“This is America, we would say to ourselves, there is no need to worry. And we would be wrong.” The Buddha in the Attic is a small book, but man does it pack a punch. Part narration, part long-form poem, we follow a group of Japanese women as they make navigate through their new lives in America. There’s no singular character; Author Julie Otsuka writes in the first person plural, referring only to “we.” In the opening chapter, the women are on a boat heading to America and […]
I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds
On the morning August 9, 1945, the American bomber Bockscar dropped a thousand pound bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man” over the city of Nagasaki. When the bomb was about 1,600 feet above ground it exploded and, “the entire city convulsed.” Windows shattered miles away from the epicenter. It’s estimated that some 74,000 died in the initial detonation. They may have been some of the lucky ones. Those who survived the initial blast faced horrific injuries. The city roared with the moans and cries of the injured. […]
Ghostbusters Medieval Japan edition
I normally don’t enjoy short story collections until Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter. It’s just the right mix of adventure, comedy, fantasy, mythology, history, and drama. Yamada is an impoverished nobleman making his living busting evil spirits, ghosts, and monsters in medieval Japan. Two other characters show up through multiple stories who are both typecasts but still interesting: the warrior Prince Kanemore and the not-always-priestly exorcist priest Kenji. What makes them interesting is their interactions with Yamada because these conversations and adventures bring out details of […]
Existentialism and friendship in contemporary Japan
This novel was my first taste of Murakami, and while I found it a fascinating (and not Japan-specific) foray into the minds of 20-30 somethings, I found Murakami’s story rather emotionally chilly. Of course, any book which devotes at least half of its pages to death, death wishes, and repressed sexual urges, is bound to be more than a little chilly, even downright depressing, but the book is saved by a combination of sometimes lovely prose, a mystery that kept me turning pages almost despite […]