A disappointing debut collection of seven relentlessly depressive
tales, the first published (in 1975) by a veteran Japanese writer
renowned as one of her country's most accomplished novelists,
poets, and writers of popular songs. Tomioka's typical characters,
as seen here, are middle-class householders stuck in unfulfilling
jobs and in entry-level marriages or affairs, vulnerable to the
pangs of unrequited love ("A Dog's Eye View"), the cruelty of the
aging process ("Days of Dear Death") and the dissatisfactions of
impersonal sex ("Yesterday's Girl," "Time Table"). Only in the
bizarre title piece - in which a young man's early death brings out
the worst in an increasingly estranged mother and daughter - does
any whiff of individuality arise from Tomioka's melancholy
premises. Unresonant, emotionally uninvolving stories, offering no
evidence of why she's considered an important writer. (Kirkus
Reviews)
This is a translation of Dobutsu no sorei, a collection of short
stories by award-winning scriptwriter-poet turned fiction writer,
Tomioka Taeko. In an objective style reminiscent of Japanese puppet
theater, Tomioka deconstructs the discourse of the nuclear family
and heterosexuality in gendered Japanese culture. Her stories focus
on ordinary people who take life as it comes, living from day to
day without the intervention of ego or rationalization, unfettered
by introspection or a search for life's ultimate meaning. The
stories are disturbing, moving, and compelling.
General
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