Jonathan Peto’s Reviews > Short Stories in Japanese: New Penguin Parallel Text > Status Update

It is not often that my main reaction to a story is that it was strange, but The Maiden in the Manger by Abe Kazushige hit me that way. Kinda cringe too.

I finished Mogera Wogura by Hiromi Kawakami. The ending was disappointing, but it did not stop the story from being good.

It did not take long for this story to mostly not resemble the other Hiromi Kawakami story I was thinking of!

The story I'm currently reading is by Hiromi Kawakami. It reminds me of another story I read in another anthology, and I just realized that Hiromi Kawakami wrote that one too! The similarity isn't ruining the experience for me so far.

I didn't see where The Silent Traders was going until the end. The narrator and her children see some abandoned cats in the park. That connects to a few other idea/images. The narrator might feel a tad sorry for herself, and that might be understandable. I'm undecided.

The third story, The Silent Traders, is by Yuko Tsushima. Time passes fast. The narrator was a child, now she's a single mom. So far, the narrative also focuses on a park and the abandoned pets there. I'm enjoying it!

The third story, Genjitsu House, by Masayo Koike, is a winner. A woman, in her thirties or early forties, visits a friend who is around the same age. They haven't seen each other recently because the friend has been busy taking care of a baby she had out of wedlock.

That second story by Banana Yoshimoto, called "A Little Darkness" in English, involves a young woman thinking about her parents. Surprisingly, very good!

The second story in this collection is by Banana Yoshimoto. I believe I read Kitchen, but I don't remember it at all. So far though, I'm really enjoying this story, which is about a young woman tagging along on her father's business trip to Buenos Aires.

The first story is by Haruki Murakami. One great thing about it was I knew most of the kanji in it. However, and perhaps I shouldn't sound like such a feminist, the narrator bugged me. He talked too much. He may have actually mansplained! And the story ends quickly instead of letting us hear from the girl, which seemed unfair and a bit clueless, Haruki Murakami.