Yoko Ogawa is often cited as one of the most likely Japanese authors to win a Nobel Prize. her latest collection A stage that sleeps in the palm of your hand (The Stage Sleeping in the Palm of Your Hand) consists of eight stories related in some way to theater. The story draws the reader into a spooky and surreal fictional world.
Writers with global reach
Yoko Ogawa won the Akutagawa Prize in 1991. Herring calendar (Excerpt by Stephen Snyder translated as “Pregnancy Diary”) New Yorker).But it was her novel that made her widely famous number of doctors (translated by Snyder housekeeper and professor), and won the 1st Japan Bookstore Award in 2004. Since then, she has established herself as one of Japan’s most popular authors, and her work has been widely published around the world. memory police (Translated by Snyder from 1994 secret ending) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature and a finalist for the International Booker Prize.
memory police Set on a fictional island, things mysteriously disappear along with people’s memories. Ferries, birds, perfumes and roses are among the vanished commonplaces. Most of the islanders simply accept these disappearances. Those who refuse to do so will be taken away by the memory police. One of his resisters described the situation as follows:
“This island is run by guys determined to see things disappear. From their perspective, I can’t think of anything that doesn’t disappear when they say it should. I will forcibly destroy it at the hands of
Cross the invisible wall between the mundane and the uncanny
The new book consists of eight stories and offers a different enjoyment than the longer standalone novels.
“Simon no Tsuitahane” [Wings Touched with Fingerprints]
Every day a girl plays alone in an alley lined with small factories. A factory manager’s wife gave two free tickets to a tailor in her factory and told him to take the girl to a ballet performance. La Sylphide At the town’s cultural center. The girl’s imagination is captured by a story of a doomed romance between a young man and a fairy, and she begins writing a letter to Sylphide, whom she sees on stage. The tailor took pity on the girl and decided to intervene. . .
“Double Fault Yougen” [Double Faults Foretold]
A widow who ran a small clothing store alone for 30 years was hit by a truck and decided to close the business. One day, she passed by the Imperial Theater in Tokyo. Les Miserables On a whim, I decided to buy a ticket for each performance. She has embarked on her new life and has been going to the theater daily for two months. One day, she is approached by a mysterious woman who lives in the back room of the theater and works as a “fall guy” who foresees accidents and suffers on behalf of others, saving the actors on stage from bloopers and pitfalls. A strange friendship develops between the two women. And finally the day of the final performance. . .
“Yakusha” [Actor for Show]
The first-person narrator has worked for many years as a freelance “companion.” This story concerns the strangest experience of her career, when she is hired by a rich man in her late 70s who lives in an upmarket neighborhood. A condition of her job is that she lives in a room on his property and must not leave the room. Her “room” was a small private theater in a separate building from her main house. Her female role is to live her own life within her stage set. Occasionally, an old man with a cane appears and watches over the empty audience from the darkness. She realized that she was being paid to work as an “actor on the show.” Her empty seat reminds her of her tombstone. Then, suddenly, an event comes to bring the curtain down on a bizarre episode in her life.
Yoko Ogawa has published numerous collections of stories. One of the things she does unite her fictional world is that her characters imperceptibly pass through an invisible wall between everyday reality and hallucinatory otherworldly realms. is what it looks like. Sometimes these wondrous worlds are full of wonder. In other works, her characters confront realms of premonition and darkness. In these latest tales, Ogawa’s imagination takes a surreal turn, presenting perhaps his most disturbing vision yet.
Aging, lost youth, eternal lizard
The ‘Stage’ in the title of the collection is an empty set for pretend play. What do people see there, and what emotions do they elicit from the fictional setting? reminds me of
“Mugen Yamori” [The Eternal Geckos]
Ogawa’s latest story published in the February 2022 issue of Bungei Monthly Subaru, made the biggest impression on me. The first-person narrator is a guest at an inn that used to be a hot spring sanatorium. It is a popular inn for women who are trying to conceive and expectant mothers, attracted by the charm of the hot springs of easy childbirth and easy childbirth. At the entrance of the hot springs, an elderly couple who run an inn keep a pair of geckos in plastic cages and sell them as auspicious creatures. The lizards are amazingly detailed and seem to come to life with not only slightly disgusting but also suggestive meanings.
When she is not drinking water, the narrator spends much of her time on long walks. increase. The owner, who is in her late 70s, has few customers and spends her time adding a diorama of the town she built to commemorate her late son. The diorama is filled with models of children at play.
One day, a pair of geckos become entangled and cannot be separated. It seems that it will become immobile, dry and become a mummy. The innkeeper immediately sells the Lizard of Fate as a protective talisman for childbirth and parenting. Her story is narrated in an abandoned theater near the bath when her lost child calls out to her and realizes with shock what she looks like to his young eyes. finish.
A stage that sleeps in the palm of your hand (A stage sleeping in the palm of your hand)
Yoko Ogawa
Published by Shueisha in September 2022
ISBN: 978-4-08-771808-9
