Mieko KanaiBesprekingen

In this stream of conciousness novel, a 40-something housewife living an ordinary somewhat mundane life goes through her daily activities--planning, shopping for and making meals, taking care of her kids, going shopping with her mother, helping with her elderly father, and so on. It reminded me very much of Ducks, Newburyport (which, true confession, I didn't finish yet, but still intend to...one day).

The novel was originally published in installments correlating to 8 sections, each roughly correlating to a particular subject. There are two anomalies: About three-quarters through the book there is printed verbatim for several pages a review/essay that the housewife, Natsumi, read, about a photography exhibit at an art museum. This led me down the google-hole, as this was a real exhibition by real photographers. So I learned about Kineo Kuwabana, who documented Tokyo life from the 1930's through the 1980's/90's, and Nobuyoshi Araki who took avant-garde photographs, some of which were said to verge on the pornographic.

The other unusual thing was the Afterwood, which I initially thought was a separate story, but part of the book. Instead of being in the mind of a Tokyo housewife, we are in Brooklyn with two female writers, Sophie and K. K has been engaged to write an essay about a recently translated Japanese novel, and she has taken on the job because she need the money, because her daughter needs dental work---and so on. We get to the end and I find that this was written by Kate Zambreno, whose work I discovered earlier this year, so that was nice.

This is all a bit convoluted, but I liked the book.

3 stars

fiction, translated into English from Japanese - modern feminist-leaning narrative about the monotony of a housewife's daily activities, at once underwhelming and overwhelming with its litany of tedium and unending consumerism. Originally published in serial in a women's magazine, so perhaps best appreciated in sections, as the stream of consciousness prose can bring feelings of exhaustion.

I appreciated it more after reading the afterword. It was sort of hard to get into (and I thought perhaps something was lost in the translation?), but once you understand that it's ok to let your eyes gloss over the page, and not register every word of every mundane thought, it gets easier, and more interesting.

It is always interesting to see what sorts of books capture the imagination of people in other countries. Best sellers and prize winners aren't always translated into English so those of us who do not read in another language don't have access to them or the insights they might give about the culture out of which they sprang. So it's always cause for curiosity when something relatively celebrated is finally translated. Mieko Kanai's Oh, Tama! is one such book. Written in 1986-7 as short pieces for magazines and then published as a complete novel, this is the second of the Mejiro novels (named for the neighborhood in which the books are set) and it won the Women's Literature Award in 1998. There is something ineffably foreign about it, a tone or construction, or focus, it is unmistakably Japanese.

Tama the cat is pregnant and her owner, Tsuneko, is also pregnant. As Tsuneko has intentionally disappeared, someone must care for Tama as she waits for her kittens. Alexandre, Tsuneko's mixed race half-brother, a model and sometime porn star, takes the cat to his friend Natsuyuki's home with the intention of leaving her there with the currently unemployed freelance photographer. Complicating matters is the fact that Natsuyuki could potentially be the father of Tsuneko's unborn child. But he's not the only one. In fact, his long-lost older brother, Fuyuhiko, who he only meets as a result of the situation, could also be the baby's father. Sounds complicated and bananas, right? The mystery of where Tsuneko, who has asked the potential father candidates for money, has disappeared to is not even really at issue here in this essentially plotless novel. The bulk of the story is taken up by Natsuyuki's dysfunctional friends and brother moving in and out of his house while Tama observes their philosophical discussions and bewildering behaviour.

The novel has, perhaps, far more of a Japanese sensibility than I understand from my own cultural vantage point. And without the cultural frame of reference that its original audience had, I entirely missed the allusions and parodies. The characters are quirky but aimless and I felt swamped by the slow moving, meandering story. I completely missed the humor that is supposed to be abundant here and am not sure if it is dependent on knowledge of the area in Tokyo where Natsuyuki lives or on an understanding of their generation within Japan or something else entirely. Even situations that are important and life-altering, like the revelation of Fuyuhiko as Natsuyuki's brother, are relayed with flat affect and treated as fairly unremarkable. Even Natsuyuki's mother dismisses the discovery of her oldest son by her youngest as unimportant. Baffling for sure. This has the feel of a stage play with its constant comings and goings and swirling conversations over art and literature, photography and film, fashion and cats. Those who have a deeper appreciation for Japanese literature than I do will likely enjoy reading this brief, almost absurdist novel more than I did.

This offbeat, quirky little novel from Mieko Kanai is certainly one to enjoy, especially for fans of Japanese literature. Indeed, those who are familiar with some of the great ‘cat’ literature of the 20th century, or anyone who has read a lot of Japanese authors, will recognise the style and themes of the book which, superficially, can be quite hard to completely get a grasp of for the uninitiated.

Natsuyuki Kanemitsu, a freelance photographer, lives a quiet enough life but it is soon interrupted by the arrival of his friend Alexandre (real name Kanemitsu) who announces that his sister Tsuneko is pregnant and that there are several possible fathers – one of whom, perhaps, is Natsuyuki himself. Alexandre also brings with him the eponymous hero of our tale, the heavily-pregnant Tama, and leaves the cat with Natsuyuki. And that’s pretty much it, plot-wise. There appears another character called Fuyuhiko, a friend of Alexandre’s who, as it happens, is Natsuyuki’s half-brother, and who may also be the father of Tsuneko’s child. As is the case in much of the Japanese literature I have read, the pace is slow, the main focus is on dialogue and scene-setting, on the quiet unravelling of themes and ideas which, in the case of ‘Oh, Tama!’, rely a lot on coincidence. There is much discussion and reference to literature and film, art theory and fashion, and always in the background is Tama, having had her kittens and caring for them in Natsuyuki’s wardrobe, watching from the side-lines at the eccentricities of the human race!

Without over-playing the parallels, there is obviously the comparison between Tsuneko and Tama, between the human and the animal world and our attitude to sex and relationships. There is a lot of humour and almost farcical plot developments as all of the characters arrive at and leave Natsuyuki’s small apartment. It is a little gem of a book that will stand up to multiple re-readings to tease out the subtlety of the writing. If you are looking for a fast-paced page-turner, a thrill a minute ride, then this is not for you. If you are looking for a quiet, eccentric little book and have a penchant for Japan and Japanese literature, then this should definitely be on your reading list.

This offbeat, quirky little novel from Mieko Kanai is certainly one to enjoy, especially for fans of Japanese literature. Indeed, those who are familiar with some of the great ‘cat’ literature of the 20th century, or anyone who has read a lot of Japanese authors, will recognise the style and themes of the book which, superficially, can be quite hard to completely get a grasp of for the uninitiated.

Natsuyuki Kanemitsu, a freelance photographer, lives a quiet enough life but it is soon interrupted by the arrival of his friend Alexandre (real name Kanemitsu) who announces that his sister Tsuneko is pregnant and that there are several possible fathers – one of whom, perhaps, is Natsuyuki himself. Alexandre also brings with him the eponymous hero of our tale, the heavily-pregnant Tama, and leaves the cat with Natsuyuki. And that’s pretty much it, plot-wise. There appears another character called Fuyuhiko, a friend of Alexandre’s who, as it happens, is Natsuyuki’s half-brother, and who may also be the father of Tsuneko’s child. As is the case in much of the Japanese literature I have read, the pace is slow, the main focus is on dialogue and scene-setting, on the quiet unravelling of themes and ideas which, in the case of ‘Oh, Tama!’, rely a lot on coincidence. There is much discussion and reference to literature and film, art theory and fashion, and always in the background is Tama, having had her kittens and caring for them in Natsuyuki’s wardrobe, watching from the side-lines at the eccentricities of the human race!

Without over-playing the parallels, there is obviously the comparison between Tsuneko and Tama, between the human and the animal world and our attitude to sex and relationships. There is a lot of humour and almost farcical plot developments as all of the characters arrive at and leave Natsuyuki’s small apartment. It is a little gem of a book that will stand up to multiple re-readings to tease out the subtlety of the writing. If you are looking for a fast-paced page-turner, a thrill a minute ride, then this is not for you. If you are looking for a quiet, eccentric little book and have a penchant for Japan and Japanese literature, then this should definitely be on your reading list.

This was for me the epitome of a forgettable book. (I posted this review on amazon only a few months after reading it, and apparently the book left me so cold that I boxed it up with others bound for the 2nd-hand bookshop immediately afterward.) I cannot remember a single thing about it, unless that room full of watermelons is in this one. I scanned online reviews of it and not even synopses of the various stories in the book rang a bell. Completely forgotten in less than 6 months. Literary propofol. I mean, you can't recall being on the table under anaesthesia but blacking out in that way confers a benefit. And there might at first be alarming gaps in your memory of a long session down the pub but at least you remember having had a good rousing argument even if you don't remember what it was about, and by afternoon you'll have remembered how inexplicably delicious that punnet of chips was. But The Word Book? not a trace, nada, rien, squat. A reminder, as if I truly needed one by now, that fiction having the seductive properties of non-linearity, Dalkey publication, translation, and ambiguity isn't simply by virtue of those qualities worth one's time.

I'm guessing that Word Book was nicer than having surgery but not nearly so nice as a pint of Guinness..

What a pity. I, like other Early Reviewers, was really looking forward to reading this as the description sounded fun, interesting and just my kind of thing. Sadly a far too literal translation has resulted in a disjointed, difficult to read and consequently unenjoyable text. I was about a third of the way through when I put it aside as it was so unpleasant a read as to not be worth the struggle. That was something like six months ago and I have to admit to myself that I'm not going to make it to the end.

Oh, Tama! took me a while to read, even though I really enjoyed it. It's not that it's difficult or anything, it's just that it's sort of slow and contemplative without a lot of urgency to it. I would pick it up and read a little bit, and thoroughly love that bit, then find that when I walked away, I didn't really have a feeling of Must Finish ASAP, even as I kept it in my thoughts and looked forward to picking it up again.

That might be a good or bad thing for other readers, but for me - sometimes a quiet slice-of-life story that meanders along is exactly what I'm in the mood for, and I enjoyed this one.

I liked the narrator, Natsuyuki, quite a bit. He's an interesting guy who can't exactly be trusted - he takes pains to avoid bothersome things when possible (or so he claims), and has a rather haphazard, lackadaisical way of narrating the story, as though it's all a bit too much effort sometimes.

The story itself is about Tama, a pregnant cat foisted upon him by the brother of a woman he slept with once. Or maybe it isn't really about Tama, but she's the linchpin that pulls it all together - explorations of motherhood and family, about sex and relationships and desire. There's also an element of obligation - of what one owes to others for one reason or another.

I'm not sure I'm the best reviewer for Oh, Tama!, but I liked it a lot. The language and imagery are strongly evocative, and I love Natsuyuki's narration - he is a vivid character at least in part because of his contradictions.½

Oh, Tama!! Oh my!! Definitely a very quirky read, which at times I found hilarious and at other times utterly baffling!! I don't think I "got it" at all..and couldn't help thinking that perhaps being Japanese or familiar with Japanese culture would've helped, as there were lots of "pop culture" references and, I think, nuances that I was unfamiliar with. It just seemed like a bunch of not particularly endearing Japanese characters in various states of employment living their more-or-less interconnected lives, with this cat Tama and her kittens as a bit of a centrepiece. It was a short read, thankfully, and a fairly easy one at that. But, yeah, definitely not my kind of read.½

My introduction to Mieko Kanai was through her short novel Oh, Tama!, the second volume in her Mejiro series. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to read more of her work, which is how I came to pick up Indian Summer. Although Indian Summer was Kanai's first novel to be released in English, and only the second volume of hers to be translated (the first being the short story collection The Word Book), it's actually the third book in the Mejiro series. Each novel in the Mejiro series, though they share some of the same characters, settings, and events, largely stands on its own. While it isn't necessary to read one novel to enjoy another, it may add some additional depth. After being serialized between 1985 and 1987, Indian Summer was collected into a single volume with some slight modifications in 1988. The English translation of Indian Summer by Tomoko Aoyama and Barbara Hartley, published by Cornell University's East Asia Program as part of its New Japanese Horizons series in 2012, is based on the later 1999 Japanese edition of the novel.

Momoko is a new student at a university in Tokyo. She's looking forward to leaving her home in the country behind and setting out on her own in the city. Unfortunately, her overbearing mother isn't about to let her nineteen-year-old daughter live unsupervised and plans for Momoko to stay with her aunt Chieko instead. The arrangement is meant to be temporary. In a year, Momoko's younger brother Jun'ichi is also expected to be attending a Tokyo university and their mother intends for them to live together so that Momoko can look after him. Momoko isn't at all interested in either of these plans, but happily she and her novelist aunt get along fairly well with each other. Chieko has her quirks, as does Momoko, but the two of them are doing what they can to make the best out of a rather awkward situation and to appease Momoko's mother. Although the arrangement isn't ideal, life does go on for Momoko as she beings university, makes friends (her classmate Hanako just so happens to be a huge fan of Chieko's writing), and deals with any of the other curveballs that are thrown her way.

The structure of Indian Summer is particularly interesting. The novel is primarily told from Momoko's point of view, but her narration is interspersed with the essays and stories that her aunt has written. Generally they are somehow related to whatever is currently going on in the story, but they do break it up somewhat. Much as in Oh, Tama!, Kanai frequently makes references to other works of literature as well as cinema in Indian Summer. Although I know there were some references that I didn't recognize, I was delighted by those that I did, such as an homage of sorts to Nobuko Yoshiya's Hana Monogatari. However, enjoyment of Indian Summer doesn't depend on familiarity with the works being referenced, some of which are Kanai's own. In Oh, Tama!, Kanai mentions that the characters in her Mejiro series are all based on real people. Indian Summer makes it fairly clear that she herself is at least partly if not primarily the inspiration for Chieko.

In Oh, Tama!, Momoko, Hanako, and Chieko were side characters. In Indian Summer, their roles are very much center stage. Momoko makes a genuinely appealing lead. She's self-aware, a bit headstrong, forthright, and very capable of speaking her mind. Indian Summer, like Oh, Tama!, is lighthearted and humorous, focusing more on the characters themselves rather than on a complicated or involved plot. Not much actually happens in the novel. Mostly it's about a young woman expressing herself and even venting a little as she deals with the very normal events in her life. Granted, while the actual events aren't particularly unusual, the characters in Indian Summer all tend to be rather eccentric in one way or another. As Momoko begins to experience life away from home, the novel explores themes of family, interpersonal relationships, sexuality, and gender roles in a very amusing manner. Indian Summer was a wonderfully delightful and witty read. I can only hope that more of the Mejiro series will be translated in the future.

Experiments in Manga½

Oh, Tama is a somewhat quirky book about a group of somewhat dysfunctional people in Japan. Quite a bit of the story hinges on a pregnant cat (Tama) and a possibly pregnant woman, two of her lovers (who turn out to be related), her brother, two mothers, briefly an assortment of fathers, and various landladies, neighbours etc. However, from this lot the author has produced a fairly readable book with quite a bit of humour, which I am glad to have read, though I probably would not reread it.

Oh, Tama! is the third volume of Mieko Kanai's work to be translated into English. The first was The Word Book, a collection of her short stories from the 1970s, while the second was a short novel called Indian Summer. Both Oh, Tama! and Indian Summer are a part of Kanai's Mejiro series--a group of novels tied together more by location and characters than by an overarching plot (though some events do cross over from one novel to another.) Indian Summer is actually the third volume in that series while Oh, Tama!, even though it was translated later, is the second. Oh, Tama! was originally serialized between 1986 and 1987 before being collected and released as a single volume which went on to win Kanai the Women's Literature Prize in 1988. The English-language translation by Tomoko Aoyama and Paul McCarthy, released by Kurodahan Press in 2014, is based on the 1999 Japanese edition of the novel. I was very pleased to receive a copy of Oh, Tama! through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

Tsuneko is pregnant. No one except for her and maybe her half-brother Alexandre (if he really is her half-brother) is entirely sure who the father is. Natsuyuki was one of the candidates, but for various reasons instead of being given the role of "father" he has had the responsibility of caring for Tama--Tusnkeo's pet cat, also pregnant--thrust upon him by Alexandre. It's a rather strange turn of events, especially when Tusneko leaves the country and Tama becomes one of the only remaining links to her left in Tokyo. The other potential fathers-to-be are trying to find or at least contact Tsuneko, which eventually leads them to Natsuyuki and Tama. In yet another bizarre twist of fate, one of them, Fuyuhiko, actually turns out to be Natsuyuki's very own long-lost half-brother, making for a rather odd meeting.

There's actually not much of a driving plot to Oh, Tama!. Instead, Kanai focuses on the mundane lives of the characters. Even the novel's setting is unremarkable--almost the entire story takes place within the confines of Natsuyuki's small apartment. Tama provides a focal point from which Kanai explores the interpersonal relationships between Natsuyuki, his friends, family members, and neighbors. The characters in Oh, Tama! aren't particularly exceptional people although they're all slightly quirky, eccentric, and offbeat. Their relationships also follow that same pattern of being just a little peculiar and unusual. I actually quite like Natsuyuki and the others and find their interactions, though fairly low-key, to be delightfully amusing as well as realistic. According to one of Kanai's afterwords, the characters in Oh, Tama! are actually based on real people, so perhaps it shouldn't be too surprising that their relationships, in all of their strangeness, should also feel so natural.

The translators' introduction to Oh, Tama! describes the novel as "a treasure chest of rich and varied parody, allusion and intertextuality." Since I haven't actually read many of the works being alluded to, many of the references (even when pointed out) were a little lost on me. However, I could appreciate what Kanai was doing. Personally, what appealed to me most about Oh, Tama! were the characters themselves. Natsuyuki is a fairly laid back sort of guy, but this tendency (mostly because complaining or actually trying to change things would take too much effort) puts him into some odd situations. Alexandre, who seems to delight in messing with people, is often more concerned about Tama and the kittens than any of the people around him. I found their slightly antagonistic friendship and their interactions with Fuyuhiko and the others to be highly entertaining. I greatly enjoyed Oh, Tama! and its quirky, understated humor. So much so that I plan on reading the next novel in the Mejiro series, Indian Summer, in the very near future.

Experiments in Manga½

This story wanders around without much actually happening. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of character development, plot, or story structure. Is this a poor translation or is the style common in Japanese fiction? Whatever the reason, it was tedious and disappointing.

I found it interesting that this book won a prize for Women's literature in Japan. In my reading it seemed that the men were irrelevant and powerless. Their ties to their mothers full of longing due to little attention and their role as fathers never clear enough to be identified. The men were left aimless, lonely, finding their solace in haphazard relationships with each other.
The book is also full of tongue in cheek references to literature and the arts and of course the cat. It's a short, humorous, and intriguing book.

Tama, the black and white cat, comes to live with Natsuyuki, along with other occasional visitors. We meet some of Natsuyuki's friends, neighbours and family, as they visit or come and stay for lengthy periods of time. Meanwhile Tama is pregnant and has lots of kittens that need homes. Natsuyuki takes on the responsibility of Tama and cares for the cat. I assume that we are being shown that there are some parallels between his life and that of the cat; Tama needs a home, has to move homes, has to live with new people, has to give up some of her kittens etc. There is a lot of the mundane things of day to day life in the novel; cleaning and cooking, bed making, sleeping and there is discussion about the work ethic too. The book has lots of themes about family and friends and what is important in life. It was a lovely read.

Oh dear! I had been looking forward to reading his book but, I only got as far as page 75. For only the 3rd time in my reading life I was so bored that I gave up. Maybe it is the fault of the translators, the French word on page 33 is certainly mistranslated. Sadly I can't think of a single positive thing to say.

It is dangerous to surmise from my experience of reading only a handful of Japanese modern novels, but ‘Oh Tama’ shares traits I have seen in other recent reads by Japanese authors: dislocation, dysfunction and the strangeness of everyday urban life. At the centre of the book are a number of dysfunctional characters, with broken families, temporary homes, random connections, and a strangely dislocated loose network of friendships. Their lives are mundane, haphazard and belie stereotypes about the conventional, office-tied, conformist Japanese salaryman. This is a book that explores the pattern of everyday incident, nothingness and the significance of lives lived through small happenings, or non-happenings. Our hero Natsuyuki spends a long time contemplating, and not writing, an article on a photographer, who is in turn a fiction of the author’s making. One of the central drivers of plot (such as there is), Tsuneko, who links many of the characters together, never appears. Are some elements ‘real’ or flights of fancy from the characters? It is a novel that made me think about the nature of everyday life, and what our expectations are, and should be.

This book, originally written in Japanese in the 1980s, is a refreshingly modern tale of a 19-year-old woman, Momoko, who is just starting out at college. The author deals frankly with social situations like homosexuality, infidelity, and abortion, but in an amusing and light-hearted way, which seems a perfectly natural attitude for a young woman who lives the carefree life of a student.

The two translators of this edition place this novel in a genre of “girls’ literature,” which is not to be confused with “chick lit.” They would prefer to place it in the same genre as Little Women or Anne of Green Gables. In those books, as in this one, romance is not the focus, but rather the evolution of a woman’s consciousness as she finds her place in the world.

In addition to Momoko, we are also introduced to Momoko’s highly original school chum, Hanako, and Momoko’s novelist, unmarried aunt Chieko (who seems to be a stand in for the author herself). These three women are not at all naïve and cutesy. They are adventurous, willing to take life as it comes and live life on their own terms and as independently as possible in the case of the girls who still need to rely on their parents to a certain extent.

The story is told from Momoko’s point of view, but we are occasionally treated to some of Chieko’s short stories and essays. This does break up the story a bit, but usually these writings are somehow related to what is going on in the story. In one section, there is reference to a short story written by Chieko that was actually written by Mieko Kanai in her short story collection The Word Book, which is completely different in tone and genre from this book.

Apparently there were various sequels written subsequent to this book, and it is to be hoped that they will eventually be translated into English as well.

My review appears in Belletrista:

http://www.belletrista.com/2010/issue7/reviews_9.php

Hmmm, didn't get into this until about half way through - I didn't understand the early stories, didn't particularly like them, and it is the kind of writing that makes me feel unintelligent and slow, which doesn't endear me to the author. But the last few stories grew on me, I liked the imagery, the dreamlike quality, and the twists and turns. They are also slightly less pretentious! I would like to reread this at some point.