I'm very excited (for some reason... not sure exactly what that reason is) to see Hitomi Kanehara at MWF this thursday. I guess the chance to see, in person, authors that I enjoy reading is quite rare - most of them having died some time ago, or residing inter-australianly. I'm sure this experience will rival the reply letter from Kurt Vonnegut.
Kanehara is published by Vintage, and as a result her books look somewhat similar to Murakami - which I'll admit is what intrigued me in the first place. I was in a large bookstore in Hong Kong with my Italian colleague, Luigi, and seeing Autofiction I began to read the first few pages. Knowing nothing about it, I could not tell whether I would like it or not, and I didn't buy it until some months after I came home.
I thought it was beautiful.
We follow Rin backward, from 23 to 15, hearing the story each time of a boy misunderstanding, and then mistreating her. Rin is vulnerable, hotheaded, but she also has a firm sense of when she has been betrayed, and what she deserves from love and life.
In some cases, the boys seem as if they weren't ready for Rin's assertiveness and demanding nature. One particular scene sees Rin realise that her boy has lied to her about where he is. He isn't cheating on her, but he wants time away from her and he's perhaps afraid of how she would react for his desire to go out without her. Kana's thoughts turn inward, focusing on her body, her cleavage, breasts, and how these can be used to protect the self and heart that has just been betrayed.
Rin is the sort of girl that can be dismissed as unstable, adulterous - even a psycho, but she's really just someone who has been continually hurt by those in which she had so much faith. She experiences tragedy after tragedy, because she is ready to love and trust people but they can only ever see her as a girlish face amongst a million others that is seen devoid of intention and agency.
Snakes and Earrings - is a little more straightforward, less psychological, and certainly more disturbing. The protagonist, again, is a girl left to rely on undesireable males to get along in the world. This is the debut novel that brought Hitomi Kanehara so much acclaim - it is written simply, but with deliberate tone that leaves the reader in the belly of tattoo and piercing culture, amongst the sadomasochists and punk contradictions. Again, protection is sought in this world, and it comes in the form of a full-back tattoo of a Kirin (which I now know is a mythical animal and not just a beer).
here is some footage of the movie - it is good that the movie was made in japanese with japanese actors, however there is the consequence that there is no version with english subtitles available:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BStREUuDbc
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
VietNam Le
I'd heard bits and pieces about The Boat before I read it, none of them really giving much indication of what I would eventually read. I wonder what is said about this book at book-groups... I'm sure it's made its way onto the lists of book-groups as diverse as mine and my mother's.
One talking point has been Le's range of literary styles. At times it feels like you are reading a writing exercise rather than something the author has invested himself into - however when looking at this collection as a whole, there really are a few common themes and the author's world-view is gradually and coherently illuminated by each short story.
One theme in a few of the stories is trying to find an authentic approach to circumstances/history etc. In what seems to be a more autobiographical story, Nam debates about whether to use his Vietnamese heritage, the atrocities witnessed by his father, the difficulty for war-torn communities to adapt to peace, to help sell his writing. 'Meeting Elise' sees a father trying to reconcile with his estranged daughter, who was taken away from him because he cheated on his wife. He is depressed at the passing of his wife's replacement, and without dignity attempt to exploit his decaying health, his accumulated wealth, desperately trying to establish a claim to his daughter, which at some point he gave away. The theme is most openly explored in passages of 'Tehran Calling', when Sarah longs for a tragic past - something she feels could justify her existence and relieve her feelings of unfulfillment.
The range of countries explored in setting and heritage also shows that Nam Le focuses on the growing relationships that exist between people of the world, and how these affect our sense of identity. The differences in the world are accentuated when a woman, oppressed in Iran, could just as easily have left the country a decade earlier and settled somewhere else. How do we respond when we are confronted with one teenager who is attempting to retain his pride by fighting a drop-kick from school, and another teenager who is meeting his fate with his employer after failing to assassinate his best friend? What does it mean to hear in passing that a woman was beaten to death for no other reason than her being born in China, when afterward we hear of the desperation experienced by oppressed Vietnamese attempting to escape to Malaysia? Whether Nam Le is actually that good that he is able of capturing the plight of these characters, or just that good that he seems to capture the plight of these people, many of these stories left me quite overwhelmed and depressed.
In some stories he seemed to get vague toward the end, which Murakami does at times too - sometimes I think this tendency is nice and poetic and sometimes I think it is lazy and confusing! I will give Nam Le the benefit of the doubt here, since the collection certainly proves the worth of his writing. Any preconceptions I had could not have stopped me from realising this.
I wonder how he would approach a novel.
One talking point has been Le's range of literary styles. At times it feels like you are reading a writing exercise rather than something the author has invested himself into - however when looking at this collection as a whole, there really are a few common themes and the author's world-view is gradually and coherently illuminated by each short story.
One theme in a few of the stories is trying to find an authentic approach to circumstances/history etc. In what seems to be a more autobiographical story, Nam debates about whether to use his Vietnamese heritage, the atrocities witnessed by his father, the difficulty for war-torn communities to adapt to peace, to help sell his writing. 'Meeting Elise' sees a father trying to reconcile with his estranged daughter, who was taken away from him because he cheated on his wife. He is depressed at the passing of his wife's replacement, and without dignity attempt to exploit his decaying health, his accumulated wealth, desperately trying to establish a claim to his daughter, which at some point he gave away. The theme is most openly explored in passages of 'Tehran Calling', when Sarah longs for a tragic past - something she feels could justify her existence and relieve her feelings of unfulfillment.
The range of countries explored in setting and heritage also shows that Nam Le focuses on the growing relationships that exist between people of the world, and how these affect our sense of identity. The differences in the world are accentuated when a woman, oppressed in Iran, could just as easily have left the country a decade earlier and settled somewhere else. How do we respond when we are confronted with one teenager who is attempting to retain his pride by fighting a drop-kick from school, and another teenager who is meeting his fate with his employer after failing to assassinate his best friend? What does it mean to hear in passing that a woman was beaten to death for no other reason than her being born in China, when afterward we hear of the desperation experienced by oppressed Vietnamese attempting to escape to Malaysia? Whether Nam Le is actually that good that he is able of capturing the plight of these characters, or just that good that he seems to capture the plight of these people, many of these stories left me quite overwhelmed and depressed.
In some stories he seemed to get vague toward the end, which Murakami does at times too - sometimes I think this tendency is nice and poetic and sometimes I think it is lazy and confusing! I will give Nam Le the benefit of the doubt here, since the collection certainly proves the worth of his writing. Any preconceptions I had could not have stopped me from realising this.
I wonder how he would approach a novel.
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