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Oct 2023
7:08am, 18 Oct 2023
64,547 posts
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LindsD
Thank you. There is always some 'loss' in translation but I don't think that translations are therefore inevitably 'poorer' than non-translations. And most of us read a lot of classic literature in translation.
I will write a blog.
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Oct 2023
1:36pm, 19 Oct 2023
82,089 posts
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Diogenes
CLANG-DONG
There's that annoying bell again.
CLANG-DONG
It's not really a bell at all, it's just a literary device employed by the author to prevent him having to repeatedly describe another character entering the cafe. Is that a neat trick or just laziness and a lack of imagination? There is plenty more lifeless repetition in the book, why eliminate this example? Or is the stilted language the fault of the translator, as suggested? I wouldn't have thought so, or else he wouldn't have been employed to translate the rest of the books in the series.
CLANG-DONG
That bell is cracked. It grates on the ear. The characters don't ring true.
CLANG-DONG
That's the sound of a lead balloon in an empty vessel. This is a slight book manifesting as something meaningful. It is a short book that should be much shorter.
CLANG-DONG
That's the sound of a paperback book being thrown in the charity shop bin. (Not true, it's gone on the shelf with the other books I've read this year, but if anyone wants it let me know...)
It wasn't terrible, but I read it without particular enjoyment or interest just to get to the end, and I don't feel like it's added anything to my personal commonweal. I shan't be reading any more of these.
A brief encounter
Before the coffee gets cold
The river flows on.
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Oct 2023
1:58pm, 19 Oct 2023
64,579 posts
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LindsD
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Oct 2023
1:51pm, 30 Oct 2023
113,488 posts
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Hanneke
CLANG DONG
There, I said it, annoying!
Also: the whole book annoyed me. Badly translated or badly written. Stunted, under developed. After What You Are Looking for is in the Library, this was a right royal come down. It didn't even have that cosines we are so used to of contemporary Japanese fiction.
Meh!
4/10
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Nov 2023
5:03pm, 7 Nov 2023
14,112 posts
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Little Nemo
This book had such an interesting concept but sadly it didn't completely work.
I love sci-fi/fantasy stuff and I was curious to see how it would work in a Japanese book. I don't know whether it was the translation or something inherently Japanese about it but the writing was very odd. At times it was really clunky and also some explained things like dementia as though it was aimed at a child.
I also had problems with how some of the stories were resolved. I didn't think it was right to lie to the husband with dementia that he would be cured, it seemed horribly cruel. The story about the sisters seemed like a triumph of social conditioning over freedom, why did she have to give up her successful business and happy life in Tokyo and go back to the family inn? I was also left a bit uneasy with the last story. I'm not a parent so maybe you would be content to have a baby and die so long as you knew they had a happy life. For me this just seemed like a weird self-sacrificing nightmare!
I did enjoy the concept of not being able to change the past but by going back you would change your future or at least how you felt about it. I also liked the writing when it wasn't clunky and the dialogue parts were good. It made sense to me that this started off as a play, you could almost see some bits as stage direction and actors' notes to get into character. I liked the arbitrary rules and the ghost woman, she was like something out of The Ring. Would have loved to have had her story!
Anyway, hope it wasn't too weird a choice. I'm giving it a 5 and now I'll read back to see how the rest of you thought...
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Nov 2023
5:16pm, 7 Nov 2023
14,113 posts
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Little Nemo
Oh lawks! Am I going to be kicked out of book club?
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Nov 2023
5:18pm, 7 Nov 2023
82,461 posts
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Diogenes
No one is kicked out ever, not even Dan Brown.
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Nov 2023
5:19pm, 7 Nov 2023
53,277 posts
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McGoohan
I was glad to see you thought pretty much the same as me LN.
And... I abandoned reading my own choice (Angelmaker). At least this one was finishable.
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Nov 2023
5:35pm, 7 Nov 2023
14,114 posts
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Little Nemo
OMG, I'd forgotten about Angelmaker! I guess this makes us even
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Nov 2023
5:48pm, 7 Nov 2023
53,278 posts
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McGoohan
I'll take 'even' believe me. I almost threw *myself* out of the Book Group for that monstrosity!
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