re:mote voices: literature

Title: Lizard
Author: Banana Yoshimoto
Publisher: Faber and Faber

I bought two Banana Yoshimoto books at once, part of a special offer. I read Kitchen already, with mixed feelings in the end. Completing Lizard hasn't particularly resolved those issues - her work has strengths and weaknesses and I can't decide how they cancel out.

The Japanese author seems to specialise in novellas and short stories to judge from these two volumes. Where Kitchen was two novellas (technically two related stories plus a third unrelated), Lizard is 6 short stories which from the author's notes are intended to explore the big things in life - love, death, sex, spirituality and the like. Reading the stories it is clear that some attempt has been made in this direction, with some of those being natural and some being heavy handed.

Having finished the book I was reading before at lunchtime I start Lizard on the train on the way home from work. The first story is Newlyweds, which takes place on a train and is about a man on his way home from work. Synchronously I finish the story as the train pulls into the stop and I'm standing at the carriage doors, the story ends as the characters train pulls into the station and he is standing at the doors. This provided something of an extra resonance to this piece, which was curious. The story itself is about a man who is on his way home, having had a few drinks, and starts thinking about his new wife and their life together. For some reason he decides not to get off at his stop, to just keep going. Which triggers the event which happens next, a curious stranger sits down beside him even though there is plenty of room in the carriage. The stranger is at first a homeless man, but then he transforms into a beautiful woman, who starts to ask him why he didn't get off at his stop and what he is thinking. From here we have the curious notion of this spirit who goes round on the Tokyo trains observing the lives and details of the passengers. With that it is interesting that the story was originally serialised on the trains in Tokyo.

The title story Lizard is next and initially seems to be a straightforward relationship story. The narrator is a man who has come across this woman at the gym with a lizard tattoo on her thigh. He asks her out eventually and they start dating. But the focus of the story turns as we learn how both characters have suffered extreme trauma as children and as adults he is a doctor who helps traumatized people and she has opened a practice where she heals people with her hands. With this we have a new perception of how theirs is a relationship of dependency, but also of a fragility and specialness that really brings them together. The third piece is called Helix and gets more into Banana's ambiguous territory where I can't decide what I make of it. For the third story in a row we have a male narrator and at the core the nature of his relationship with his girlfriend. The feeling is that he isn't entirely happy with the way things are going. Having been drinking the night before he feels negative, doesn't want to get up, but still when she phones to make arrangements he agrees to meet her. Where they meet is in a cafe that has closed, so they are sitting in this empty place in the dark and with that Banana seems to be trying to convey everything that needs to be said about their relationship. How the story ends from there seems entirely random, and while random events do happen the way it is handled is curious. A big deal seems to be made about this event to some degree and yet it almost becomes bland through the filter of these characters.

The next story is Dreaming of Kimchee, the first here to have a female narrator. Her monologue pretty much concerns itself with how she reads magazines in her spare time and how they always have articles about women having affairs with married men. As this goes on the narrator reveals how in fact she is having an affair with a married man, then how he has become divorced and the two of them are now married. So I guess its a happy ending, though like Helix there is something extra at the end to make more of the situation, but again the result is not particularly much of anything. From here it is clear that the book is in two halves, the first three stories have male narrators while the second three have female. As such Blood and Water is the story of a girl raised in a kind of religious commune, which she has left when she is old enough - heading to Tokyo in an attempt to find her true self. Which she does with the help of an artist that she meets. This piece is more interesting than the previous two, having a wider scope and allowing more of the world to creep in - from the story of how her parents joined the commune, through her meeting with her boyfriend, to how she gets on with her parents now.

The final story is A Strange Tale from Down by the River, where the narrator explains how she is changed from her wild youth to now where she is getting ready to get married. As a young woman she was involved in extreme sex, she threw herself into it and as far as the others she was involved with she had a unique vitality and took a special delight in it all. However with the meeting of her husband to be she has gained a calm and no longer feels that need. Through the course of the story we experience her reflections, the news of her marriage bringing up people from the past - recounting the best and worst aspects of her previous life style. At the same time there is the contrast of the idea that she is marrying above her station, a some how more mundane and old fashioned idea, especially held against her sex life.

At times the narratives feel sparse, without a doubt being short pieces, 6 stories in under 180 pages doesn't seem to be much of a book. With this some of the stories leave me with a detached feeling, doing little for me. Yet on the whole Banana has a certain way that seems to work and provides enough of interest throughout that along with some of the quirks, provides her work with a level of appeal.

RVWR: PTR
November 2002

Title: Kitchen
Author: Banana Yoshimoto
Publisher: Faber and Faber

I wonder where the line between what counts as short story and what counts as a novel is as I read Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen. The book is under 140 pages and contains two stories. The first of those two stories being in two parts, such that it could easily be two stories - the initial piece and the follow up. Thematically the three parts of this book have similar themes - primarily of death and its effect on the young characters, secondarily it is about love and relationships.

The title story is the story of Misakage, who takes the role of narrator, and as can often be the case in these instances the facts we know are those that come up, with which we have a certain sense of gaps in who the character is. Through her young life she has experienced several deaths, so that for much of her life she has been raised by her grand mother as her only living relative. With the start of Kitchen her gran has died and she is all alone in the world. So it comes as something of a surprise when a guy about the same age as her approaches her at the funeral and invites her to move in with him and his mother. Things continue to get odd as she realises the boy has something in common with her, in that his mother died when he was young - his father having got a sex change after the mothers death and taking on the role of mother for his son. Despite the unconventional life style Misakage moves in to their home and befriends the two. The title comes from the fact that Misakage has always felt most comfortable in the kitchen, with the kitchen in this new house being particularly attractive to her. It is here that she repays the pair, cooking for them.

In the second part of kitchen we get more into the relationship of the boy and girl. Time has passed and Misakage has moved on, working as a trainee chef and living on her own. Death touches their lives once more and in doing so forces them to face up to what there is between them.

The third part is again told from a girl's view point, a girl who has lost her boyfriend of four years in a car crash. At the same time her boyfriend's brother lost his girlfriend in the same accident, and the story deals with how they are each coping with this event.

Banana's writing is relatively sparse. While probably an unfair comparison to make, one feels that there are parallels to the work of Haruki Murakami, possibly because he is the only other Japanese writer I have read. With that Murakami has also written about relationships and tragedy, but where he would get several hundred pages out of the plot Yoshimoto's work is considerably briefer. The end result of this is that while her work is readable, while she is certainly capable and does have a certain quirkiness informing her work one can't help but feel that there could be so much more to this.

RVWR: PTR
November 2002

Title: Holy Fire
Author: Bruce Sterling
Publisher: Gollancz

Mia Zimmerman is 94, a medical economist, part of the gerontocracy that survived the plagues that swept the earth through the course of the early 21st century. The gerontocracy is set up to favour those who are prepared to look after themselves rather than those who fritter it away. As such the old are in control and the young are effectively powerless until they have proved themselves. As such millions of credits are dedicated to medical research, and medical research is dedicated to the commitment of allowing people to live longer. As a medical economist Mia has her finger on the pulse, and thinks that she has found a winner in life extension techniques - so is preparing for the first time to take a big risk on an experimental treatment. However with a combination of a meeting with some youngsters before the treatment and the effects of the treatment her entire persona is turned about. With her body regenerated to be effectively that of a girl in her 20s and her mind similarly affected, she is no longer entirely in touch with Mia. So she runs away, ending up as a girl called Maya travelling around Europe, where she is on a quest to become vivid, to understand what it means to have the holy fire. A feeling that makes one truly alive instead of a withering codger who is too scared to do anything for the fear of its long term effects on their body.

Holy Fire doesn't have the pace and upbeat agitation of the likes of Heavy Weather or Distraction, making it a very different book for Sterling. The character spends a lot of time drifting about, and as such so does the narrative, which means that it can feel unfocused and meandering at times. Though with this Sterling is clearly capturing the sense of what the character herself is going through - someone transported from one life style to another and the extremes of culture that go with that life style. Despite the wandering, meandering thread of the plot there is still a lot going on, Sterling's usual social commentary is definitely still here and says a lot about power and its evolution along side the increasing life spans of the individual. Holy Fire isn't without a sense of humour, by page six we have gone post-canine to keep pace with the post-canine.

On the whole, Holy Fire is a good book and does fit in well with his recent works. However, one does get the impression that more could have been done with the undercurrents and a very different book lies in here somewhere.

RVWR: PTR
November 2002

Title: Lullaby
Author: Chuck Palahniuk
Publisher: Jonathan Cape

Lullaby is the fifth book by Chuck Palahniuk, just published in the larger paper back format with the move of his previous novel Choke to standard paper back format. Talking about his previous works Chuck has described the themes of those 4 to be about identity, with Lullaby he moves on. Carl Streator is a journalist, and the narrator of this story, who has been assigned to do a story about cot death. Designed to be a series of stories covering different families, he has spotted that at least two of the families had read their dead baby the same poem the night before it died. With some research and testing Carl finds that this lullaby is in fact a culling spell from Africa, which was designed to put the elderly, the wounded, the excess population peacefully out of their misery. Horrified by the potential of such a spell in the information age Carl decides to track down all the copies of the book and destroy them before the spell can spread. Of course, things aren't as easy as that, and complications arise when he meets someone else that knows the spell and has been using it for their own end.

While the big picture might be different in narrative terms, the small scale themes are familiar and subversive as ever. Through out there is the idea that we are a culture addicted to noise, we must constantly have the TV blaring, the radio blasting, we must always be talking to fill the silence - the suggestion that silence fills us with fear and is to be avoided. Meanwhile we have the persistent appearance of adverts in the paper, which pick on expensive establishments and make suggestions that could tarnish their reputation. Then there is the estate agent who specialises in houses, which have been the scene of some violent death, leading to some great scenes.

Lullaby is as fun as Chuck's other work, and while it speaks with his familiar voice there is a slightly different tone to his words.

RVWR: PTR
November 2002

Title: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles
Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Harvill Press

Toru Okada lives with his wife in a suburb of Tokyo, paying a reduced rent by living in a house his uncle owns. Things seem to be going well, the two of them living in their own little world for the last six years. But Toru has decided his job isn't working out, so he quits and is struggling to come to a decision as to what to do next. Then the cat goes missing, his wife Kumiko is very concerned by this - especially as they adopted the cat just after they were married. The cat is an omen, while the late hours that Kumiko is working should have been a clue - one day she doesn't come home and it becomes clear that she has left him. From there Okada's life starts to get odd, influenced by obscure comments and encounters with psychics, both in the flesh and the mind. Forced to deal with Kumiko's brother, who he hates, he becomes driven as much by his desire to interfere with Noboru's plans as to get Kumiko to come back.

As with other works by Haruki Murakami that I have read, offering a simple plot summary doesn't necessarily cover what the book is really about. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles is Haruki Murakami's longest work, split into three "books" each of about 200 pages each. The story is told in first person, so for the most part the narrative comes from Okada's point of view. But this switches about to some degree, as the character receives letters from other characters or sits through long monologues by other characters. Despite the clear depth of feeling Toru has for Kumiko, she is barely a presence in the story, even before she leaves there is something absent about her. Through the searches for the cat Okada makes friends with a 16 year old girl, May Kasahara, who refers to him as Mr. Wind-Up Bird and provides some strange, dark thoughts, as well as some of the most amusing dialogue.

Kumiko's brother Noboru Wataya is set up as the antithesis of Toru Okada. Okada is unemployed, easy going and searching for direction, and is an unknown to most people. Wataya is a talking head, an economist, and aspiring politician, driven and intense. While Okada is likeable, Wataya is unpleasant, even though he seems to have gained a certain celebrity. Then there are the sisters Malta and Creta Kano, one a psychic the other a prostitute of the mind; Creta having been violated by Wataya in the past. It is through the sisters and his mysterious caller that Okada starts to explore the dream world of a dark hotel.

In some ways the hotel located in some other realm is reminiscent of Dance, Dance, Dance, the feel of the location itself is different, but both have a definite effect on the plot. In addition to a dream hotel, Murakami adds the bottom of a well, where Okada starts to spend a lot of his time thinking about what is going on in his life. An idea spawned by a couple of characters and at points imitated by a couple of other characters. These locations and the stories/thoughts which Okada experiences through the book guide him in some strange fashion to a climax.

In some ways Murakami addresses the mundane in his work. Introducing perfectly ordinary characters, with perfectly ordinary lives. But through them in a work like The Wind Up Bird Chronicles he starts knock things a little off kilter. And it is that process which starts to make his work compelling - the narration of his characters leading us through his maze, while the dream like results manage to contain an edge of tension that compels us to keep going.

RVWR: PTR
November 2002

Title: Sputnik Sweetheart
Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Vintage

Initially it would seem that Sputnik Sweetheart will be comparable to Murakami's most well known novel Norwegian Wood, but it quickly becomes clear that it isn't the same deal at all. Like Norwegian Wood there are three main characters, forming a potential love triangle to some degree.

This is the fourth book by Murakami that I have read, and the fourth in which the lead character/narrator is male. However in this context it initially seems an odd decision and doesn't entirely work. Though in the end, I suppose it makes a certain degree of sense, considering how things turn out. The narrator, who I don't think is named, but is referred to at one point as K, met Sumire in college. The two of them hit it off and became great friends. The narrator gradually fell in love with Sumire, but as long as he had known her she had never really expressed any sexual desire for anyone, let alone him. However things change when Sumire meets someone at a cousins wedding - of course the fact that the person is 17 years older than Sumire, married and also female complicates matters. Miu gives Sumire a job and she is quickly transformed, from the somewhat awkward college drop out to an efficient and well groomed young woman. Things come to ahead though when Miu is going on a business trip to Europe and decides to take Sumire with her. The narrator is suddenly left with only the occasional letter as contact with his best friend and Sumire finds herself constantly in Miu's company.

Where the story goes from there is not something that is expected. The drive from that point being the question of what will happen next? Will there be a happy ending? And with this in mind the form of narration starts to make more sense. Though there is still a certain disjointedness and unlikely level of detail provided. Despite the fact that it is all supposed to be coming from the narrator's point of view, Murakami uses the familiar technique of shifting the narrative by using letters, but also he will switch to another characters thread with the theory that it is being recounted by the narrator as what that character said happened. The problem with this is that the level of detail is higher than one would expect from second hand information, which throws the balance a little.

On the whole, not the best book by Murakami that I have read - there isn't enough of his strong dialogue, and while there is a certain familiar "other" it doesn't seem to be pursued far enough. Though with that the result is something I wasn't expecting, and by not pursuing the other as would be done in say The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles he deepens the point of what he is doing with Sputnik Sweetheart. The version I have bought of Sputnik Sweetheart is the new UK paperback, which marks it as different from the Harvill Press versions of the rest of his book - the sprawling naked woman on the cover not being of the same appealing standard as the rest of the UK editions and it is a little misleading.

RVWR: PTR
November 2002

Title: Wisdom Of Crocodiles
Author: Paul Hoffman
Publisher: Black Swan

If there is one downside to The Wisdom Of Crocodiles it is perhaps that there is too much going on - too many characters, who could easily be spun out into their own complete novels. Testament to this is that there has already been a film made following one of the threads of the novel, with another film based on another thread and a TV series on yet another thread reported to be in the works. But in turn it is the amount of ideas that are here that make it as much fun to read, especially as Hoffman ties every strand together.

A woman meets the love of her life, only for him to rip her throat out with his teeth. Her godfather has just retired from the anti-terrorist unit and taken a new job as the head of a similar group that tackles financial fraud. Using his old contacts he has someone look for his missing goddaughter, a policeman who has just separated from his wife. A wife who found his pornography collection and is trying to understand his motivation, while also dealing with her job as an accountant. And so on, with the inclusion of the leaning tower of Pisa, terrorist attacks, the hardest cross wordclue in the world, parachuting, machine intelligence and alien contact.

With all that it is hardly surprising that the book is of a decent length and that it took Hoffman 13 years to pull it all together into this final form. Setting everything up as he goes along, spinning each character out so that they take on a unique life of their own, while at the same time managing to tie those lives back into the body by linking them back in to a thread other than the one which they originally spun out from. While at the same time also having to work each of these threads to a point where they each have enough of a sense of closure that he can let them lie - bringing it back down to the original characters and the climax of their stories.

RVWR: PTR
November 2002