So this isn’t a strictly “what I’m reading now” post, but I thought I’d be able to get some good eyes on it. So I was perusing a blog post, and in their Japanese literature section they mentioned this:
You’ve probably heard about how Japanese is so unique because it can omit subjects. Check out a masterful example of such an omission in the short story Hyakumonogatari in Kitamura Kaoru’s 1950 Toss Back.
Also haven’t heard it but interested. The book seems to be a collection of stories of all sorts, from mystery to horror to heartwarming. The author is, according to Wikipedia, a mystery writer first and foremost, and has won the 44th Mystery Writers of Japan Award and the 6th Honkaku Mystery Award. He even won the Naoki prize in 2009. I got excited and went looking for what to nominate for the mystery book club, but of course, none of his books seem to exist in ebook form.
I recently just moved into uni and picked up both 潮騒 | L45 and 仮面の告白 | L49?? from the school library on a whim. I knew going into the former of those two books that Mishima was probably not going to be the easiest author to read from, but hoo boy does he use some descriptively archaic words. I really am starting to grow fond of his prose and incredibly rich way of painting the landscape and vibe of 歌島 though.
There is an audio file of this particular story here: Read Real Japanese Fiction
It is part of the “Read Real Japanese Fiction - Short Stories by Contemporary Writers” collection by Kodansha. The audio accompanying the book is free to download.
I have the version with the essays, and I can confirm I also have no idea what’s in there after the first essay.
I listened to Hyakumonogatari twice, but my listening is too bad to actually make sense of it. Since you’re lucky enough to have the printed text, could you maybe explain what “omit subjects” means? There are names, there are は and が aplenty, so what kind of omission are we talking about?
Will do! Unless someone beats me to it, I’ll read through the story and report back! o7
Edit: Unrelated, but for those reading/wanting to read 薬屋のひとりごと 1 | L37, Amazon is currently having a half off sale for the first 11 volumes for Kindle! Volume 1 is on a special sale for only ￥99 as well. Where’s my Flesh&Blood sale Amazon
Guess this is a sign from above that I need to take 薬屋2 off the backburner and finally get back to it…
I would say that more happens in time leap but I don’t think I can recommend it if you thought the original was that boring. Also, I was trying to imply that the time leaps in time leap aren’t quite the same as time leaps in toki.
Last night I decided I wanted something to read before bed, and I have all these 赤川次郎 paperbacks sitting on my bookshelf which I bought because he’s generally easy to read, so I decided ‘why not?’ and grabbed one of those instead of an English book.
In typical 赤川次郎 fashion there appears to be tangled relationships, back stabbing, murder, and suicide. Well, to be fair, no murder yet. I just requested it to be added so no Natively link, but the title is 自殺行き往復切符 and broadly it seems to be about a teen girl who runs away from home to be with the boyfriend her parents disapprove of, writes a note saying they’re going to commit double suicide, but actually steals their money and is all ‘once we’re set up we’ll let them know we’re alive!’. The summary on the back of the book and the hints dropped so far all suggest she’s about to be backstabbed by her boyfriend and then the real story will start.
Honestly getting a lot of the same vibes as from パパの愛した悪女 | L26 but the writing in this one is a smidge more difficult maybe?
Huh, that entire summary sounds almost exactly the same as another short book I read by him! あなた | L25 It’s also about “a teen girl who runs away from home to be with the boyfriend her parents disapprove of” and then also may or may not have been backstabbed by said boyfriend. Is he reusing the same stories or something?
This is definitely going to be fun to fill out when I read ぼくが恋した吸血鬼 講談社ノベルス | L26 next month!
(and also for when I finally decide to sell my soul to 赤川 次郎 and read all of 吸血鬼はお年ごろシリーズ (series) | L26)
Well, あなた | L25 is the only thing I’ve read from him so far. It’s super easy and short. I think it’s okay but it does include the bingo card square of incest. I’m sure @cat can provide some better recommendations though.
So I’ve read through 百物語, and I’m not entirely sure what the author of the blog post was referring to. Pretty standard story all around, I thought: boy takes drunk girl home so she can recover, they tell spooky stories through the night. A pretty good October spooky pick, come to think.
But there was no word play I noticed; nothing that would be a shining example of weird things you can do with the language or anything.
Reading this does make me wish the author’s work was available digitally, though; I really enjoyed the short story.
My favorites by him so far are おやすみ、夢なき子 | L30 and 夜警 | L31. I want to get my hands on セーラー服と機関銃 | L30 though as it seems to be one of his more famous books and the title is just great
On my quest to find something around level 38 I read 遺書 | L41 without reading the review from @cat. That was a mistake.
I was having a good day so far.
I hope trigger warnings get implemented.
Also
六、この遺書は直ちに焼棄せよ。
I don’t know the story, but it looks like people didn’t follow all his demands.
Edit: after grading, it jumped to level 41. That feels way more realistic.
I love short stories
I have the version with the essays, and I can confirm I also have no idea what’s in there after the first essay.
Pretty standard story all around, I thought: boy takes drunk girl home so she can recover, they tell spooky stories through the night. A pretty good October spooky pick, come to think.
