UID:
kobvindex_ZLB34926234
ISBN:
9780802159595
Content:
" The long-awaited first short story-collection by the author of the cult sensation Convenience Store Woman , tales of weird love, heartfelt friendships, and the unsettling nature of human existence With Life Ceremony , the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness. In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror to portray both the loners and outcasts as well as turning the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. Whether the stories take place in modern-day Japan, the future, or an alternate reality is left to the reader's interpretation, as the characters often seem strange in their normality in a frighteningly abnormal world. In A First-Rate Material, Nana and Naoki are happily engaged, but Naoki can't stand the conventional use of deceased people's bodies for clothing, accessories, and furniture, and a disagreement around this threatens to derail their perfect wedding day. Lovers on the Breeze is told from the perspective of a curtain in a child's bedroom that jealously watches the young girl Naoko as she has her first kiss with a boy from her class and does its best to stop her. Eating the City explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while Hatchling closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in. In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks above all what it means to be a human in our world and offers answers that surprise and linger. "
Content:
Rezension(1): "〈a href=http://www.publishersweekly.com target=blank〉〈img src=https://images.contentreserve.com/pw_logo.png alt=Publisher's Weekly border=0 /〉〈/a〉: May 2, 2022 In this off-kilter collection, Murata ( Convenience Store Woman ) brings a grotesque whimsy to her fables of cultural norms. Eating habits are a recurring theme. In “A Magnificent Spread,” a woman plans to serve strange dishes from her imaginary kingdom, “the magical city of Dundilas,” at a gathering for her fianc233" Rezension(2): "〈a href=https://www.booklistonline.com target=blank〉〈img src=https://images.contentreserve.com/booklist_logo.png alt=Booklist border=0 /〉〈/a〉: June 1, 2022 Once more, internationally bestselling Murata confronts unspeakable topics with quotidian calm, shockingly convincing logic, and creepy humor in a dozen genre-defying stories, translated again by her chosen, Japanese-to-English enabler, Takemori. Death is no longer an ending, full stop, in A First-Rate Material, in which all body parts of the departed are recycled into clothing, jewelry, and furniture, while in Life Ceremony, the lifeless are consumed to nourish the living, who then are inspired to procreate immediately after. Sex is replaced by artificial insemination as the preferred method to produce children in A Summer Night's Kiss and Two's Family. Food at a family gathering becomes highly individualized in A Magnificent Spread: The spread on the table now included the dishes from the magical city of Dundilas, the high-quality pouches of Happy Future Food, and the various insects. Fantastical impossibility becomes commonplace in The Time of the Large Star (sleep no more), Poochie (homeless humans as children's pets), Lover on the Breeze (a possessively anthropomorphized curtain), and Puzzle (a woman's body parts might involve an acrimoniously estranged couple). Then there's an urban forager in Eating the City and a woman with five personalities in Hatchling. Murata groupies will appreciate a glimpse of characters from Earthlings (2020), while readers seeking the undefinable will enjoy these tales immensely. COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. "
Language:
English
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URL:
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URL:
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