yamano Koichi and Yamada Kazuko, in 1980 with the story So-shimoku ("Diptera"), and also helped edit some early issues of NW-SF in the 1970s. She reinvented herself as a writer and wrote her first book, a collection of short stories entitled God (Kamisama) published in 1994. Her novel The Teacher's Briefcase (Sensei no kaban) is a love story between a woman in her thirties and a man in his sixties. She is also known as a literary critic and a provocative essayist.
(from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,244 reviews
![Profile Image for s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1735525095i%2F6431467._UX200_CR0%2C11%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
March 27, 2023
Life becomes magic through Hiromi Kawakami’s prose and she has a knack for cozily situating us all in her stories. This is all the more true in People from My Neighbourhood, translated into English by Ted Goossen, as Kawakami pieces together the fantastical details of a small town’s events and citizens in a surreal journey into a place where you will surely want to take up residence. The town is an eccentric mixture with a man having two shadows that predict Death, a boy raised by the community through weekly lotteries for who keeps him, a girl who can reshape memories into new realities, a spirit that begins as a book and transforms into a baby, a diplomat nobody ever sees, and many more that liven the pages through the increasingly bizarre events. Told in brief vignettes usually 3 to 5 pages long, the stories come together like small pieces of a large puzzle, interacting with each other in order to slowly process an overall impression of the town, and the growing cast of recurring characters give this book a feeling of kinship with novels like Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, though a much more dreamlike and nearly weightless member of the extended family. Comically inventive and full of her signature charm and nuance, Kawakami’s People from My Neighbourhood blend of reality and mythmaking becomes an excellent examination of people, place, and the stories we make together.
‘Humans change over time. I certainly have. I’ve aged and become grumpy.’
When I was in middle school there was an elderly man in our neighborhood that would mow his lawn with a parrot seated on his shoulder, nestled up to his neck to take shade under his wide-brimmed hat. A friend told me that when he was dying in bed during the night, the parrot woke the man’s wife who was able to at least say goodbye to him as he passed before the ambulance could arrive. While this may be a rumor, or possibly crossed wires with a story about a different neighbor's dog, or maybe about the neighbor I once and only once saw walking a pot bellied pig on a leash down the street, it is the sort of fanciful tidbit that would seem at home in Kawakami’s neighborhood. Except with her it's never “possibly a rumor” and the more surreal it gets the more firmly entrenched it seems to be the waking life of this town. Like her story Record of a Night Too Brief, it is beside the point to try and determine what is real and what is fantasy but merely a magical realism that enhances the sense of place.
The ways in which time and place shape us are a common theme that flows through Kawakami’s works, from the attempt to bridge generational gaps sharing a barrail in Strange Weather in Tokyo or the shared workspace in The Nakano Thrift Shop being a catalyst for romance and camaraderie. If a person can be said to be the embodiment of space and time, even The Ten Loves of Nishino shows how the lives of ten women are shaped each through their time with the same toxic man. People from My Neighbourhood highlights the importance of place and community and the ways in which those in proximity fit into each other’s lives, being both the central figure in their own narratives and supporting cast for everyone else. While there isn’t much character development through each character's minor cameos across the collection, it greatly develops the impression of the community and makes it feel well rounded and lived-in, with the community and town itself becoming the central character.
The familiarity with these characters, particularly the narrator’s grumpy best friend, Kanae (who early on we learn will join a motorcycle gang and abandon the narrator’s friendship), and her older sister who will one day have statues erected around the world in her honor, ushers you into the increasingly surreal and folklore-like events. There is a sense these are minor myths in the making, hiding in the open to remind us that magic lurks just behind everyday life. Zero-gravity events, pandemics, visits from the gods, lotteries for wishes and more pass with little fanfare, life always returning as it was as if these breaks from reality were another mundane phase of life. It is like hearing fairy tales, never are the fantasy elements questioned but only stated as obvious facts in the mechanisms of life.
Kawakami uses these surreal myths of her own to poke fun at society and politics. A housing project with a bad reputation becomes a sovereign nation or the presence of a diplomat throws the town into a nationalist fit of military service and war making, and any sense of a governing body is either lampooned or lacking. The lotteries—one determines where the youngest son of a poor family will stay for a week and another grants the yearly winner three wishes, usually resulting in comical failure—seem to be the largest form of leadership in the town. Kawakami takes a few swipes at capitalism as well, such as the bank-sponsored field day ‘in which no event involved any form of physical activity’ and was centered around marketing, or the story of a man who, to escape following the family trade, tries his hands in everything from management to religion, finding success for being profitable but never finding a wife or happiness.
I had previously only read Kawakami through Allison Markin Powell’s translation, though the switch here to Ted Goossen (who founded the amazing Japanese translation journal Monkey) works wonderfully. I’ve encountered Goossen through his translations of Haruki Murakami, which makes him well-equipped for the blurring of fantastical elements with the mundane. All of this works to great effect in People from My Neighbourhood, and it was the perfect single-sitting read on a gloomy day that reminds me how much Hiromi Kawakami is the perfect good-mood read. While it lacked the deep introspective passages that really made her other—more ground in realism—works shine, it was a laugh-out-loud romp through her invented streets that made you feel at home in her words and world. This is an uproariously quiet book that is sure to charm and while each story is slight, the collective effect is a place worth visiting.
3.75/5
‘Humans change over time. I certainly have. I’ve aged and become grumpy.’
When I was in middle school there was an elderly man in our neighborhood that would mow his lawn with a parrot seated on his shoulder, nestled up to his neck to take shade under his wide-brimmed hat. A friend told me that when he was dying in bed during the night, the parrot woke the man’s wife who was able to at least say goodbye to him as he passed before the ambulance could arrive. While this may be a rumor, or possibly crossed wires with a story about a different neighbor's dog, or maybe about the neighbor I once and only once saw walking a pot bellied pig on a leash down the street, it is the sort of fanciful tidbit that would seem at home in Kawakami’s neighborhood. Except with her it's never “possibly a rumor” and the more surreal it gets the more firmly entrenched it seems to be the waking life of this town. Like her story Record of a Night Too Brief, it is beside the point to try and determine what is real and what is fantasy but merely a magical realism that enhances the sense of place.
The ways in which time and place shape us are a common theme that flows through Kawakami’s works, from the attempt to bridge generational gaps sharing a barrail in Strange Weather in Tokyo or the shared workspace in The Nakano Thrift Shop being a catalyst for romance and camaraderie. If a person can be said to be the embodiment of space and time, even The Ten Loves of Nishino shows how the lives of ten women are shaped each through their time with the same toxic man. People from My Neighbourhood highlights the importance of place and community and the ways in which those in proximity fit into each other’s lives, being both the central figure in their own narratives and supporting cast for everyone else. While there isn’t much character development through each character's minor cameos across the collection, it greatly develops the impression of the community and makes it feel well rounded and lived-in, with the community and town itself becoming the central character.
The familiarity with these characters, particularly the narrator’s grumpy best friend, Kanae (who early on we learn will join a motorcycle gang and abandon the narrator’s friendship), and her older sister who will one day have statues erected around the world in her honor, ushers you into the increasingly surreal and folklore-like events. There is a sense these are minor myths in the making, hiding in the open to remind us that magic lurks just behind everyday life. Zero-gravity events, pandemics, visits from the gods, lotteries for wishes and more pass with little fanfare, life always returning as it was as if these breaks from reality were another mundane phase of life. It is like hearing fairy tales, never are the fantasy elements questioned but only stated as obvious facts in the mechanisms of life.
Kawakami uses these surreal myths of her own to poke fun at society and politics. A housing project with a bad reputation becomes a sovereign nation or the presence of a diplomat throws the town into a nationalist fit of military service and war making, and any sense of a governing body is either lampooned or lacking. The lotteries—one determines where the youngest son of a poor family will stay for a week and another grants the yearly winner three wishes, usually resulting in comical failure—seem to be the largest form of leadership in the town. Kawakami takes a few swipes at capitalism as well, such as the bank-sponsored field day ‘in which no event involved any form of physical activity’ and was centered around marketing, or the story of a man who, to escape following the family trade, tries his hands in everything from management to religion, finding success for being profitable but never finding a wife or happiness.
I had previously only read Kawakami through Allison Markin Powell’s translation, though the switch here to Ted Goossen (who founded the amazing Japanese translation journal Monkey) works wonderfully. I’ve encountered Goossen through his translations of Haruki Murakami, which makes him well-equipped for the blurring of fantastical elements with the mundane. All of this works to great effect in People from My Neighbourhood, and it was the perfect single-sitting read on a gloomy day that reminds me how much Hiromi Kawakami is the perfect good-mood read. While it lacked the deep introspective passages that really made her other—more ground in realism—works shine, it was a laugh-out-loud romp through her invented streets that made you feel at home in her words and world. This is an uproariously quiet book that is sure to charm and while each story is slight, the collective effect is a place worth visiting.
3.75/5
August 30, 2025
People from My Neighbourhood is a delightful read of a collection of interlinking short stories, set in an ostensibly typical Japanese neighbourhood that turns out to be pretty exceptional. Reading this feels like you’re on crack but girl didn't I enjoy it!
The translator has done an excellent job translating the crisp, concise style, and each story entices readers with a perplexing mystery or a fascinating character. Despite the shortcoming, it's that many of the stories all come to the same strange, unresolved ending, making it of it’s own kind.
I love how the author used her imagination and even when it almost felt pointless, it’s complementary to the Japanese culture. If truth be told, I wouldn’t think I’d enjoy it as much if it were taken from other cultures.
The reason why I rated it three stars though was: i) as made known, I'm not a big fan of magical realism. ii) Even when each short story is literally, short but to a point, I feel like it's never-ending and started to get draggy. I enjoyed them most of the time but somehow wished the story would be done soon.
Nevertheless, this book is quirky, unique, and dark. Though it's peculiar to us, at least, to her, they are simply her neighbours! Recommended if you want some short surrealism comedy 😆
The translator has done an excellent job translating the crisp, concise style, and each story entices readers with a perplexing mystery or a fascinating character. Despite the shortcoming, it's that many of the stories all come to the same strange, unresolved ending, making it of it’s own kind.
I love how the author used her imagination and even when it almost felt pointless, it’s complementary to the Japanese culture. If truth be told, I wouldn’t think I’d enjoy it as much if it were taken from other cultures.
The reason why I rated it three stars though was: i) as made known, I'm not a big fan of magical realism. ii) Even when each short story is literally, short but to a point, I feel like it's never-ending and started to get draggy. I enjoyed them most of the time but somehow wished the story would be done soon.
Nevertheless, this book is quirky, unique, and dark. Though it's peculiar to us, at least, to her, they are simply her neighbours! Recommended if you want some short surrealism comedy 😆
May 24, 2022
Immensely imaginative with scenarios ranging from lightly humorous and satirical to surreal and downright bizarre, People From My Neighborhood:Stories by Hiromi Kawakami is a wonderful collection of thirty-six interlinked short stories/vignettes. The stories feature a cast of interesting characters, some recurring and some new, from the narrator’s neighborhood -her childhood friend Kanae and Kanae’s sister and others such as the neighborhood Grandma, a dog school principal, Uncle Red Shoes who opens a dancing school,the lady who owns Love, “the tiny drinking place”, the Kawamata family and many others.
Some of my favorites:
Grandpa Shadows is about a neighbor who got his name from having two shadows- one “shadow was docile and submissive, the other rebellious”. Sports Day describes an annual school sports day sponsored by a bank in which the competitions are also banking themed-“competitions for best loan evaluation, best anti-fraud strategy for direct deposits, best marketing of financial products, best check-clearance procedure, and best cartoon character for their bank ads”. In Weightlessness, a no-gravity alert sent out by the no-gravity alert has everyone hugging trees and hanging on while everything is turned upside down. Pigeonitis describes the community being infected by a contagious illness that makes those infected walk, talk, think and behave like a pigeon in addition to certain physical changes. Falsification revolves around the memories and perceptions of the people in the neighborhood being manipulated and falsified, which leads to a change in how they visualize the neighborhood and its people. The Hachiro Lottery is about Hachiro, the youngest of the Shikishima family's 15 children. As the family is unable to take care of so many children, the neighborhood draws a lottery to decide which family among them would take care of the child every three months. The Shacks describes a cluster of four shacks just outside the town, each of which respectively absorbs the four human emotions- sadness, anger, hate or joy and turns them into energy for its own growth. The shacks expand, crack or grow depending on the strength of the emotion being absorbed, the only catch is that the emotion in question needs to be pure and not diluted by other emotions.
Overall, People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami(translated by Ted Goossen) is a fun and entertaining read that combines elements of humor, satire, fantasy and magical realism. The writing is crisp and straightforward and the stories are varied in tone and theme, which makes this an interesting and enjoyable read. This would be a great choice is great if you want a change of pace and/or a unique reading experience.
Some of my favorites:
Grandpa Shadows is about a neighbor who got his name from having two shadows- one “shadow was docile and submissive, the other rebellious”. Sports Day describes an annual school sports day sponsored by a bank in which the competitions are also banking themed-“competitions for best loan evaluation, best anti-fraud strategy for direct deposits, best marketing of financial products, best check-clearance procedure, and best cartoon character for their bank ads”. In Weightlessness, a no-gravity alert sent out by the no-gravity alert has everyone hugging trees and hanging on while everything is turned upside down. Pigeonitis describes the community being infected by a contagious illness that makes those infected walk, talk, think and behave like a pigeon in addition to certain physical changes. Falsification revolves around the memories and perceptions of the people in the neighborhood being manipulated and falsified, which leads to a change in how they visualize the neighborhood and its people. The Hachiro Lottery is about Hachiro, the youngest of the Shikishima family's 15 children. As the family is unable to take care of so many children, the neighborhood draws a lottery to decide which family among them would take care of the child every three months. The Shacks describes a cluster of four shacks just outside the town, each of which respectively absorbs the four human emotions- sadness, anger, hate or joy and turns them into energy for its own growth. The shacks expand, crack or grow depending on the strength of the emotion being absorbed, the only catch is that the emotion in question needs to be pure and not diluted by other emotions.
Overall, People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami(translated by Ted Goossen) is a fun and entertaining read that combines elements of humor, satire, fantasy and magical realism. The writing is crisp and straightforward and the stories are varied in tone and theme, which makes this an interesting and enjoyable read. This would be a great choice is great if you want a change of pace and/or a unique reading experience.
January 30, 2023
Some short stories are related.
There are many types of short stories including surreal, weird, or unusual.
Of course, I like some of the stories.
Frankly, the numbers of the stories are boring and unearthly.
I read this book because of the author Hiromi Kawakami “Strange Weather In Tokyo”
There are many types of short stories including surreal, weird, or unusual.
Of course, I like some of the stories.
Frankly, the numbers of the stories are boring and unearthly.
I read this book because of the author Hiromi Kawakami “Strange Weather In Tokyo”
March 15, 2021
I would give these 26 mini-stories 4 stars. If you asked me what each story was about…what was their point…. I would quickly change the subject (because in most cases I am not sure I know). All I know is that I really like some of Hiromi Kawakami’s past works a lot, and so I admit I am hopelessly biased, but there you have it! 😉 🙃
I have all of Hiromi Kawakami’s translated-into-English works. In fact, I have an autographed copy of ‘The Ten Loves of Mr. Nishino’. It was not advertised as such on the website where I bought it…so what a pleasant surprise when I opened it up and tipped in was a sheet of paper with her autograph signed in Japanese!!! (I am assuming it was her autograph…fairly sure it was not the prior owner of the book given the tipped-in sheet).
But I digress. The 2–4-page short short stories talk about life in some unnamed neighbourhood in Japan where the mundane meets the fantastical (time to check your grounded-in-reality sense at the door). I did not understand a majority of the stories, but I quickly became aware that the stories were interconnected, and I am a fan of interconnected stories so I wrote down all the protagonists in each of the stories to see if they popped up again in a later story or stories. Indeed they did: Grandpa Shadows; old chicken farmer; proprietress of the Love (Jim: a restaurant nobody ever goes to); Kanae; Kanae’s older sister; dog school principal; Hachiro, and several others…
Stories are told in the first person. We are not told the protagonist’s name…I have a suspicion it was a female.
Here are snippets from 3 of the stories to give you a flavor of the writing style/stories in this collection:
• For the first time in ages we had a no-gravity alert. …” This is the Disaster Preparedness Office speaking. We have been informed that there is an eighty per cent chance that a no-gravity event will take place between two and five o’clock this afternoon. Please remain indoors during those hours. If you must go out for any reason, please make sure you are well weighted down. This has been a message from the Disaster Preparedness Office." (from ‘Weightlessness’)
• It was Rokuro who discovered the cluster of four shacks just outside town. … It was thanks to Kanae’s big sister that we learned the shacks were actually ‘emotion rooms’. She had put the question directly to her class teacher, and he had explained that, of the four shacks, the pale red one was ‘the sadness shack’, the pale green one was ‘the anger shack’, the white one was ‘the hate shack’, and the yellow one was ‘the shack of joy’. … Apparently when anyone experiencing one of the four emotions—sadness, anger, hate or joy—spent time inside the appropriate shack, it would expand, little by little, to cover more and more land. The shack would absorb human emotions and turn them into energy for its own growth. That was why gaps had been left between them—to give each shack room to grow. (from ‘The Shacks’)
• The first case of pigeonitis popped up right after the May holidays. … The victim was a middle-aged farmer, but it took a long time for anyone to notice, so he was already in pretty bad shape when he was diagnosed. He lay there on his sickbed clucking and cooing away. A person suffering from pigeonitis sounds like a pigeon when they try to talk. In severe cases, their body also begins to take on pigeon-like characteristics. It is so contagious that most of those who look after the sick catch it themselves. (from ‘Pigeonitis’)
Notes:
• Sixteen of the 26 stories were published in Japan in 2016 under the title Konoatari no hitotachi (Folk from round about). The English edition is published by Granta in 2020; the translator is Ted Goossen (more about him directly below).
• I’m always boo-hooing about some of my fave Japanese authors not getting their works translated. What a pleasant surprise when I found out that Yoko Ogawa and Hiromi Kawakami and Aoko Matsuda have short stories I have never heard of published in the literary magazines ‘Monkey Business’ (7 volumes) or ‘Monkey’ (previously ‘Monkey Business’, 2020). The wonderful founder of these magazines (Ted Goossen, Motoyuki Shibata, and Meg Taylor) have established a literary journal to translate, and then publish in English, Japanese short stories, essays, and poems. See this website for more details: https://www.monkeybusinessmag.com/tra...
• Plus the literary magazine has now hooked up with a publishing house and will be publishing translated works beginning in the spring of 2022! See: https://www.stonebridge.com/post/monk... .
Finally, what I have been hoping for!!! 🙂 🙃 🙂 🙃
• Interview with Hiromi Kawakami in which stories in this book are mentioned…http://www.zoomjapan.info/2017/05/25/...
Reviews:
• https://theartsdesk.com/books/hiromi-...
• https://booksandbao.com/review-people...
• https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/...
• https://tonysreadinglist.wordpress.co...
MONKEY New Writing from Japan is the English-language offspring of the Tokyo-based Japanese literary magazine MONKEY, founded by Motoyuki Shibata, one of Japan’s most acclaimed translators of American fiction (Paul Auster, Laird Hunt, Steven Millhauser, and Richard Powers, among others). Selections are made by Shibata, Ted Goossen, one of the leading translators of Japanese fiction working today (Haruki Murakami, Hiromi Kawakami, and Sachiko Kishimoto, among others), and Taylor.
I have all of Hiromi Kawakami’s translated-into-English works. In fact, I have an autographed copy of ‘The Ten Loves of Mr. Nishino’. It was not advertised as such on the website where I bought it…so what a pleasant surprise when I opened it up and tipped in was a sheet of paper with her autograph signed in Japanese!!! (I am assuming it was her autograph…fairly sure it was not the prior owner of the book given the tipped-in sheet).
But I digress. The 2–4-page short short stories talk about life in some unnamed neighbourhood in Japan where the mundane meets the fantastical (time to check your grounded-in-reality sense at the door). I did not understand a majority of the stories, but I quickly became aware that the stories were interconnected, and I am a fan of interconnected stories so I wrote down all the protagonists in each of the stories to see if they popped up again in a later story or stories. Indeed they did: Grandpa Shadows; old chicken farmer; proprietress of the Love (Jim: a restaurant nobody ever goes to); Kanae; Kanae’s older sister; dog school principal; Hachiro, and several others…
Stories are told in the first person. We are not told the protagonist’s name…I have a suspicion it was a female.
Here are snippets from 3 of the stories to give you a flavor of the writing style/stories in this collection:
• For the first time in ages we had a no-gravity alert. …” This is the Disaster Preparedness Office speaking. We have been informed that there is an eighty per cent chance that a no-gravity event will take place between two and five o’clock this afternoon. Please remain indoors during those hours. If you must go out for any reason, please make sure you are well weighted down. This has been a message from the Disaster Preparedness Office." (from ‘Weightlessness’)
• It was Rokuro who discovered the cluster of four shacks just outside town. … It was thanks to Kanae’s big sister that we learned the shacks were actually ‘emotion rooms’. She had put the question directly to her class teacher, and he had explained that, of the four shacks, the pale red one was ‘the sadness shack’, the pale green one was ‘the anger shack’, the white one was ‘the hate shack’, and the yellow one was ‘the shack of joy’. … Apparently when anyone experiencing one of the four emotions—sadness, anger, hate or joy—spent time inside the appropriate shack, it would expand, little by little, to cover more and more land. The shack would absorb human emotions and turn them into energy for its own growth. That was why gaps had been left between them—to give each shack room to grow. (from ‘The Shacks’)
• The first case of pigeonitis popped up right after the May holidays. … The victim was a middle-aged farmer, but it took a long time for anyone to notice, so he was already in pretty bad shape when he was diagnosed. He lay there on his sickbed clucking and cooing away. A person suffering from pigeonitis sounds like a pigeon when they try to talk. In severe cases, their body also begins to take on pigeon-like characteristics. It is so contagious that most of those who look after the sick catch it themselves. (from ‘Pigeonitis’)
Notes:
• Sixteen of the 26 stories were published in Japan in 2016 under the title Konoatari no hitotachi (Folk from round about). The English edition is published by Granta in 2020; the translator is Ted Goossen (more about him directly below).
• I’m always boo-hooing about some of my fave Japanese authors not getting their works translated. What a pleasant surprise when I found out that Yoko Ogawa and Hiromi Kawakami and Aoko Matsuda have short stories I have never heard of published in the literary magazines ‘Monkey Business’ (7 volumes) or ‘Monkey’ (previously ‘Monkey Business’, 2020). The wonderful founder of these magazines (Ted Goossen, Motoyuki Shibata, and Meg Taylor) have established a literary journal to translate, and then publish in English, Japanese short stories, essays, and poems. See this website for more details: https://www.monkeybusinessmag.com/tra...
• Plus the literary magazine has now hooked up with a publishing house and will be publishing translated works beginning in the spring of 2022! See: https://www.stonebridge.com/post/monk... .
Finally, what I have been hoping for!!! 🙂 🙃 🙂 🙃
• Interview with Hiromi Kawakami in which stories in this book are mentioned…http://www.zoomjapan.info/2017/05/25/...
Reviews:
• https://theartsdesk.com/books/hiromi-...
• https://booksandbao.com/review-people...
• https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/...
• https://tonysreadinglist.wordpress.co...
MONKEY New Writing from Japan is the English-language offspring of the Tokyo-based Japanese literary magazine MONKEY, founded by Motoyuki Shibata, one of Japan’s most acclaimed translators of American fiction (Paul Auster, Laird Hunt, Steven Millhauser, and Richard Powers, among others). Selections are made by Shibata, Ted Goossen, one of the leading translators of Japanese fiction working today (Haruki Murakami, Hiromi Kawakami, and Sachiko Kishimoto, among others), and Taylor.
Read
August 14, 202014/8/20
This was a great collection of short stories at times venturing off into some weird and dark places -- loved it! There seems to currently be a movement of contemporary female Japanese authors writing surreal short fiction and I'm super excited to read more of that :)
14/8/20
A sincere thank you to Granta for a copy of this book! Really excited to read this one :)
You can find me on
Youtube | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Website | The Storygraph
This was a great collection of short stories at times venturing off into some weird and dark places -- loved it! There seems to currently be a movement of contemporary female Japanese authors writing surreal short fiction and I'm super excited to read more of that :)
14/8/20
A sincere thank you to Granta for a copy of this book! Really excited to read this one :)
You can find me on
Youtube | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Website | The Storygraph
February 16, 2021
I wanted to love this so much, and the premise of a collection of short stories about lots of strange, weird people from the same neighbourhood sounds so amazing. But I really felt a bit flat reading it. And this book is only 121 pages. And each story is no longer than 4 pages. And still I found it a pain having to keep picking the book up, so I don't think that is really a good sign. I was appreciative about all the characters interacting with each other in various stories, but the stories themselves were too odd to be quirky, and too short to give any real insight into what was actually happening.. so.. bit disappointed. The only story that really stood out was about a school made of confectionary that the students are allowed to eat as long as they re-bake the missing pieces...
February 27, 2023
A magical, strange, and remarkably entertaining catalog of a neighborhood which is anything but ordinary. Through brief glimpses of colorful and larger than life characters, we see the tenderness one feels towards their hometown, and how even the most unique of communities have harmony and routine. Funny, heartfelt, and perfect for a day at the local park.
January 1, 2023
"A white cloth was lying at the foot of a zelkova tree. When I walked over and picked it up, I saw a child underneath. The child glared up at me. “What’s the big idea?”
A lot of what I read I would classify as weird fiction. To me it's quite a broad term, running from the uncanny to full on horror or science fiction, and everything inbetween. There's traditional weird (H.P. Lovecraft). There's post-modern weird (J.G. Ballard). And then there's a special category that Japanese authors tend to gravitate to - I'd call it naive weird. It has all the components of the uncanny, but without any of the chilling or menacing nature a lot of weird fiction tends to have.
People From My Neighborhood is such a collection of short naive weird stories. And they are quite literally short - most are between four to six pages. We are told about the wide range of inhabitants of a neighbourhood, by an unnamed female narrator. And to wonderful effect - you do really get to know the different characters.
"Blackie was the name we gave the black dog that belonged to Kiyoshi Akai. He called the dog John, but there was nothing John-like about it."
There's a little boy that can't live at home, so there's a yearly lottery between the other families in the neighbourhood who gets him that year.
There's a school built out of chocolate, biscuits and sweets. When one of the pupils nibbles at some of the architecture, they have to cook and/or bake an exact replacement. Some of the stuff is namebrand, however, and use ingredients that aren't easily obtainable, so the copies become less and less like the original, slowly changing the school into a fake school.
There's a taxi driver who drives around with ghosts, delivering them to their haunts.
Turns out that some people are hatched from eggs, and they're not real humans. The narrator learns this from an local doctor.
There are stories that span several decades.
"Once it became clear that the town would have nothing to do with it, the housing development struck out on its own, erecting its own school, post office, town hall, shops, office buildings —the whole works. It even minted its own currency, with a creepy symbol of six heads clumped together."
While reading, I grade the individual stories in a collection, which I don't really use in writing reviews, it's more of a habit. Thatg said, I can't remember reading a short story collection with such a lot of high scoring stories.
Sure, not every story works, but that tends to be because elements of the story don't speak to me, and that feels so deeply personal, I can't really hold that against the book.
"They may look like they are in their teens, or in their fifties, or in their eighties, depending on the moment. The weather seems to be the determining factor."
A great book of short weird little stories.
(Thanks to Soft Skull for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
And here's the graded list..
The Secret - 3 stars
Chicken Hell - 3 stars
Grandma - 4 stars
The Office - 4 stars
Brains - 4 stars
The Crooner - 4 stars
The School Principal - 3 stars
The Love - 4 stars
The Juvenile Delinquent - 4 stars
The Tenement - 4 stars
The Hachirō Lottery - 4 stars
The Magic Spell - 3 stars
Grandpa Shadows - 3 stars
The Six-Person Apartments - 4 stars
The Rivals - 3 stars
The Elf - 3 stars
The Buriers - 3 stars
Banana - 3 stars
Lord Of The Flies - 4 stars
The Baseball Game - 3 stars
Torture - 4 stars
Bass Fishing - 3 stars
Pigeonitis - 2 stars
Sports Day - 3 stars
Fruit - 4 stars
The White Dove - 3 stars
Eye Medicine - 4 stars
Weightlessness - 4 stars
Hair - 4 stars
Baby - 3 stars
The Family Trade - 2 stars
The Bottomless Swamp - 4 stars
Falsification - 4 stars
Refrigerator - 4 stars
The Shacks - 4 stars
The Empress - 4 stars
A lot of what I read I would classify as weird fiction. To me it's quite a broad term, running from the uncanny to full on horror or science fiction, and everything inbetween. There's traditional weird (H.P. Lovecraft). There's post-modern weird (J.G. Ballard). And then there's a special category that Japanese authors tend to gravitate to - I'd call it naive weird. It has all the components of the uncanny, but without any of the chilling or menacing nature a lot of weird fiction tends to have.
People From My Neighborhood is such a collection of short naive weird stories. And they are quite literally short - most are between four to six pages. We are told about the wide range of inhabitants of a neighbourhood, by an unnamed female narrator. And to wonderful effect - you do really get to know the different characters.
"Blackie was the name we gave the black dog that belonged to Kiyoshi Akai. He called the dog John, but there was nothing John-like about it."
There's a little boy that can't live at home, so there's a yearly lottery between the other families in the neighbourhood who gets him that year.
There's a school built out of chocolate, biscuits and sweets. When one of the pupils nibbles at some of the architecture, they have to cook and/or bake an exact replacement. Some of the stuff is namebrand, however, and use ingredients that aren't easily obtainable, so the copies become less and less like the original, slowly changing the school into a fake school.
There's a taxi driver who drives around with ghosts, delivering them to their haunts.
Turns out that some people are hatched from eggs, and they're not real humans. The narrator learns this from an local doctor.
There are stories that span several decades.
"Once it became clear that the town would have nothing to do with it, the housing development struck out on its own, erecting its own school, post office, town hall, shops, office buildings —the whole works. It even minted its own currency, with a creepy symbol of six heads clumped together."
While reading, I grade the individual stories in a collection, which I don't really use in writing reviews, it's more of a habit. Thatg said, I can't remember reading a short story collection with such a lot of high scoring stories.
Sure, not every story works, but that tends to be because elements of the story don't speak to me, and that feels so deeply personal, I can't really hold that against the book.
"They may look like they are in their teens, or in their fifties, or in their eighties, depending on the moment. The weather seems to be the determining factor."
A great book of short weird little stories.
(Thanks to Soft Skull for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
And here's the graded list..
The Secret - 3 stars
Chicken Hell - 3 stars
Grandma - 4 stars
The Office - 4 stars
Brains - 4 stars
The Crooner - 4 stars
The School Principal - 3 stars
The Love - 4 stars
The Juvenile Delinquent - 4 stars
The Tenement - 4 stars
The Hachirō Lottery - 4 stars
The Magic Spell - 3 stars
Grandpa Shadows - 3 stars
The Six-Person Apartments - 4 stars
The Rivals - 3 stars
The Elf - 3 stars
The Buriers - 3 stars
Banana - 3 stars
Lord Of The Flies - 4 stars
The Baseball Game - 3 stars
Torture - 4 stars
Bass Fishing - 3 stars
Pigeonitis - 2 stars
Sports Day - 3 stars
Fruit - 4 stars
The White Dove - 3 stars
Eye Medicine - 4 stars
Weightlessness - 4 stars
Hair - 4 stars
Baby - 3 stars
The Family Trade - 2 stars
The Bottomless Swamp - 4 stars
Falsification - 4 stars
Refrigerator - 4 stars
The Shacks - 4 stars
The Empress - 4 stars
June 25, 2020
Thank you @grantabooks for gifting me a free copy of Hiromi Kawakami's upcoming collection of micro-fiction! This one is translated by Ted Goossen and is out in August in the UK.
.
This is only a tiny book, but although it's small, Kawakami packs a lot into 100 or so pages. I'll be brutally honest: the first three stories were boring. I was reading them and had a sense of... is this it? I'm going to read 36 dull pieces of flash fiction? But then, something started to unfurl.
.
I don't know how I'd describe these stories - maybe magical realism? But as you progress through the collection, stranger and stranger incidents begin to occur, and you realise that this neighbourhood is not as benign as it originally seems.
.
People undergo avian transformations. A stranger moves to the area with whispers of her dark past behind her. Gravity leaves them behind for a day. A new baby, undergoing numerous transformations along the way, shows up in the neighbourhood looking for a new family.
.
But it's all presented in this unassuming way that I just LOVE. Kawakami doesn't make a song and dance of it. It just is. There's just something off, but it's taken for granted. Presented as normality. This is further heightened by the fact that most of the stories are three pages, no more than five. There's no time or reason for explanation, you're just being shown the sights of this strange little neighbourhood. And the blurb was right - in the end, after a dubious beginning, I loved spending time with the people in this neighbourhood. I didn't want to leave.
.
This is only a tiny book, but although it's small, Kawakami packs a lot into 100 or so pages. I'll be brutally honest: the first three stories were boring. I was reading them and had a sense of... is this it? I'm going to read 36 dull pieces of flash fiction? But then, something started to unfurl.
.
I don't know how I'd describe these stories - maybe magical realism? But as you progress through the collection, stranger and stranger incidents begin to occur, and you realise that this neighbourhood is not as benign as it originally seems.
.
People undergo avian transformations. A stranger moves to the area with whispers of her dark past behind her. Gravity leaves them behind for a day. A new baby, undergoing numerous transformations along the way, shows up in the neighbourhood looking for a new family.
.
But it's all presented in this unassuming way that I just LOVE. Kawakami doesn't make a song and dance of it. It just is. There's just something off, but it's taken for granted. Presented as normality. This is further heightened by the fact that most of the stories are three pages, no more than five. There's no time or reason for explanation, you're just being shown the sights of this strange little neighbourhood. And the blurb was right - in the end, after a dubious beginning, I loved spending time with the people in this neighbourhood. I didn't want to leave.
September 1, 2023
Nothing remarkable. Totally forgettable. Writing is fine. But there are no stories and characters to remember.
December 13, 2021
Such a bizarre and quirky book! I loved it.
People from My Neighborhood is a collection of odd, unconventional and interconnected stories about unique individuals that resides in the same neighborhood. The chapters were extremely short and undemanding. I needed this kind of book to lighten up my mood after reading too much dark stuff these past few days. This definitely relaxed my senses.
If you'd like to meet Grandpa Shadows, Blackie; the ferocious dog, rivals Yoko One and Yoko Two or maybe join the lottery--and if you win, you'll get to keep Hachiro for three months, and mind you, he's a big eater. Or maybe hang around a small drinking place called Love.
Take your pick, this neighborhood got all these weird things going on. And I'll gladly move in if I could. But, please, I don't wanna turn into a Pigeon, for heaven's sake! HAHAHA.
People from My Neighborhood is a collection of odd, unconventional and interconnected stories about unique individuals that resides in the same neighborhood. The chapters were extremely short and undemanding. I needed this kind of book to lighten up my mood after reading too much dark stuff these past few days. This definitely relaxed my senses.
If you'd like to meet Grandpa Shadows, Blackie; the ferocious dog, rivals Yoko One and Yoko Two or maybe join the lottery--and if you win, you'll get to keep Hachiro for three months, and mind you, he's a big eater. Or maybe hang around a small drinking place called Love.
Take your pick, this neighborhood got all these weird things going on. And I'll gladly move in if I could. But, please, I don't wanna turn into a Pigeon, for heaven's sake! HAHAHA.
August 29, 2020
“People From My Neighbourhood” is a very slim collection of microstories (or what in Chinese-speaking countries is called short-shorts) by Hiromi Kawakami about - as the title says - people from the neighbourhood of the main character. They span several decades and are all interconnected, with the same neighbours appearing in them. Missing slightly my own shitamachi in Tokyo I hoped that reading these stories will be a trip down memory lane for me but I was mistaken.
I truly enjoy Japanese quirky stories - Yōko Ogawa, Taeko Kōno, Sayaka Murata, Hiroko Oyamada, Yukiko Motoya, Yōko Tawada have all written great stories whose kookiness appeals to me. In Kawakami’s stories a reader has no way of predicting what will happen. There is no logic, no correlation between the cause and the effect, realism is mixed with magic, fantasy, nightmarish visions and elements of Japanese folktales. Many stories evoke dystopian scenarios and some ideas explored in them reminded me slightly of “The Emissary” by Tawada and “The Memory Police” by Ogawa, as well as films by Tetsuya Nakashima (especially “Confessions” and “Memories of Matsuko”). There is a school that’s made completely of edible sweets, bizarre neighbourhood lotteries, people born from eggs, naughty ghosts of children, magic spells. Between the lines though Kawakami often points out social exclusion and marginalisation, bullying, loneliness and the pressure to conform, all wrapped in a layer of oddness.
Although I found all the stories really interesting and enjoyed reading them I felt they lacked something. Maybe the extremely short form, while convenient for this kind of highly imaginative pieces, didn’t really suit the ideas. I think the book is great to carry in your pocket and read a story while you have five minutes to kill waiting for a bus but altogether they do not leave a lasting impression. Kawakami failed to create any kind of atmosphere and as a result failed to engage me. “People From My Neighbourhood” is a fun book to read in between great literature; it’s like a sip of water to clean your palate between two delicious and memorable dishes of a course menu dinner.
I truly enjoy Japanese quirky stories - Yōko Ogawa, Taeko Kōno, Sayaka Murata, Hiroko Oyamada, Yukiko Motoya, Yōko Tawada have all written great stories whose kookiness appeals to me. In Kawakami’s stories a reader has no way of predicting what will happen. There is no logic, no correlation between the cause and the effect, realism is mixed with magic, fantasy, nightmarish visions and elements of Japanese folktales. Many stories evoke dystopian scenarios and some ideas explored in them reminded me slightly of “The Emissary” by Tawada and “The Memory Police” by Ogawa, as well as films by Tetsuya Nakashima (especially “Confessions” and “Memories of Matsuko”). There is a school that’s made completely of edible sweets, bizarre neighbourhood lotteries, people born from eggs, naughty ghosts of children, magic spells. Between the lines though Kawakami often points out social exclusion and marginalisation, bullying, loneliness and the pressure to conform, all wrapped in a layer of oddness.
Although I found all the stories really interesting and enjoyed reading them I felt they lacked something. Maybe the extremely short form, while convenient for this kind of highly imaginative pieces, didn’t really suit the ideas. I think the book is great to carry in your pocket and read a story while you have five minutes to kill waiting for a bus but altogether they do not leave a lasting impression. Kawakami failed to create any kind of atmosphere and as a result failed to engage me. “People From My Neighbourhood” is a fun book to read in between great literature; it’s like a sip of water to clean your palate between two delicious and memorable dishes of a course menu dinner.
May 27, 2022
❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀
The extremely short stories collected in People From My Neighbourhood bear many of the trademarks that I associate with Hiromi Kawakami’s storytelling and work. Under Kawakami’s hand, slice-of-life scenarios are approached from odd angles and permeated by a sense of surreality that will make readers question what exactly is going.
As the title itself suggests this collection transports readers to a Japanese neighbourhood and each story reads like a short vignette detailing an odd episode involving a resident of this neighbourhood. The stories are loosely interconnected as we have recurring figures—such as Kanae and her sisters or the school principal—who make more than one appearance. Occasionally one is even left with the impression that they vaguely contradict one another, or that time doesn’t quite unfold as it should in this neighbourhood. This elasticity with time and reality results in a rather playful collection that is recognizably a product of Kawakami’s active imagination. Her offbeat approach to everyday scenarios does make for an inventive collection of stories. There is a story about the unusual lottery that takes place in this neighbourhood (the loser has to take care of Hachirō, a boy with a voracious and seemingly never-ending appetite), one about the bitter rivalry between two girls named Yōko, one about a princess moving to the neighbourhood, another recounting the origin of the Sand Festival, and many detailing people who are curses or are part of some sort of prophecy.
While I love Kawakami’s storytelling, which is full of zest and humour, as well as the almost Kafkaesque feeling of her narratives, I just found these stories too short and, ultimately, insubstantial. If she happens to be an author on your TBR pile I suggest you pick one of her novels instead, like, Strange Weather in Tokyo or The Nakano Thrift Shop.
The extremely short stories collected in People From My Neighbourhood bear many of the trademarks that I associate with Hiromi Kawakami’s storytelling and work. Under Kawakami’s hand, slice-of-life scenarios are approached from odd angles and permeated by a sense of surreality that will make readers question what exactly is going.
As the title itself suggests this collection transports readers to a Japanese neighbourhood and each story reads like a short vignette detailing an odd episode involving a resident of this neighbourhood. The stories are loosely interconnected as we have recurring figures—such as Kanae and her sisters or the school principal—who make more than one appearance. Occasionally one is even left with the impression that they vaguely contradict one another, or that time doesn’t quite unfold as it should in this neighbourhood. This elasticity with time and reality results in a rather playful collection that is recognizably a product of Kawakami’s active imagination. Her offbeat approach to everyday scenarios does make for an inventive collection of stories. There is a story about the unusual lottery that takes place in this neighbourhood (the loser has to take care of Hachirō, a boy with a voracious and seemingly never-ending appetite), one about the bitter rivalry between two girls named Yōko, one about a princess moving to the neighbourhood, another recounting the origin of the Sand Festival, and many detailing people who are curses or are part of some sort of prophecy.
While I love Kawakami’s storytelling, which is full of zest and humour, as well as the almost Kafkaesque feeling of her narratives, I just found these stories too short and, ultimately, insubstantial. If she happens to be an author on your TBR pile I suggest you pick one of her novels instead, like, Strange Weather in Tokyo or The Nakano Thrift Shop.
October 10, 2024
This book is utterly ridiculous & utterly charming! Some people are just gifted with infinite imagination and Kawakami is one of them.
People from my neighborhood is a collection of absurd stories all centered on one neighborhood. The every day blends with the mythical, the fantastic, into a surreal blur. The characters are vivid and the situations are incredible.
Reading this feels like becoming a kid again, when anything & everything was possible.
People from my neighborhood is a collection of absurd stories all centered on one neighborhood. The every day blends with the mythical, the fantastic, into a surreal blur. The characters are vivid and the situations are incredible.
Reading this feels like becoming a kid again, when anything & everything was possible.
October 11, 2022
picked this up from an independent bookstore because the cover was so gorgeous, and while charming in many ways (most prominently aesthetic), something about magical realism and extreme minimalism does not work for me. the best magical realist fiction (or fantasy-inflected fiction, if that’s the classification you prefer) is buoyed by detail and overwriting; the limits (or lack thereof) of reality are believable because the writing is lush and wandering. this was entirely too plain for me and so its magical elements became random and outrageous very quickly. 3.2/5.
July 8, 2024
ไม่คาดหวัง แต่ดันชอบมากๆ ในเล่มประกอบด้วยเรื่องราวสั้นๆ เล่าโดยฉันที่มีต่อบุคคล เหตุการณ์ และแน่นอนว่าสถานที่แถวละแวกบ้าน ด้วยเรื่องราวที่เพี้ยน แปลกประหลาด อย่างตาแก่ที่มีสองเงาในคนเดียว หมาดำแถวบ้านที่คนเกลียดแต่ตอนจบกลับสร้างอนุสรณ์ให้ แฟลตที่ทุกห้องต้องมีคนอยู่หกคนที่ตามมาด้วยคำสาปอื่นๆ อย่างการที่เท้าที่มีถุงน้ำแล้วมีลูกอ้อดว่ายอยู่ในนั้น ฯลฯ ตอนอ่านรู้สึกว่าเต็มไปด้วยกลิ่นอายของสัจนิยมมหัศจรรย์คือเรื่องประหลาดที่ไม่มีเหตุผล ไม่ตรงตามชุดความจริงของโลกความจริง แต่ตัวละครในโลกที่เค้าอยู่นั้นก็ไม่รู้สึกว่ามันแปลกหรือประหลาดอะไร ตัวละครบางตัวก็เชื่อมโยงกัน อ่านบทนึงก็ไปโผล่หรือกลายเป็นเรื่องเล่าในอีกบท จริงๆ คิดว่าบางเรื่องอ่านแล้วจะอ่านเอาสัญญะหรือนัยยะก็ได้นะ แต่เราเลือกไปในทางเอ็นจอยถอดสมองสนุกฟินๆ มากกว่า
แต่พออ่านไปเรื่อยๆ ก็คิดถึงเรื่องเล่าพื้นบ้านแบบ folklore มากกว่า ส่วนตัวคิดว่านี่คือการเอาเรื่องพื้นบ้านมาประยุกต์เล่าแบบสมัยใหม่ ให้ดูโมเดิร์น แล้วเล่าผ่านฉัน ป้าข้างบ้าน กลายเป็นเรื่องราวที่พออ่านแล้ว เออ ไม่ได้รู้สึกปรัมปราหรือจักรๆ วงศ์ๆ คือสนุกมากเหมือนตามเสือกไปกับตัวละครฉันผู้เล่า แล้วทำให้เรื่องละแวกบ้าน aka พื้นบ้าน มันแบบยังไงดีเข้าถึงคนยุคเราได้ คือมันมีความเป็น folklore อยู่ตรงไม่จำเป็นต้องสมเหตุสมผลกับความเป็นจริง แต่ในขณะเดียวกันก็คิดว่าเรื่องทั่วไปในละแวกบ้าน หมู่บ้านเรางี้ จริงๆ มันก็เป็นเรื่องพื้นบ้านในอีกร้อยปีได้ไหมนะ แบบถ้ามีคนเล่าต่อไปเรื่อยๆ แบบบ้านนี้มีผี มีสตอรี่ว่าสามีภรรยาฆ่ากันแล้วลูกก็กลายเป็นนางฟ้าที่จะให้พรแก่คนที่เดินผ่านอะไรแบบนี้
อีกอย่างที่ว่าเหมือนก็คือการเล่าแบบไม่ได้ต้องได้อะไรไปมากกว่าการเล่าเรื่องราวที่สนุก เพี้ยน ชวนหัว สิ่งที่เป็นไปแล้วก็จบลงในแต่ละบท ซึ่งจริงๆ ก็ทำให้ฉุกคิดว่าการอ่านหนังสือสักเล่มบางทีก็ไม่ต้องได้อะไรไปมากกว่านี้ไหม กลายเป็นรู้สึกตลกร้ายเล่นล้อกับสมัยนิยมที่นักอ่านอ่านหนังสือสักเล่มเพราะคาดหวังพล็อตที่ผูกปมมาอย่างพิถีพิถันและสร้างความตื่นตะลึงในตอนจบ หรือตอนจบที่ต้องให้ข้อคิด หรือการฮีลใจการตกตะกอนจากการอ่านหนังสือเล่มนั้นๆ (ไม่ได้บอกว่าการคาดหวังหรือการอ่านให้ได้สิ่งเหล่านั้นมันไม่ถูกหรืออะไรนะ) แต่ก็ทำให้คิดว่าประโยคที่ว่าอ่านแล้วไม่ได้อะไร มันจำเป็นต้องได้อะไรหรือเปล่านะ
แต่พออ่านไปเรื่อยๆ ก็คิดถึงเรื่องเล่าพื้นบ้านแบบ folklore มากกว่า ส่วนตัวคิดว่านี่คือการเอาเรื่องพื้นบ้านมาประยุกต์เล่าแบบสมัยใหม่ ให้ดูโมเดิร์น แล้วเล่าผ่านฉัน ป้าข้างบ้าน กลายเป็นเรื่องราวที่พออ่านแล้ว เออ ไม่ได้รู้สึกปรัมปราหรือจักรๆ วงศ์ๆ คือสนุกมากเหมือนตามเสือกไปกับตัวละครฉันผู้เล่า แล้วทำให้เรื่องละแวกบ้าน aka พื้นบ้าน มันแบบยังไงดีเข้าถึงคนยุคเราได้ คือมันมีความเป็น folklore อยู่ตรงไม่จำเป็นต้องสมเหตุสมผลกับความเป็นจริง แต่ในขณะเดียวกันก็คิดว่าเรื่องทั่วไปในละแวกบ้าน หมู่บ้านเรางี้ จริงๆ มันก็เป็นเรื่องพื้นบ้านในอีกร้อยปีได้ไหมนะ แบบถ้ามีคนเล่าต่อไปเรื่อยๆ แบบบ้านนี้มีผี มีสตอรี่ว่าสามีภรรยาฆ่ากันแล้วลูกก็กลายเป็นนางฟ้าที่จะให้พรแก่คนที่เดินผ่านอะไรแบบนี้
อีกอย่างที่ว่าเหมือนก็คือการเล่าแบบไม่ได้ต้องได้อะไรไปมากกว่าการเล่าเรื่องราวที่สนุก เพี้ยน ชวนหัว สิ่งที่เป็นไปแล้วก็จบลงในแต่ละบท ซึ่งจริงๆ ก็ทำให้ฉุกคิดว่าการอ่านหนังสือสักเล่มบางทีก็ไม่ต้องได้อะไรไปมากกว่านี้ไหม กลายเป็นรู้สึกตลกร้ายเล่นล้อกับสมัยนิยมที่นักอ่านอ่านหนังสือสักเล่มเพราะคาดหวังพล็อตที่ผูกปมมาอย่างพิถีพิถันและสร้างความตื่นตะลึงในตอนจบ หรือตอนจบที่ต้องให้ข้อคิด หรือการฮีลใจการตกตะกอนจากการอ่านหนังสือเล่มนั้นๆ (ไม่ได้บอกว่าการคาดหวังหรือการอ่านให้ได้สิ่งเหล่านั้นมันไม่ถูกหรืออะไรนะ) แต่ก็ทำให้คิดว่าประโยคที่ว่าอ่านแล้วไม่ได้อะไร มันจำเป็นต้องได้อะไรหรือเปล่านะ
January 14, 2022
'Kanae’s hair was pink when she returned from France. Her photograph began to appear in magazines. In her thirties, she had her own brand, and her hair turned from pink to green to gold to white. When I bumped into one of the neighborhood women, she praised Kanae as “the pride of our hometown.” It was the very same woman who had told me about Kanae’s impure relations. I was amazed at her use of the word hometown.'
One or (maybe) two in the collection were alright, but overall it's a letdown (personally). Read MONKEY New Writing from Japan: Volume 2: TRAVEL instead. The opening piece by Kawakami is fantastic, and certainly my favourite work of hers.
One or (maybe) two in the collection were alright, but overall it's a letdown (personally). Read MONKEY New Writing from Japan: Volume 2: TRAVEL instead. The opening piece by Kawakami is fantastic, and certainly my favourite work of hers.
May 28, 2022
Hiromi Kawakami collects here a dreamlike conglomeration of semi-related characters and events from her part of town, if the title and interior clues are to be believed.
The random nature of the images and events lend the collection an experimental feel. The writing is smooth and simple and unadorned. Her earlier novels and stories were more atmospheric and consistent in my opinion. The quality of the ideas wavered from intriguing to objectively bad. Nonetheless, I admit it is hard to judge absurdist or bizarro works. They are not trying to make sense. Yet, I only consider a bizarro idea successful if it is either memorable or comments obliquely on the real world, either through satire or subtext. There appears to be some of the latter going on, and I only wish more of the vignettes resolved into memorable stories or packed more of a punch.
Like with her previous works in English, her subdued storytelling is softer than Yoko Ogawa's and the spheres from which she draws her subject matter are not as far-flung as Yoko Tawada's, but any of her books are approachable, somewhat enjoyable, and similar in feel to Banana Yoshimoto's.
Be prepared for dog principals, pigeonitis, and other wacky scenarios. None of them are explored into perversity and remain tethered to a quirky sort of mundanity. No matter how out-there H. K. ventures, she is typically unwilling to offend anybody. If you liked Convenience Store Woman, you should check out Kawakami's work, and watch for a subliminal appreciation for wabi-sabi.
I do hope more of her translated works make it into English soon.
The random nature of the images and events lend the collection an experimental feel. The writing is smooth and simple and unadorned. Her earlier novels and stories were more atmospheric and consistent in my opinion. The quality of the ideas wavered from intriguing to objectively bad. Nonetheless, I admit it is hard to judge absurdist or bizarro works. They are not trying to make sense. Yet, I only consider a bizarro idea successful if it is either memorable or comments obliquely on the real world, either through satire or subtext. There appears to be some of the latter going on, and I only wish more of the vignettes resolved into memorable stories or packed more of a punch.
Like with her previous works in English, her subdued storytelling is softer than Yoko Ogawa's and the spheres from which she draws her subject matter are not as far-flung as Yoko Tawada's, but any of her books are approachable, somewhat enjoyable, and similar in feel to Banana Yoshimoto's.
Be prepared for dog principals, pigeonitis, and other wacky scenarios. None of them are explored into perversity and remain tethered to a quirky sort of mundanity. No matter how out-there H. K. ventures, she is typically unwilling to offend anybody. If you liked Convenience Store Woman, you should check out Kawakami's work, and watch for a subliminal appreciation for wabi-sabi.
I do hope more of her translated works make it into English soon.
January 9, 2024
Liczyłam na więcej i trochę się zawiodłam.
November 22, 2020
I knew heading into this one that it would be a gamble, since magical realism doesn’t often work for me. But, when it does it tends to be when it’s in short story format, and having heard such good things about Kawakami’s other work, I decided to give this collection of micro fiction a shot.
In order to suspend my disbelief, I prefer fabulist elements to be grounded by a strong narrative, a compelling character, or to at least have an obvious thematic meaning. But these interconnected tales fall firmly into the weird for the sake of being weird category that simply does nothing for me, and they are are all so fleeting that there’s no time to establish an emotional connection. There’s no denying the presence of fascinating and visually striking concepts, but it feels more like a scrapbook of ideas and jumping off points than a fleshed out, cohesive collection. It also falls into the trap of having an opening piece that is by far the most compelling; this initial promise heightening the later sense of disappointment.
Not for me, sadly.
In order to suspend my disbelief, I prefer fabulist elements to be grounded by a strong narrative, a compelling character, or to at least have an obvious thematic meaning. But these interconnected tales fall firmly into the weird for the sake of being weird category that simply does nothing for me, and they are are all so fleeting that there’s no time to establish an emotional connection. There’s no denying the presence of fascinating and visually striking concepts, but it feels more like a scrapbook of ideas and jumping off points than a fleshed out, cohesive collection. It also falls into the trap of having an opening piece that is by far the most compelling; this initial promise heightening the later sense of disappointment.
Not for me, sadly.
October 1, 2024
3.5
just wasn’t for me
i want more!! i want more of a story or more of the characters or more meaning, not just these itty bitty little tastes
it was fun if you like this sort of thing- fragmented glimpses into the people in a community- but i personally do not
just wasn’t for me
i want more!! i want more of a story or more of the characters or more meaning, not just these itty bitty little tastes
it was fun if you like this sort of thing- fragmented glimpses into the people in a community- but i personally do not
October 28, 2020
A very quirky and strange collection of somewhat linked super short stories known as micro-fiction. Most of them are just 3 pages long! For the first two or three stories i couldn’t get into it, i was like, “it’s too short and abrupt, i need more development.” But after reading a few more i saw the links between the stories, became more familiar with the recurring characters, and got used to the bizarre weirdness, i started to fall for the charms of the town and its eccentric residents and establishments. It has the sort of charming weirdness that you can expect from Japanese literature and Kawakami. Several parts surprised me with the kooky humour, haha!
Thanks to Pansing Singapore for the review copy!
Thanks to Pansing Singapore for the review copy!
December 3, 2023
This certainly must have been an odd neighbourhood to live in!! The book consists of the shortest of short stories (and more or less the oddest) that I have ever come across. Initially I thought that the 'snippets' were completely arbitrary but as I read on, I noticed that the same people kept appearing. I enjoyed nearly all the little tales (and found them harmless) but would only recommend this collection to those who are tolerant of the weird and wonderful (more weird than wonderful).
April 1, 2022
6
I love this book so much. It's the best thing I've read so far this year, along with Tamsyn Muir's necromancer buddy-dramedies.
Kawakami sets the world on fire just by inventing it. Amazing.
I love this book so much. It's the best thing I've read so far this year, along with Tamsyn Muir's necromancer buddy-dramedies.
Kawakami sets the world on fire just by inventing it. Amazing.
November 8, 2021
Park your expectations for straightforward narratives within the twenty-six short, two to six page interconnected stories in this collection, because that’s not what you’ll find here.
All set within an unnamed neighbourhood, and told by an unnamed narrator, the stories in this collection relate the happenings and relationships within a neighbourhood, such as:
-A lottery for Hachirō, where the losing family must take care of young Hachirō for three, successive months.
-Or the Music House within which one can only enter on one’s birthday at 3 PM for an experience.
-Or Kanae’s older sister who developed the ability to speak the words of dead people after entering a particular apartment in the neighbourhood.
I loved how the author used recurring characters in multiple stories: Kanae, Dog School Principal, Midori, Hachirō, Kiyoshi, Old Man Shadows, chicken farmer, the woman who owned and ran the Love convenience store….creating the feel of a lived-in place, but where the bizarre meets the mundane, and it’s all just normal here.
It’s a surreal, strange set of people and stories, and I think I enjoyed this collection.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Soft Skull Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.
All set within an unnamed neighbourhood, and told by an unnamed narrator, the stories in this collection relate the happenings and relationships within a neighbourhood, such as:
-A lottery for Hachirō, where the losing family must take care of young Hachirō for three, successive months.
-Or the Music House within which one can only enter on one’s birthday at 3 PM for an experience.
-Or Kanae’s older sister who developed the ability to speak the words of dead people after entering a particular apartment in the neighbourhood.
I loved how the author used recurring characters in multiple stories: Kanae, Dog School Principal, Midori, Hachirō, Kiyoshi, Old Man Shadows, chicken farmer, the woman who owned and ran the Love convenience store….creating the feel of a lived-in place, but where the bizarre meets the mundane, and it’s all just normal here.
It’s a surreal, strange set of people and stories, and I think I enjoyed this collection.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Soft Skull Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.
July 5, 2024
แปลกประหลาด บ้าบอ และตลก เรื่องสั้นมากๆ น่าจะไม่ถึงเอสี่ด้วยซ้ำ ร้อยเรียงเรื่องราวผู้คนแถวบ้านของ “ฉัน” แบบต่างมิติด้านเวลา อ่านเรื่องหนึ่งรู้อดีต และอนาคตในทันที เรื่องถัดมาขยายเรื่องที่แล้วด้วยคำบอกเล่าสั้นๆ และบางเรื่องก็แค่เล่าจบให้ฟังในตอนแล้วแล้วกันไป
มันเป็นความบันเทิงรูปแบบนึงที่ไม่รู้ว่าหน้าถัดไปเขาจะเล่าอะไร และสนุกดีที่เรื่องมันไม่ได้เรียกร้องให้เราตีตวามขนาดนั้น อยากตีความหรือก็เชิญ เรื่องของแก อ่านเอาตลกเพลินๆ ก็ได้แล้วแต่แกเลยจ้า เอาตามสะดวก เพราะตัวละครในเรื่องก็ทำทุกอย่างตามสะดวกเหมือนคนแถวบ้าน
เป็นเล่มที่ไม่มั่นใจว่าจะแนะนำใครอ่านเพราะมันประหลาด กลัวโดนคนด่าว่าแนะนำเรื่องบ้าอะไรวะให้คนอื่น
มันเป็นความบันเทิงรูปแบบนึงที่ไม่รู้ว่าหน้าถัดไปเขาจะเล่าอะไร และสนุกดีที่เรื่องมันไม่ได้เรียกร้องให้เราตีตวามขนาดนั้น อยากตีความหรือก็เชิญ เรื่องของแก อ่านเอาตลกเพลินๆ ก็ได้แล้วแต่แกเลยจ้า เอาตามสะดวก เพราะตัวละครในเรื่องก็ทำทุกอย่างตามสะดวกเหมือนคนแถวบ้าน
เป็นเล่มที่ไม่มั่นใจว่าจะแนะนำใครอ่านเพราะมันประหลาด กลัวโดนคนด่าว่าแนะนำเรื่องบ้าอะไรวะให้คนอื่น
June 15, 2024
A charmingly strange set of interconnected stories about a neighborhood in Japan full of unusual characters. The unnamed child narrator tells us of the middle aged woman who runs a karaoke bar out of her house, the old man with two shadows, the child who is passed from house to house by lottery because his parents cannot support him, a diplomat who might be an alien who no one ever seen, the arrival of a mountain of sand, a school built of candy, a girl with prophetic dreams, and more. The stories escalate in weirdness over the course of the book and also introduce more reoccurring characters. The short 4-6 pages chapters made it compulsively readable. I had a great time with this, despite the lack of an overarching plot.
July 1, 2024
รักในความบ้าบอคอแตกของเรื่องสั้นชุดนี้มาก
เป็นความบ้าบอคอแตกที่โคตรตลก มันไม่มีเหตุผลแต่ก็เหมือนจะมีเหตุผลให้คิดต่อได้ มันดูเหนือจริงแต่ก็ยังมีความจริงผสมปนเปลงไปอยู่บ้าง มันดูไร้สาระ แต่ก็เหมือนจะมีสาระให้ขบคิดต่อไปหากคุณมีเวลาว่างพอจะคิดถึงมัน
อ่านไปแล้วก็แอบนึกถึงรวมเรื่องสั้นประหลาดๆของมูราคามิ ที่อ่านไปก็ขำตัวเองพ้อมเอาหัวกระแทกโต๊ะ บ่นบ้าบ่นบอในใจว่า นี่ผมกำลังอ่านอะไรอยู่วะเนี่ย แต่บ่นไปก็หยุดอ่านมันไม่ได้นะ เพราะแม่งโคตรตลก บันเทิงชิบหาย กับเพือนบ้านสุดแปลกพิลึกที่ตัวเอกของเรานำมาเล่าเป็นเรื่อง (โคตร) สั้นในแต่ละตอน ซึ่งก็ดันเอาจริงเอาจังตรงที่เรื่องสั้นแต่ละเรื่องก็แอบเชื่อมโยงกัน ผ่านตัวละครบ้าง หรือเหตุการณ์พิลึกกึกกือบ้าง แถมตลกไปกว่านั้นคือ ยังเล่าแบบ Time skip ในบางบทด้วย ยิ่งทำเรื่องที่พิลึกอยู่แล้วยิ่งพิลึกบ้าไปอีก
สรุปคือ โดนเส้น ชอบบบบบบ เป็นหนังสือที่ย้ำเตือนว่าปีนึงเราควรอะไรแบบนี้ซักเล่ม ถอดสมองและเหตุผลออกไป สนุกสนานกับเรื่องราวที่ถักทออยู่ตรงหน้าแค่นั้นพอ
เป็นความบ้าบอคอแตกที่โคตรตลก มันไม่มีเหตุผลแต่ก็เหมือนจะมีเหตุผลให้คิดต่อได้ มันดูเหนือจริงแต่ก็ยังมีความจริงผสมปนเปลงไปอยู่บ้าง มันดูไร้สาระ แต่ก็เหมือนจะมีสาระให้ขบคิดต่อไปหากคุณมีเวลาว่างพอจะคิดถึงมัน
อ่านไปแล้วก็แอบนึกถึงรวมเรื่องสั้นประหลาดๆของมูราคามิ ที่อ่านไปก็ขำตัวเองพ้อมเอาหัวกระแทกโต๊ะ บ่นบ้าบ่นบอในใจว่า นี่ผมกำลังอ่านอะไรอยู่วะเนี่ย แต่บ่นไปก็หยุดอ่านมันไม่ได้นะ เพราะแม่งโคตรตลก บันเทิงชิบหาย กับเพือนบ้านสุดแปลกพิลึกที่ตัวเอกของเรานำมาเล่าเป็นเรื่อง (โคตร) สั้นในแต่ละตอน ซึ่งก็ดันเอาจริงเอาจังตรงที่เรื่องสั้นแต่ละเรื่องก็แอบเชื่อมโยงกัน ผ่านตัวละครบ้าง หรือเหตุการณ์พิลึกกึกกือบ้าง แถมตลกไปกว่านั้นคือ ยังเล่าแบบ Time skip ในบางบทด้วย ยิ่งทำเรื่องที่พิลึกอยู่แล้วยิ่งพิลึกบ้าไปอีก
สรุปคือ โดนเส้น ชอบบบบบบ เป็นหนังสือที่ย้ำเตือนว่าปีนึงเราควรอะไรแบบนี้ซักเล่ม ถอดสมองและเหตุผลออกไป สนุกสนานกับเรื่องราวที่ถักทออยู่ตรงหน้าแค่นั้นพอ
May 10, 2021
For a book that is barely 100 pages, this took me a LONG time to read! To me, this all just felt really pointless and I did not find myself wanting to turn the page, let alone pick the book up each day. It’s a collection of interconnected micro stories... but the interconnection is mostly limited to a few recurring characters. Nothing much interesting or profound happens, and too often when interesting things did happen it quickly ended with some variation of ‘and then things went back to normal’. Nothing ever seemed to matter, so I never felt invested in anything that happened.
I don’t mean to be unkind, but I just really did not enjoy this. I didn’t DNF it because it’s so short I knew if I just sat down I could finish it quickly enough, but I was so bored that just never happened and it ended up taking me three weeks to read!
I don’t mean to be unkind, but I just really did not enjoy this. I didn’t DNF it because it’s so short I knew if I just sat down I could finish it quickly enough, but I was so bored that just never happened and it ended up taking me three weeks to read!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,244 reviews