I want to feed someone. Asa’s wish comes true and she is reborn as a cedar tree, where she meets a young man as a split toothpick (“Asa who became a tree”). Somehow, neither acorns nor dodgeballs hit Nanami. Everyone cheers her on, saying, “Hang in there, Nana-chan. If you hit it, it will end” (“Nanami the Target”). A man she meets in a shopping street at night takes her to his mother’s house. But it seems that it is not her real mother… (“Memories of a Night”). Three strange, disturbing, and pure love stories by an up-and-coming writer who won the Akutagawa Award for "The Woman in the Purple Skirt.
We will be reading this informally, which means you can join any time and read at whatever pace suits you. When you comment, make sure to use spoilers and to always mention up to where you’ve read (chapter, subchapter, page or percentage), so that other readers know when it’s safe to open spoilers.
Discussion Rules
Please mention which short story/section your comment is meant for.
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We have a thread! @omk3, I did not include a table with sections since I wasn’t sure the best way to break the book up. There are 3 short stories - we could either use those as breaks for spoiler tags, or I can find each section in the book if we anticipate wanting further granularity when sharing our thoughts.
The hardcover edition is also very gorgeous as well. It has a thick paper cover that looks almost like a thin sheet of wood that’s been painted on and fairytale-esque illustrations. (May share photos tomorrow when the lighting is better since I love it. ) Interesting that the bunko cover has such a different vibe to it!
I got a bit ahead of myself and started reading the first story, 木になった亜沙, and ended up reading it in one sitting. I loved it! I did not see that ending coming at all - but how dramatic! In hindsight, I didn’t see anything coming. I was just along for the ride.
I must also say that 今村夏子 is such a genius at creating characters that are somehow tragically pathetic, embarrassing, and creepy to boot, but still endearing all at the same time. Poor 亜沙、if no one wanted to take my food I’d also be very sad too. I felt happy watching her and her new friends living in the ゴミ屋敷 at the end and their group suicide.
I’m still processing what happened, but I did enjoy very much how the story had a fantastical feel almost like a fairy-tale for children. I guess that explains the concept of the hardcover and all the lovely illustrations.
I also read the first story in one sitting. And I agree that it felt very much like a fairy tale. The girl who couldn’t get anyone to take the food she offered, reincarnated as 割りばし? I just love 今村 夏子’s imagination. She has an amazing talent to make very simple on the surface, yet very powerful, deceptively dark stories.
The only thing I saw coming was the fire at the end, after they all said that death was better than getting separated from the young man.
I have a question though: What was this comedian who came to clean the house? Is this a TV show where they barge into hoarders’ homes and clean them? Were they invited? Is this a reference to something real?
what I actually wanted to know is: Is the title a pun? I read the title and thought “pun” but then read the blurp and she actually turns into a tree… but there’s still the possibility of a pun… so… pun or no pun, that is the question.
I think that’s what it was, yes. I googled a bit to see if there is a real life equivalent, and it seems like multiple comedians/comedy shows have done this either as a main concept or as a single episode if it’s a variety program. Usually the person invites them themselves to help clean or maybe the neighbors signed him up since his house was probably an eyesore in the neighborhood. Wonder if the episode ever aired in the book’s world, since he ended up hitting his head.
Oh dear. Those illustrations!
Hmm am I? I’m just cheering on a sad girl who became chopsticks here, totally fine….
After a lot of listening, I finally got around to finishing the second story.
And my comment is… What did I just read?!
What? What? What? I’m sure there’s a great metaphor in there somewhere, but what? I felt the story was needlessly long, quite repetitive in some parts, very sad in most, and of course predictably outlandish. The moment a carnival started being set up around her I knew she would be shot, but I wasn’t expecting it quite like this. I guess that, like her, I also felt sweet relief at it all ending, but not sure this was the intent.
Sharing the other illustrations since I forgot the other night. Surprisingly, the illustration for きになった亜沙 is not as thematically relevant as expected, but I supposed the mushrooms and vegetables are still food-related.
I finished the second story too! I think that may have been one of the most bizarre short stories I’ve ever read… It just kept going on and getting weirder and weirder.
I think a lot of the events were a bit humorous in a way, kind of like how むらさきのスカートの女 was. It’s so absurd that it just becomes funny again. Like the principle throwing acorns, the teacher getting way to into dodgeball, etc. It took a very sad turn in the second half of the story when she got locked up in that apartment with her son, though. Up until then, I thought the story was very similar to 木になった亜沙, but the narratives diverged at that point.
I’m not 100% sure I’ve got the stories figured out, but I think they are definitely meant to be foils of one another. 亜沙 also fell in love with the doctor treating her, but was rejected. 七味 had a relationship and then her son. Both of them are struggling because they feel they lack something fundamental and can’t join the other kids/society, and it shows up in many ways…not being able to make food for others and share, or sit with the other kids and have animal crackers. The reasons why they felt this way were kind of nonsensical, but it could be any reason and happen to any of us in real life, too, so I have a lot of empathy for both characters. In 亜沙’s case, she was reborn and had to give up her past life and body, but found a way living able to belong in the way she longed to (same with all her other inanimate object companions living in the home with her). 七味 kept living life unable to connect and the getting more and more separated from people, and was even unable to care about her own son properly…I think she just wanted him to belong like she couldn’t, and that’s why she gave him animal crackers and abandoned him after seeing how happy he was getting new shoes and finding out he’d be adopted by a rich family. The only way she knew how to show love to him was maybe by trying to offer him what she lacked? That made it slightly touching for me at the end when her son returned to shoot her at the carnival and give her what she lacked too (what a weird sentence ).
I think たくや君 from the library has some kind of significance too, but I’m not sure yet. I’ll be chewing on that for a while still.
So far I love how both stories are just insane, but manage to capture feelings of alienation and loneliness so well once you scratch the surface. 今村夏子 really has deceptively simple prose, but works so well with it!
Keeping both those stories and their structures in mind, I’m quite interested to see what the theme of the third story is going to be!
I forgot to add in my comment above but I think the second story was also about parenthood and family. Children or family (if the relationship is good…) can see things in you or fulfill deep emotional needs sometimes that others can’t. 七男 had the same kanji in his name as 七味 and was her son, and was the only one who could actually hit her. I don’t have children myself but I think she is on to something with that…
Very good observations, all of them. Of course she only ever explained to her son why she felt that way, no one else. And he was probably the only one who could understand because he was still a child when he heard, the age when strange things can sound perfectly natural. But I’m still struggling to understand the overall story. At first she wanted to avoid the pain, so she did her best to avoid being hit. Then she realized that it was better to have some momentary pain and be done with it instead of forever escaping. There was also solace at the end of the pain, like biscuits or her favourite drink or whatever. It’s like other people went through the pains associated with growing up (acorns and water balloons??) and grew through these experiences, while she never had the chance. But then she spent all her life trying to get hit, even though actively trying to be hurt isn’t exactly the same thing as not avoiding it when it comes. She lived her whole life still avoiding things - she even avoided being a proper mother. She avoided staying at her place of employment, avoided seeking help when she could. She could even have asked for one box of biscuits, who knows, the man might have given her one given the horrible state she was in, but no, not even that. At first she only ran, now she only waited. And when she finally got hit, that was the end. What kind of life was this? Would she die if she was hit earlier too? Or was it just that what she was going through now, what was making her suffer, was life itself, not something like a dodgeball game, and ending it meant ending life itself?
I found it crazy how the girlfriend never cared about her at all, and that the son only fulfilled his duty and then went for takoyaki or whatever it was. And how the carnival man had been treating her as a possible target all along (possibly why he wanted her to get in the car, to protect the “prize” from the rain?)
I also think Takuya must be symbolizing something, but not sure what. I even tried looking up possible kanji for the name in case it helped, but there are so many possibilities, and none stand out. He went daily to the library, and once a week to the hospital (for his mother?). He was with his mother at the carnival. And like a guardian angel, he was always there to offer cryptic support to Nami. I don’t know.
). 