The three stories in this collection from prize-winning author
Yoshimoto share the theme of escape from the pain of waking life
into sleep. They tell of sleep in many guises: blissful sleep,
disturbed sleep, sleep that refreshes and enlightens, sleep that
contacts the dead, sleep induced by alcohol, sleep in coma and in
death. All three stories are told in the first person by young
single women and the emotional naivety of their expression lends
the tone of teenage rites of passage to their tales. They are not
particularly sympathetic characters, often indolent, spoiled and
self-obsessed. The differences in emotional development between
young Japanese and their Western counterparts are evident. The
voices, attitudes and opinions of these Japanese women in their
late twenties are those we would expect of Western teenagers first
escaping parental control. They are more shocked and impressed by
their own worldliness than the reader is. The question of narrative
voice also raises the difficulty of translating a Japanese text
into English. Here, it feels as though a fairly literal approach
has been adopted, which often leads to quite jarring effects where
the tone and content are at odds. Whether a less rigid translation
would sacrifice the essential point that this is writing from and
about Japan is open to debate. This is a book of subtle charms, the
stories are more atmospheric than plot driven and are deliberately
inconclusive; their effects and the questions they raise develop
slowly afterwards. So, to get the best from the three stories in
Asleep, read it late at night and then sleep on it for a while.
(Kirkus UK)
Banana Yoshimoto has a magical ability to animate the lives of her
young characters, and here she spins the stories of three women,
all bewitched into a spiritual sleep. One, mourning a lost lover,
finds herself sleepwalking at night. Another, who has embarked on a
relationship with a man whose wife is in a coma, finds herself
suddenly unable to stay awake. A third finds her sleep haunted by
another woman whom she was once pitted against in a love triangle.
Sly and mystical as a ghost story, with a touch of Kafkaesque
surrealism, Asleep is an enchanting book from one of the best
writers in contemporary international fiction.
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