Лето злых духов убумэ

百鬼夜行 #1

by Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Нацухико Кёгоку, Анаит Григорян (Translator)

1952 год, Токио. Странные и зловещие события обрушиваются на старинный род врачей Куондзи, владеющий частной гинекологической клиникой. По городу ползут слухи о том, что младшая дочь семьи носит ребенка уже в течение 20 месяцев и никак не может разрешиться от бремени… А ее муж Макио бесследно исчез из запертой комнаты. Поговаривают также, что в течение последних лет из клиники пропали несколько новорожденных младенцев. И в наказание за свои преступления семья Куондзи проклята, а их младшая дочь забеременела младенцем-демоном. Писатель-журналист Тацуми Сэкигути уговаривает заняться этим делом своего друга, хозяина букинистического магазина. Книготорговец является чародеем-оммёдзи, владеющим техникой изгнания злых духов и снятия одержимостей. А еще он убежден в том, что в мире не бывает ничего странного…

Genres: Horror, Mystery, Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature, Supernatural, Fantasy

608 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Natsuhiko Kyogoku ( 京極 夏彦 Kyōgoku Natsuhiko, born March 26, 1963) is a Japanese mystery writer, who is a member of Ōsawa Office. He is a member of the Mystery Writers of Japan and the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan.

Three of his novels have been turned into feature films; Mōryō no Hako, which won the 1996 Mystery Writers of Japan Award, was also made into an anime TV series, as was Kosetsu Hyaku Monogatari, and his book Loups=Garous was adapted into an anime feature film. Vertical have published his debut novel as The Summer of the Ubume.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hand down, The Summer of the Ubume is a goddamn masterpiece, plain and simple, I'd have given it 10 stars if it's allowed.

I read the Chinese translation many years ago and it's still one of my most favorite Japanese's classical detective novels. The novel balances itself finely among different themes such as suspense, detective mystery, horror, traditional demon/ghost lore and romance. The ending is really twisted as well.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a 3.8 on the star scale
Summer of the Ubume is a mystery story with strong supernatural overtones, one that starts out a bit slow but picks up and gets progressively more weird as it moves along toward its ending, which is the most bizarre solution to a mystery I've run across in all of my years of reading. And I've been reading a long, long time.

The year is 1952, the place Tokyo. The war is over, the American Occupation has ended, people are trying to get back to "normal" life but quite yet haven't figured out just what that entails. Buildings are still in ruins, the black market has recently been outlawed, and tabloid papers are all the rage. The novel is narrated by Sekiguchi, a freelance tabloid reporter who used to study slime molds but gave up his unprofitable research to focus on his writing and to make some money. He has come to visit his friend Kyogokudo to ask him his opinion about a story he's recently heard about a woman who has been pregnant for twenty months and has shown absolutely no signs of giving birth. Her parents are members of the Kuonji family, whose descendants have been practicing medicine since Japan's feudal period. The current Kuonjis run the Kuonji Clinic, once a prestigious institution, but one which has now fallen on hard times since the war, not only due to damage from air raids, but because of stories about babies disappearing from there shortly after their births. The pregnant woman's husband disappeared about a year and half earlier, never to be seen again after locking himself into a room in the annex of the clinic. After the indomitably rational Kyogokudo spends a great deal of time expounding on such topics as quantum mechanics, religion, collective delusions and the truth (as he sees it) underlying the supernatural, he suggests that Sekiguchi go to see their friend, a private investigator. There, by sheer chance, Seki meets Ryoko, the sister of the pregnant woman, a pivotal event in Sekiguchi's life and in the rest of the story, as she agrees to let the private investigator and Sekiguchi visit the clinic. From there the novel takes a number of bizarre twists and turns, all leading to an even more bizarre ending.

Despite Chuzenji's pervading rationality, there is a very potent creep factor at work throughout the novel and supernatural overtones form a frame for this story. The reader sees the story through the eyes of Sekiguchi, who is highly impressionable; his own infallibities work together with things he sees and hears, creating an atmosphere that keeps the tension at a high level. Among other things, he witnesses his private-eye friend's ability to "see" memories and posit questions based on his "visions;" when he goes to see the Kuonji clinic, evidence turns up of strange experiments; witnesses are either reluctant or missing; he has bizarre dreams, strange recurring memories and he periodically fades in and out of reality. The author's passion for strange yokai folklore that is woven throughout the novel also helps set the tone so that even though the reader starts wondering if there isn't more here than meets the rational eye.

This is such a bizarre story that I couldn't help but really like it. I can honestly say I've never come across anything quite like it; it is not only an intriguing mystery with a strange, twisted ending, but it's also odd enough to feed my weird monkey. Beyond the mystery story however, the author also offers his readers a look at a changing Japan which now has an opportunity to consciously detach itself from its old, destructive traditions and philosophies and move into the modern world. However, readers should be aware that much of this analysis is accomplished largely through the long discussions between Kyogokudo and Sekiguchi that begin this narrative (and are also found throughout the novel), taking up several pages of dialogue on various topics. While my strange brain digested all of this joyfully, unprepared readers may find it stuffy, boring or dull and wonder what it all has to do with anything. Hang in there: a) it has a lot to do with things, and b) the action picks up shortly afterwards.

I'll give The Summer of the Ubume an NFE rating, meaning not for everyone, although readers who embrace the strange or who already have an interest in Japanese writing will definitely appreciate it. Mystery readers looking for something outside of the ordinary may like this book, but it's not the usual crime fare most readers of that genre are used to and may prove a bit challenging. Now let's hope Kodansha will see fit to translate some of the other books in this series.

[Phu · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

"Đại khái thì, trên đời chỉ tồn tại những thứ cần tồn tại, chỉ xảy ra những chuyện nên xảy ra. Con người luôn lý giải sự việc trong một phàm trù thường thức hoặc kinh nghiệm vô cùng hạn hẹp của bản thân, nhưng lại lầm tưởng mình đã thấu tỏ toàn bộ vu trụ. Vậy nên khi có một sự việc nằm ngoài phạm vi thường thức hay kinh nghiệm đó, người ta thường tru tréo, xếp vào dạng kì lạ, dạng không tưởng. Kẻ chưa bao giờ suy nghĩ xem mình thật ra là gì, mình đã trải qua những gì thì làm sao có thể thấu suốt mọi chuyện trên đời này."

Mùa Hè Của Quỷ Thai lấy bối cảnh sau Thế chiến thứ II. Mở đầu truyện bằng cuộc trò chuyện giữa hai nhân vật, người kể chuyện - chàng nhà văn nghiệp dư Sekiguchi Tatsumi và người bạn Kyogokudo. Cuộc trò chuyện kéo dài gần 100 trang sách với nhiều chủ đề từ Khoa học, tâm lí, triết lí, các chủ đề yêu ma, tôn giáo... Quả thật là các đoạn đối thoại khiến mình hơi đau đầu, nhưng mình thích việc tác giả nói về chủ đề yêu ma, các câu chuyện truyền thuyết và bóc tách bằng các lí luận xã hội hiện đại. Dù các đoạn đối thoại có phần dài dòng nhưng về sau nó không hẳn là dư thừa.

Và sau cuộc trò chuyện chúng ta có những sự kiện bí ẩn liên quan tới bệnh viện Khoa sản của gia tộc Kuonji như sau:
• Một người phụ nữ mang thai 20 tháng chưa đẻ được.
• Chồng của thai phụ trên mất tích bí ẩn trong căn phòng khóa kín.
• Các vụ mất tích của những đứa bé sơ sinh trong bệnh viện.
• Những lời đồn đại, lời nguyền về gia tộc Kuonji.

Xuyên suốt câu chuyện tác giả sử dụng yếu tố tâm linh, những quan niệm vượt xa hiểu biết chưa được làm rõ, khiến không khí truyện vừa thực vừa ảo và có phần ma mị. Cách Kyogoku kể chuyện khiến mình nghĩ tới 向日葵不开的夏天 của Shunsuke Michio nhưng mình thấy Shunsuke làm tốt hơn nhiều; mình đơn giản là không thấy truyện đáng sợ mà thấy khó chịu vì nhân kể chuyện - Sekiguchi. 

Ban đầu mình đã thấy thích thú với những nhân vật trong sách, bởi lúc đầu họ hài hước, đủ thú vị nhưng sau đó có những chi tiết như khả năng của Endokizu khiến mình hơi khó tin. Và đặc biệt là vụ "phòng kín" khiến mình mâu thuẫn, nếu ngay từ đầu Endokizu giải thích với Seki luôn thì đã chẳng kéo dài tiếp, như câu nói về vụ "phòng kín": "Nếu chỉ có một người ấy à, thì đơn giản là người ấy bị điên, và vụ việc thành ra nhạt nhẽo không đáng nhắc đến."

Phần sau của truyện là phần hay nhất. Những lý giải về sự việc lời nguyền, cái thai 20 tháng, vụ mất tích của trẻ sơ sinh đều được lý giải chặt chẽ. Nhân vật Kyogokudo "trừ tà" cho gia đình Kuonji bằng những cách thức vừa mang phần tâm linh lại vừa khoa học; những thông tin liên quan tới cuộc trò chuyện giữa hai nhân vật trước đó được nhắc lại lần nữa, nhưng dễ hiểu hơn nhiều. Mình thích giải thích ẩn dụ về Quỷ thai với nỗi đau trong tâm lý con người, nhân quả, lời nguyền của gia tộc Kuonji.
Và một điều khác mình thích ở tác phẩm này là nó được đặt ở bối cảnh sau Chiến tranh - khi con người vẫn còn tin vào những câu chuyện tâm linh, ma quái. Phần sau tác giả lý giải, so sánh những quan niệm mê tín, những câu chuyện truyền miệng với những thông tin thất thiệt của truyền thông, bối cảnh hiện đại rất hay.

[Mariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 estrellas
Para disfrutar este libro tienes que tener la paciencia de un minero que va poco a poco picando la piedra y, aunque al principio no haya nada, si persevera puede encontrar oro.

Tiene partes lentísimas y diálogos filosóficos interesantes pero que sólo logran alentar la historia. Eso sí, está inundado de folclor japonés, lo cual me encantó.

Aunque Sekiguchi (quien es el personaje principal) me cayó mal, su compañero Kyogokudo, que básicamente es Sherlock Holmes si Sherlock fuera un exorcista japonés que no cree en lo paranormal, salvó el día.

Valió la pena perseverar y haberlo leído. Habrá reseña a detalle en el canal por el especial de octubre asiático de horror! <3

[Bloodytofu · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite novels ever, and a very nice translation - Alexander O. Smith has made a wonderful effort here overall, utilising challenging language forms which are consistent with both the original Japanese form and the storyline as translated. There are a couple of minor problems with the translation, mostly in terms related to everyday Japanese culture (are "rice-flower dumplings" actually "mochi" or "dango", or something else entirely?).

The story itself is delightfully logical. Kyogoku spends a lot of time explaining in detail the theories behind the psychologically-supernatural occurrances in the novel - all possible plotholes are tied up so effectively that it is easy to forget that the theories presented probably wouldn't hold up in real life.

All in all, an entertaining supernatural thriller which will turn out to be not so supernatural after all.

[Zoe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read the first 98 pages, and will not finish the other third. My review covers only the first 100 pages.

Set in an indeterminate time a few years after WWII, The Summer of the Ubume starts with a tabloid writer visiting his friend to talk about a woman who has been pregnant for 20 months. Which sounds really interesting, until the journalist's used book dealer/part-time Shinto priest friend spends FORTY-FIVE PAGES talking about everything else but the actual point of the book. This was a philosphy lecture with a dull professor. It was slow, painful, and often left me wondering if there was a point. And at the end of the massive three hour conversation, there was a point, getting back to the pregnant woman. But before the "great" Kyogokudo could just sum up his problem, he has to orate for a long, long time.

Picture a Japanese Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Only this version of Watson is prone to say something stupid and keep the conversation wandering indefinitely in straw man arguments. So seventy-five of the hundred pages I read were Kyogokudo intellectualy bitch-slapping his "friend" before finally reaching a point and allowing us to escape to the next scene...where another friend insults the main character and makes him look stupid too. Which isn't hard because the main character seems incapable of rational or logical thought. He's like the village idiot who wandered away from his designated village.

Once I got up to the "point" of the second exchange, which was that a close friend could somehow "see" the "material memories" that spill out of peoples' bodies, I closed the book and put it down. The payoff just wasn't worth the pain of reading more of this dreary dialogue.

I'm all for a slow introduction, but this book's constant use of circular arguments to pad length finally broke my patience. I'm not even sure if the Ubume referenced in the first fifty pages is a real ghost or not, but I'm not about to sit through 220 more pages of Kyogokudo saying "No, you said something stupid, Seki! Let me explain again another way." No, Kyogokudo, you can explain to an empty room and lower your energy bills with your hot air.

I give this book one star, and would recommend it to masochists interested in slow torture.

[Vinh Phạm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phần đầu dài dòng và nhiều thông tin cao siêu. Phần sau tập trung vào trinh thám hơn.

[Jacqui Geisel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting mystery. I will admit, sometimes I found myself getting a bit annoyed and/or bored when Kyogokudo would start talking on and on and on about things (even though the things he goes on about are, of course, related to the plot), but it wasn't enough to stop me from thoroughly enjoying this book. I'd heard that the solution to the mystery was rather disturbing, and indeed it was. I found myself still thinking about it quite awhile after I'd finished the book.

There are eight other novels in this series, although like many of the things I like, I, sadly, doubt that they'll be seeing an official English release.

Also, in case anyone is interested, there is an anime adaptation of the second novel, Mouryou no Hako. The solution to the mystery in that story had the same effect on me as the one here (in other words, it disturbed me, yet I couldn't stop thinking about it).

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a lot of mysteries and this has both one of the weirdest setups and one of the most complex conclusions that I've ever seen. It breaks almost all conventions of structure and plot, so if you're tired of the same old and want to go in a drastically different direction, you may want to give it a try. But be warned: the first half of the book consists largely of very very very long philosophical conversations where you keep waiting for a thing to happen or for the conversation itself to matter and I can't quite say that it ever actually does. Though it does set the stage for the time and place and characters.

Set in the 50's in Japan, our narrator is a tabloid reporter who comes across a story of a woman who's been pregnant for a year and a half whose husband has gone missing in a classic locked-room scenario. In the search for the missing man, the book weaves itself through the obstetrics clinic where he worked, the narrator's history with the woman, and the legends of spirits and possession that have persisted around the family. Our detective is his friend, a bookseller/priest, with uncanny abilities.

By the time I reached the bizarre denouement (a conversation that lasts even longer than the opening one, a real feat) I was ready for the weirdness. But I still wanted a book that didn't quite meander so much, that would just get to it already. Or at least a book with more purpose to its meandering. Truly a weird book but I can certainly see myself trying another book about Kyogokudo.

[Frankie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was sooo hard to find and I understand why... It's awful. The first half of this book is almost entirely one long info-dump about faux scientific psychological supernatural bullshit. There is a mystery, sort of, except that the protagonist doesn't actually try to solve it until over a hundred pages have passed. There are no supernatural vibes (in fact, the supernatural is debunked with "science") and the sleuthing takes a backseat to the author's self-masturbatory rants. How was this published. Why was this published. WHY DO PEOPLE ENJOY IT.

[izrtkfliers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm. This was an interesting book.

Alright. The first 80 pages or so are really slow. It's basically just the protagonist and Kyogokudo talking about metaphysics, folklore, and quantum uncertainty. A bit of a slog, but there are some necessary plot points in there nonetheless. After that, however, the mystery starts in earnest, and it is actually a really interesting mystery. I was completely caught up in all the different plot threads, ranging from the three dead babies to the mystery of Kyoko/Ryoko, not to mention the main mystery of the sealed room and twenty month pregnancy.

There is an unfortunate plot thread that seriously lowered my respect for the protagonist, especially since it was never addressed by the other characters. Furthermore, the revealing of all the answers was a letdown for me, because it seemed so ridiculous and my suspension of disbelief was seriously tested. The actions taken by some of the key players in the mystery did not seem very realistic, though the book did take pains to set up everything.

That said, I did enjoy the ride overall. The mystery really gripped me and I was glued to the book for practically the whole day. If the other books were released in English, I would probably read them. It is a strong first novel, other than the farfetched conclusion (with unfortunate implications) and unlikable protagonist.

[Violetta Vane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book begins with fifty pages of two guys talking to each other. It ends with fifty pages of spill-the-beans mopping-up-the-case dialogue. There are really only two scenes in which things happen, and in both cases, they're shockingly violent. The languid pacing but big payoff reminded me a lot of the classic Nicolas Roeg horror movie, Don't Look Now.

Kyogokudo, the supposed "hero" of the book, is deeply unsympathetic and patronizing. The narrator, Kyogokudo's patsy, isn't terribly sympathetic either. The psychology isn't quite convincing (certain drugs and mental illnesses function a bit too plot-conveniently). But I loved and was deeply engrossed in this book. The imagery and the layers combine to form an awesome gothic narrative that succeeds as mystery, horror and as historical fiction.

[Ignacio Senao f · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esperaba mucho pelo en seres blanquísimos a cuadrúpeda por techos y sonidos chillones.

Te encuentras tan solos dos escenarios: una biblioteca donde hacen charlas filosóficas y preguntas con respuestas de cultureta. Y una habitación de una mansión donde hacen lo mismo: charlas filosóficas… pero esta vez hay una mujer postrada en una cama que lleva más de un año embarazada. Las habladurías se llevan a cabo en saber por qué sucede ese hecho y otro más: un hombre desaparece de una habitación sin ventanas y puertas cerradas.

Es interesante lo bien escrito que está, que a pesar de carecer de sucesos llamativos te acaba enganchando y fluyendo perfecta su lectura. Tiene algo y es muy bueno, pero está escondido.

[Alexandra Panova · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5. Мне очень понравилось. Через начало надо продраться - там сложные рассуждения про религию, метафизику, психологию, культуру и магию. Но с развитием сюжета эти рассуждения становятся важной составляющей, и для меня они были очень японской, медитативной частью. Мне понравилось сочетание хоррора, детектива, триллера - жутковато, но не до ужаса и оцепенения. Очень интересно, как разные верования и мифы вплетаются в реальность и сиановятся объяснением непривычного. Я слушала книгу, постоянно листая свой справочник про мифических существ Японии.

[Divine · Rating 5 out of 5]

WTF WOW full review to come

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read a bit of Kyogoku in the original, I definitely sympathize with the translators here. Some of what is wrong with this novel is not their fault: Kyogoku often relies on clunky, unconvincing exposition via dialogue. It's an obnoxious and condescending habit. Given the exhaustive attention he has paid "yokai" and related phenomena in non-fiction works (like the superb "Youkai no kotowari, youkai no ori"), I'm not sure why he feels his characters must pontificate the way they (inevitably and endlessly) do. Other writers are able to incorporate this kind of info more artfully.

Some of what is wrong with this particular version of the novel *is* the translators’ fault, however. Awkward and stilted phrasings abound; and their word choice is occasionally (and embarrassingly) literal. Other times, they don't quite seem to grasp what the English word they've chosen really means, as if they were relying on a thesaurus (I'm still trying to figure out what a "lackadaisical slope" is...did they mean "lazy," "meandering," "gentle"? Not sure. "Lackadaisical" just doesn't fit.) It feels like (and very well may have been, considering the length of the novel--600pp or so in the original) a rush job, a polished first or second draft rather than an idiomatic rendering.

That said, the translators should be commended simply for tackling the project and, in the main, producing a readable text. No mean feat! And setting aside the pseudo-academic disquisitions that, for me, almost scuttle the novel, there *is* a really fascinating, eerie story being told. I just wish Kyogoku would tell it more effectively.

[Niquie · Rating 4 out of 5]

How could the world seem so different, merely due to an absence of light? Maybe it was frightening during the day, too; we were just too distracted by the sights to notice, too eager to pretend nothing was amiss.

My brother would love this book. The character Kyogokudo has such an interesting view on religion and the paranormal, almost logical. And boy could he talk.

I think this is one mystery I'll remember years from now, it was incredibly sad and made so much sense when all was revealed. It was a mystery I could only solve part of, the whole truth was beyond my ability to solve (maybe if I knew more about Japanese history?), but thats just made this story better.

[Zvonimir · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant mixture of folklore, mystery thriller, horror, and tragedy.

[Jue JJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

读的林哲逸翻译的版本，最后的解说写得好好：对比西方的强调理性的推理作品，京极夏彦则以人心出发，描写出相由心生的状况。

那天晚上躺在床上读到过半的时候，
我： 一个孕妇怀孕了两年一直没分娩，她老公消失不见了，请问她老公的尸体在哪里。
老公： 在她肚子里。
我： 妈呀，你猜对了！你怎么可能猜对。
老公： 就离谱！
我：这么离谱你也能猜对
老公：我就往离谱得猜。

笑死了哈哈

[J.C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very excited to read this book, unfortunately the authors writing style and my personal preference in story telling did not mesh. He is very descriptive and his conversations are long and I found difficult to follow. His writing is very good, the translation easy and flowing. I however am more into story telling; not verbose writers who spend three to four pages describing the bark of a tree (not that this author did that, its just an outrageous example). I would recommend this to someone who enjoys more philosophical works; someone into reading about what is the nature of the world, the mind ect. Anyone looking for a fast paced horror mystery novel should look elsewhere.

[Rebecca Delaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gustó muchisimo. Está lleno de referencias a textos antiguos y al folklore japonés y las notas al pie ayudan muchisimo. Me dan ganas de leer todos los textos que se mencionan.

La historia está buena, la resolución fue satisfactoria. Te tienen que gustar los dialogos interminables, pero son muy interesantes, le dan una mirada realista al origen de todo lo que se toma como paranormal.

10/10 al traductor Isami Romero Hoshino y a Eva González Rosales encargada de la adaptación.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enredado, raro y misterioso de principio a fin... Me encantó XD

[Philippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What the fuck did I just read?

[Benjamin Bauer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my second Natsuhiko Kyogoku novel since reading Loup-Garous when I was maybe still a teenager? I enjoyed that novel. I only intermittently enjoyed this one.

Japan, 1951. A freelance writer by the name of Sekiguchi goes to visit his buddy Kyogokudo, a used bookstore owner slash exorcist, with a strange tale. That of the Kyoko Kuonji, scion of a medical family that's somehow been pregnant for the past twenty months. What's worse is that her husband has mysteriously disappeared, not to mention the Kuonji's are reputedly cursed. Sekiguchi initially intends to spin an article out of this sordid story to make a buck, but Kyogokudo convinces him otherwise to avoid birthing more rumours around the family. Especially when he informs Sekiguchi that aforementioned vanished husband is their old school buddy Makio. Soon, Sekiguchi and his circle of allies find themselves embroiled in the mystery themselves when Ryoko Kuonji, sister of Kyoko, comes calling for help in finding Makio...

Now, I did enjoy large sections of this book. Kyogoku has an obvious way with character. Every one of those populating this tale was entertaining or rich in their own respect. He also truly lives up to his reputation as a folklorist. There's entire sections of this novel wherein the characters essentially spend page after page engaging in discourse while also mentally playing around with the specifics of the case their working on. There's a number of rich conversations about beliefs, the origins of belief, and philosophy within the gloomy pages of this tale.

Where it fell apart for me was in its length, and just how far it stretched my willing suspension of disbelief. The mystery itself is solid, a locked room disappearance underneath a veil of family secrecy and shame. I also really enjoyed the period the book was set in. While I've seen a lot of Japanese film from the era (Thanks Criterion collection!) I can't say I've read much fiction set in post-war Japan, other than perhaps Mishima.

But oof, the answers to that mystery, and the climax of this book. I do appreciate that Kyogokudo's MO is dispelling superstition, and revealing the psychological underpinnings that cause superstition to dominate and destroy the lives of those afflicted by it. But Kyogoku kinda made me feel as though I'd just OD'd on pop-psychology. Not an entertaining summer read by any stretch, and not tense enough to really accomplish much horror other than disgust at some of the more grisly goings on for me personally. In terms of production, Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander deliver a great translation, and the Vertical edition is a durable, inexpensive little volume. Not my worst used bookstore finding by any stretch, but nowhere near top-tier pulp or mystery writing for me personally.

[Mothlight · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This was a wild one. Is it horror? I don't know. Maybe? Kind of? There are elements. It's more like a discussion on horror and the dismantling of folklore, broken down into a pop-psychology college course. The conversations are extremely long and sometimes tedious-- especially the very first one, which runs about 50 pages-- but interesting stuff if you have the patience for it. The one thing I don't have the patience for is that the protagonist is a rapist. WHY?

'Summer' was really hard to find. There's no ebook version that I could dig up, and physical copies are expensive on amazon. My library got it for me through ILL request. It's too bad it's not very common here because it's a unique read. If you have the chance to pick it up, I would recommend it. I’m sad the other installments aren’t translated because I would have loved to read them.

For the people, like me, who might want to know ahead of time: does this book have supernatural elements? Sort of. One character is able to see other people’s memories, but there aren’t any actual ghosts/demons/etc. You could also say the psychology presented is definitely of the Hollywood magic variety, lol

[Valerie Osborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts off very slow, the first 50 pgs or so consists of a single conversation between two characters, which would probably put many readers off. But once you get past that…the book becomes pretty suspenseful. More than that, it becomes very weird, and just keeps getting weirder and weirder as it progresses. In the end I was a little but disappointed with the conclusion. For one, I was hoping this would be more of a supernatural horror story than a crime thriller, but it is certainly the latter. And when I read a crime thriller, I want the conclusion to be shocking and smart…but also realistic. This book’s conclusion, much like everything leading up to it, was way too crazy. But overall it was fun and I learned a lot about Japanese folklore.

[tatterpunk · Rating 3 out of 5]

THREE STARS: I might read this again.

The mysterious sealed room was sealed by another sealed room. -- p. 153

"That all makes sense," I lied. -- p. 185

I feel like those two quotes encapsulate this book.

But let me back up.

Summer of the Ubume is a 1994 novel set in Japan in the 1950s, a world caught in the tension between established tradition and the gravitational pull of modernity. This is adroitly reflected in its premise: freelance journalist Sekiguchi stumbles upon a classic mystery wrapped in family drama and secrets, where a man disappears into a locked room and is never seen again, even after the room is unsealed. The missing man's wife has been pregnant since his disappearance -- now for a total of twenty months. Meanwhile her prestigious family's hospital is haunted by rumors of babies going missing shortly after birth... and Sekiguchi, as the oppressive summer heat rolls in, becomes fascinated with the folklore of women whose death in childbirth causes them to become blood-soaked spirits: the ubume.

Top marks for themes, honestly. Also top marks for atmosphere -- Kyogoku is really good at replicating the disorientation of his POV character in his reader, and teasing out just enough understanding to keep his audience hungry and turning the pages. That's how I ended up giving it three whole stars. If ideas and general ambiance were all you needed for a novel, this would be a corker.

But it's not. And this is not.

This is Kyogoku's problem, to my mind: he likes ideas. This became all too obvious with Loups-Garous, where his characters were somehow more concerned with academic debates about the nature of humanity and death than the ACTUAL MURDERER prowling the streets. Ubume is the same -- it's a bitch to get into because you have to slog through 40 pages on the nature of perception and the concept of reality before we get to the actual fucking story... and you can't skip them, either, because they're crucial to the story's main conceit and how it unfolds. That's actually a point in Ubume's favor over LG, as is the general spookiness and theme you can't trust your own senses. It's arguably tied together in this novel with a lot more grace, which deals with battle trauma (and other types) and characters who have survived a war.

Except I hesitate to give Kyogoku that much credit, because he shoots his own foot with his characters, too. None of them evolve beyond two dimensions -- mouthpieces for the novelist's "ideas" or necessary plot points which are delivered in page after page of unbroken soliloquy, the speaker clearly conforming to archetypes through overwrought attitudes and mannerisms. Everyone is more or less who you can easily guess them to be. And that's when Kyogoku takes the time to make them real people: the actual stars of the show are Enokizu, a private detective whose near-magical ability to intuit facts is assigned to the idea he sees brain activity, and Kyogokudo, the Magic Pixie Dream Priest who doesn't actually believe in the supernatural (despite being an exorcist) and has seemingly read almost every book in the world. He basically solves the book's mystery on his own, by the way. Because of course he does.

Yeah, my constant drawing attention to the novelist's name is not a mistake. This is a self-insert power fantasy of the intellectual variety, where the answer is just two men who are that much smarter than everyone else and talk about the fact constantly. It's not even a convincing act, because the reveal is so fucking dumb: the corpse was in the room the whole time! People just didn't want to see it. It does read distressingly like a treatment for a BBC Sherlock episode without the cool camera work to distract you from how little sense is at work.

Which is honestly too bad, because Kygoku does put his finger on the pulse of some really fascinating stuff -- the role of supernatural belief, family secrets, lost connections and misunderstandings that shape lives. It plays out as melodrama, but that pairs surprisingly well with Kyogoku's penchant for incredibly dry and lecture-like asides on psychology and sociology. It makes the pages turn... all the way to the end, which is a big wet raspberry of nonsense, yet again. All the women in this book -- except Sekiguchi's wife and that one boyish-looking one, both of whom do nothing -- are murderers, deceivers, adulterers, and/or drug users. Kyoguko embodies that terrible saying that some male writers only know how to "develop" female characters through rape or angst over children. Dissociative Identity Disorder is boiled down to movie-of-the-week sensationalism. A woman's long-term and systematic abuse is not only glossed over in discovery, but ultimately used to further a male character's emotional journey. And everything is so convoluted, so unbelievable, and so, so dumb.

Kyogoku reads ultimately like someone who is big on theory, but can't pull off the practice of incorporating his theories into a book with believable characters or meaningful plots. I guess it takes someone very smart to write a story this stupid.

[Lei · Rating 3 out of 5]

首先我被骗了，这个根本不是本格

[JANE · Rating 5 out of 5]

朋友力荐的作家，看完觉得确实对传统侦探小说是一种挑战。叙事者的精神状态真的很令人担心。

[Isabella]

Dropped at page 19 // 6%

Not feeling this at all. I think the translation is throwing me off.