Authors of Japan: The Appreciation Thread

[beni 2149]

So I had recently gone on a book purchasing spree that are all written by Japanese authors (call me a weeaboo, but it was a sure way to get me into reading more than just manga) and I thought this might be a nice little thread to show our appreciation for their literature while also sharing our comments on popular/currently reading ones and discuss them so here goes nothing~ 

 

I'll start this of by saying who my favourite author is. Banana Yoshimoto's work is always quote worthy and leaves an impression on you. My first read of hers was 'Kitchen' and I'm looking forward to getting to 'Goodbye Tsugumi' and 'Lizard'. 

 

Kitchen-

Kitchen juxtaposes two tales about mothers, transsexuality, bereavement, kitchens, love and tragedy in contemporary Japan. It is a startlingly original first work by Japan's brightest young literary star and is now a cult film.

 

When Kitchen was first published in Japan in 1987 it won two of Japan's most prestigious literary prizes, climbed its way to the top of the bestseller lists, then remained there for over a year and sold millions of copies. Banana Yoshimoto was hailed as a young writer of great talent and great passion whose work has quickly earned a place among the best of modern literature, and has been described as 'the voice of young Japan' by the Independent on Sunday.

 

Goodbye Tsugumi-

An elegiac story of two young cousins coming of age at the Japanese seaside, Goodbye Tsugumi is an enchanting novel from one of Japan's finest writers. Banana Yoshimoto's novels have made her an international sensation. Now she returns with a magical, offbeat story of a deep and complicated friendship between two female cousins that ranks among her best work. Maria is the only daughter of an unmarried woman. She has grown up at the seaside alongside her cousin Tsugumi, a lifelong invalid, charismatic, spoiled and occasionally cruel. Now Maria's father is finally able to bring Maria and her mother to Tokyo, ushering Maria into a world of university, impending adulthood, and a 'normal' family. When Tsugumi invites Maria to spend a last summer by the sea, a restful idyll becomes a time of dramatic growth as Tsugumi finds love, and Maria learns the true meaning of home and family. She also has to confront both Tsugumi's inner strength and the real possibility of losing her.

 

Lizard-

In these six stories Yoshimoto masterfully explores themes of time, healing and fate, and how her urban, sophisticated, independent young men and women come to terms with them. Her characters find themselves caught in emotional webs that they often fail to understand, but they discover themselves and reinvent themselves through the power of the stories they tell.

 

The one book I've ever read in one sitting was 'Piercing', by Ryu Murakami. I flew through it and it played like a movie on paper. Sure, that's what books are, but I really got that sense with how gripping it was. While the ending was rather disappointing, that finished almost like there was much more that could've happened (I probably read it so quickly because it was one of the shorter books I got at 192 pages), the writing was spot on and really engaging. A very worthwhile recommendation and quick read suggestion.

 

Piercing-

Every night, Kawashima Masayuki creeps from his bed and watches over his baby girl's crib while his wife sleeps. But this is no ordinary domestic scene. He has an ice pick in his hand, and a barely controllable desire to use it. Deciding to confront his demons, Kawashima sets into motion a chain of events seeming to lead inexorably to murder.

 

I've started both Taichi Yamada's 'Strangers' and Hitomi Kanehara's 'Autofiction', and will be getting to Yoko Ogawa's 'The Housekeeper and the Professor' and Hiromi Kawakami's 'Strange Weather in Tokyo' after.  

 

I'm slowly making my way through Haruki Murakami's 'Norwegian Wood', and at this rate, I might as well watch the movie and forget about the book. I'm a good 180 or so pages in and it has yet to captivate me like my other two previous mentions. Knowing he's one of the most popular writers from Japan probably made my expectations heightened.

[Tokage 5930]

Norwegian Wood is like literally Murakami's most ''normal'' and boring work, tbh... His other novels like ''Kafka on the Shore'' or ''The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'' are a lot more interesting.

 

I've read about 3 or 4 novels by Ryu Murakami, so far the only one i've REALLY liked was ''Coin Locker Babies.'' Felt like a Shion Sono film in book form or something.. Good stuff. I managed to finish ''In The Miso Soup'' and ''Piercing'' in like 1 sitting as well, really quick reads, but at the same time... I was left wanting more after I was done, not quite feeling satisfied.

 

Also read several novels by Kobo Abe, but so far I like the concepts of his novels more than the actual novels themselves.. I dunno why that is, could have something to do with the translation or something like that..

[emmny 4139]

i read kokoro by natsuki susume two years ago and wrote a paper on it for my grd12 english class about how it was a big gay conspiracy basically

hahahha i love myself

tbh it was fucking boring zzzzzzzzz yea i know its a classic but OK

[plastic_rainbow 2162]

Thanks to the Aoi Bungaku Series I got into a Japanese literature reading phase a few years ago. Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human) by Osamu Dazai is one of my favorites. When I first watched the anime adaptation it literally destroyed me. Of course, the original novel is just as nice too. I've been meaning to go back and reread it some time.

 

Haha, I actually really like Kokoro. Similar to Ningen Shikkaku, Kokoro also had an anime adaptation in Aoi Bungaku and I loved it. The adaptation is quite different from the original so it was interesting to see the differences as I read it, and I must say that I love the original way more.

 

Sad to hear that people don't like Norwegian Wood much as it's probably my favorite of Murakami's. I didn't enjoy his other works other than Kafka on the Shore, although I have not read Wind-up Bird Chronicle yet. Btw, I found the movie adaptation of Norwegian Wood really boring so I don't know if watching it would be any better beni, haha.

 

Banana Yoshimoto has some nice stuff too~ I really liked Kitchen.

I also really like Out by Natsuo Kirino. I could not put that book down when I first read it! I want to read more of her stuff, but the other two I've read so far have not been as interesting as Out. :/

[beni 2149]

Norwegian Wood is like literally Murakami's most ''normal'' and boring work, tbh... His other novels like ''Kafka on the Shore'' or ''The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'' are a lot more interesting.

 

I've read about 3 or 4 novels by Ryu Murakami, so far the only one i've REALLY liked was ''Coin Locker Babies.'' Felt like a Shion Sono film in book form or something.. Good stuff. I managed to finish ''In The Miso Soup'' and ''Piercing'' in like 1 sitting as well, really quick reads, but at the same time... I was left wanting more after I was done, not quite feeling satisfied.

 

I'm going to have to come back to Murakami another time then, thanks for your comment on that. Might as well remove my bookmark from it for either of his other two. XD

 

I didn't know of 'Coin Locker Babies' so I'll add that with 'In The Miso Soup'. His titles always sound interesting. I totally get how you feel with 'Piercing', there's a lot more that could've been done with it. It just... ended, and it didn't really go anywhere now that I think about it but damn was it gripping. Totally reading 'In The Miso Soup' in one sitting now too!

 

Sad to hear that people don't like Norwegian Wood much as it's probably my favorite of Murakami's. I didn't enjoy his other works other than Kafka on the Shore, although I have not read Wind-up Bird Chronicle yet. Btw, I found the movie adaptation of Norwegian Wood really boring so I don't know if watching it would be any better beni, haha.

 

Banana Yoshimoto has some nice stuff too~ I really liked Kitchen.

I also really like Out by Natsuo Kirino. I could not put that book down when I first read it! I want to read more of her stuff, but the other two I've read so far have not been as interesting as Out. :/

 

Oh nice, being influenced by anime! Interesting stuff.

Ah, that's too votes on 'Kafka on the Shore' now then. Won't need to debate with myself between them. And LMAO, I'm not going to even bother with the movie then, even if Mizuhara is starring in it... I won't give in! Listening to you all the way! Too bad the setting/style looks neat, bet it's like Bunraku, looks great, but it's actual crap overall. X'D

 

AHHHH AWWWWWW YEAH~ Nice seeing someone else dig her work. x3 I remember seeing that CutiePieMarzia YouTuber bring her up and totally flipped.

'Out' is another book I had purchased on that shopping spree! I'm a bit worried about how thick it is, lol, but it sounded really thriller like so I had to get it. Going straight on it asap now that you've brought it up.

[Kaye 296]

I've actually come to really love Japanese writers and I'm sure it all has to do with how they talk and write about things. American writers can hardly get me interested like that, and the only other big group of writers in my collection are mostly Scandinavian.

 

Both Murakamis are without a doubt among my faves (Piercing is great), though I think Kirino Natsuo's books are worth a read as well. So far I do think there's hardly been any of them that have gotten translated in English (I own three and I think a fourth is coming). Real World is probably her shortest and most "young adult" one but Out and Grotesque are quite a bit longer and deeper (With Out definitely being a fave)

 

I also own a novel by Minato Kanae called Confessions, which is what the 2010 movie of the same name was based on.

 

More recently I also got Yoshida Shuichi's Parade (I think he migh have also written Villain) which, again, is the original book the movie of the same name was based on. I haven't finished it yet but so far it's been a pretty nice read.

 

Then there's Suzuki Koji who's responsible for the original books of Ring, Spiral, Dark Water and quite a few more (whatever you do, don't read Loop. It's pretty terrible) He was actually the one who got me back into reading near the end of my secondary school career. For some reason our library had English versions of the books and well, I got kind of stuck. (The books are so much better than the movies though. Lead in Ring is a guy, not a girl, so that gives a whole different feel to it. They're also not really horror, more thriller imo)

 

Can't forget to mention Battle Royale (by Takami Koushun). I'm so terribly sad the writer never did anything else even though it was said at the time that he was in fact writing something. I kind of feel like he might have taken on a penname and has been writing under a different name ever since. I mean, the success of Battle Royale was so immense that it would be kind of scary to try and top that, no? This is also one of my fave novels ever and I should really do a reread of it sometime.

 

There's only one Japanese writer I've tried so far who really just bores the hell out of me and that's Higashino Keigo. No matter whether I'm watching dramas/movies based on his works, or reading his actual novels, I just end up wanting to throw things around.

 

And oh, special mention for Otsu-ichi. He mostly writes short stories and such, but I've liked pretty much everything he's done and I've gotten my hands on. Both Zoo and Goth are pretty great (with the latter being an all-time fave)

 

 

 

Also, Beni, you're better off reading every other Murakami book. Norwegian Wood isn't bad but it misses a lot of typical Murakami-ness.

[Tokage 5930]

Also, after reading Yasutaka Tsutsui's short story collection ''Salmonella Men from Planet Porno,'' I have to wonder... what the hell does the guy have against women? Did he get dumped once too often, or what? I mean, some of the concepts behind the stories are interesting enough, but... sheesh. I'm still wondering whether or not reading the original novel version of Paprika would be worth it or not. I mean, I love Satoshi Kon's adaptation of it...

 

Ah, and I really want to read some of Edogawa Rampo's stuff at some point just to upgrade my angura cred...

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Great thread! My knowledge of Japanese authors is pretty limited, cuz the Hungarian market for them is rather small (to say the least) and sporadic... On the other hand, I rarely venture to buy some random expensive book from abroad just to try, so...yeahhhh.

 

Anyway, some of the things I've enjoyed so far:

 

- Abe Kobo: The Box Man (if David Lynch was a Jp writer in the '60s-'70s, this is what he would write)

- Akutagawa Ryunosuke: random short stories (some pretty haunting stuff towards the end of his life)

- Koji Suzuki: Ring (not much to say here, it was cool)

- Osamu Dazai: No Longer Human (if you've seen the anime adaptation you know what to expect - the book is better tho)

- Takeshi Kitano: Boy (yeah, that Kitano. can't remember much about this, other than it was nice)

 

Also, I must confess I haven't read anything by Haruki Murakami that I really liked. After Dark was kinda decent, Kafka on the Shore wasn't bad either, but too long and drawn-out (and it completely lost my interest at the ending). I have the Wind-up Bird Chronicle and 1Q84 at home too, but haven't had the willpower to start either of them yet, lol.

[Licio123 181]

Nice topic indeed! I read some japanese authors, but mostly books that are more known. It's really hard to find them here in Brazil =(

 

I read Grotesque, Out and The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino. Three very good books, especially the first two; TGC starts well but kinda loses steam halfway through (still a good read nonetheless)

 

Battle Royale, by Koshun Takami. Just as good as the movie.

 

Parasite Eve, by Hideaki Sena. Good, but can't hold a candle to the game.

 

1Q84, by Haruki Murakami. I liked it a lot, quite weird at times, but I really enjoyed the story.

 

In the Miso Soup and Piercing, by Ryu Murakami. Both fucked up as hell, still enjoyable.

 

The Diving Pool, by Yoko Ogawa. Three different stories with some common themes, but didn't grab my attention.

 

Need to find a good site to download more ebooks by JP authors. Quite hard to find them.

[Tokage 5930]

One fucked up thing I heard is that apparently the English translation of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle just cut some stuff from the Japanese original straight out? I dunno if that's true or not, but if it is, that's pretty lame..

 

Also, it's amazing just how embarrassingly bad Murakami is at writing sex scenes...

[plastic_rainbow 2162]

Nice to see people mention other writers/titles that I recognize, but I just haven't had the time to read through some of them yet. I'm a rather slow reader and can't read a book in one go...

 

Recently, I read Confessions by Minato Kanae and it was quite good. I watched the film adaptation maybe 5 years ago so the story was not fresh in my head, but it eventually came back to me as I continued reading. I think the film does follow quite closely with the novel though. The only big difference I noticed while reading was that you get a better grasp of the characters thoughts and feelings in the novels as it's written in each character's perspectives.

 

Also read Ring by Koji Suzuki and I really liked it! Much better than the American film adaptation. I watched that movie like maybe when I was still in elementary, haha. The storyline is quite different, which made it very interesting to read. Still, the series comes in three segments so I'm wondering if the movie was based on the other two parts? Or maybe they merely took the whole videotape, well, long-haired girl concept and changed the rest of the story. Anyway, I'm really excited to read Spiral next, the second part!

Edited July 3, 2016 by plastic_rainbow

[Atreides 454]

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet in this thread by I highly recommend Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. It's an absolutely excellent book, can't really describe it too well without spoiling a large part of the story.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Atreides

[Gaz 1097]

read every single novel by Haruki Murakami and liked everything. some more, some less, but all of his stuff is great. simply one of my favorite authors ever.

 

Keigo Higashino writes damn good detective novels. even though i'm generally not into detectives but have to say i enjoyed his works a lot. especially The Journey Under the Midnight Sun and Detective Galileo series.

 

also read In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami but didn't really like it. the story was okay, yet not catchy for me. luckily, there weren't that many pages so i managed to finish it.

[K8A 22]

8 hours ago, Atreides said:

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet in this thread by I highly recommend Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. It's an absolutely excellent book, can't really describe it too well without spoiling a large part of the story.

 

Starting to wonder what we don't have in common.

[Hakoniwa 222]

I've been meaning to read Banana Yoshimoto's works for a while now... I should buy a digital copy or something. There are many english translations, right? I admit the main reasons I looked her up were: because of her awesome pen-name; because a japanese artist I like mentioned liking her and I got curious.

 

Anyway, I haven't read many japanese books so far... There's no reason really, I just hadn't somehow.  But today (!!!) I finished my first ever japanese book: the first book of the Moribito series, Seirei no Moribito (The Guardian of the Spirit) by Nahoko Uehashi.

It's.....it's wonderful ç_ç

At first I thought it kinda weak and weird, but it's really only the very first pages. I bought this because it had been translated to portuguese and I could buy it where I live, but also because I'm a huge fan of the anime, based on this book. It's a fantasy, it happens in a place similar to ancient Japan and full of legends and myths. The whole story is really good, all characters are pretty awesome, and the reading really flows. She wrote other books with the same protagonist, but those haven't been translated... I think I can't find the whole series even in english. So I'm considering on following my friend's advice and buying the original japanese books... they told me there are versions for children and the japanese there is really easy. My japanese is really bad though, so I'm not sure I can read it anyway lol.

I just, really want to read more about this story... the way the first book ended was so....... </3

 

tl;dr => Nahoko Uehara; I'm in love.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

This is a complete shot in the dark, but I've been driving myself crazy searching on Google and coming up with no results whatsoever. XD

 

I'm looking for the name of an author who I think is Japanese. The only thing I remember is that he or she has been writing books for at least about a decade now (maybe even more), and that they are of the science fiction / cyberpunk variety. The author's trademark style is kinda like if you put random sci-fi words in a blender and arranged them in a random order, i.e. the novels don't really follow any narrative strands, they are more like weird nonsensical impressionistic pictures of a (potentially bleak or dystopian???) futuristic, possibly machine-like / cybernetic existence. The best comparison I can make is William S. Burroughs during his Nova Trilogy phase: cut-up jumble of words flowing together to evoke weird images, only in a futuristic setting. The author may or may not have written the books via some kind of automated system (e.g. feeding words into a computer that then provided the text by arranging the words and expressions in a random order).

 

Thanks in advance if anyone might recognize the author or any of his/her work just by these vague attributes.  

 

edit: Success!!! The author's name is Kenji Siratori (coincidentally, he also makes noise music, haha).

Edited August 10, 2016 by Jigsaw9

[Nagisa 131]

On 7/2/2016 at 11:35 PM, plastic_rainbow said:

Also read Ring by Koji Suzuki and I really liked it! Much better than the American film adaptation. I watched that movie like maybe when I was still in elementary, haha. The storyline is quite different, which made it very interesting to read. Still, the series comes in three segments so I'm wondering if the movie was based on the other two parts? Or maybe they merely took the whole videotape, well, long-haired girl concept and changed the rest of the story. Anyway, I'm really excited to read Spiral next, the second part!

 

Koji Suzuki is one of my favorite Japanese authors. Ringu was the first novel I read in Japanese and it got me hooked, in a way. My favorite book in the series is Rasen, though. The two later stories S and Tide weren't as good, although they sort of conclude the series. I've read a few of his horror anthologies and liked them too. Last year he published an anthology about Aokigahara but I haven't had the chance to read it yet.

 

I also like Kei Oishi's novelizations of Juon. The original one had a scene that I still remember for how scary it was just reading it. I haven't read his other novels but all of the novelizations are pretty good.

 

I enjoy reading Mishima's works too. I think he was a very interesting person and after reading some of this books as an undergraduate, I got more interested in him. I want to read Kinkakuji if I get the chance, but The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea was pretty good.