silencing the bell
Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Prophesies
Tuesday, 28 January 2025
The North Light
Alongside his search for his elusive clients there is his relationship with his boss Okajima (usefully a list of dramatis personae is at the front of the book, though I did get accustomed to the Japanese names.) Okajima decides to enter a 'competition' to design a memorial gallery for a famous artist who has died, and this becomes a major subplot that introduces a lot of information about architecture. It was interesting because it's not often that the working life of the characters plays a significant part in a story. I have read so many novels about writers, or people with undefined occupations, or are in some kind of break from their normal working life. I guess it's because most people's jobs are quite boring. It wouldn't make much of a story to write about being a postie.
So Haruko Fujimiya, the dead painter is invented, but Bruno Taut, the designer of the chair, is a real German architect; I just love it when books have real people in them. Taut escaped Nazi Germany and spent a couple of years in Japan before the war, writing extensively about Japanese design and became very influential on modernist architecture. He only completed one project while he lived there but did teach and design and sell furniture. So the presence of the chair at the Y residence becomes some kind of symbol of his influence, but it is also linked to Aose's own story.
The story is full of questions; who were the people, and why had they built a house and not moved in? and why did it now seem as if they had disappeared from the face of the planet? As Aose is forced to try and make sense of it, he is also forced to step outside his mundane concerns and think about who he is, why he is so perturbed by the house standing empty, and why he never built the house that he and his wife Yukari talked about.
I have read quite a few Japanese books in the last year or so, and talking to Monkey sensei about life in Japan, I feel I am learning something about Japanese society and the cultural differences, which sometimes feel significant, and at other times remind you that the human experience is universal. It is about the yearning for connection, particularly in his relationship with his daughter. And I loved the description of the house, and its environment, and I found myself longing for the tranquility that it evoked.
I only noted one quote. In it Aose is travelling to visit the Y residence and on hearing a familiar birdsong is transported back to his childhood (an itinerant one with a father who worked in dam building):
"Tsu-tsu-pi, tsu-pi, tsu-pi ...
He couldn't see it, but it was probably a coal tit. The great tit had a similar call, but the tempo was faster and it sounded more like 'teacher, teacher, teacher'.
As he moved off again, he lowered the driver's side window slightly. The chill air caressed his cheek. He could hear more birdsong coming from a forest of silver birch trees. A winter bird, the Eurasian siskin. They stayed up there in the countryside until late spring, but their migration season was fast approaching. The call was higher pitched than usual, more urgent sounding, as if the bird was anxious to get on its way.
Aose felt his mind being hijacked by memories of birds and their songs. It was different from nostalgia. It overlapped with Aose's own family's pattern of migration. On his way to and from school, the chorus of birdsong overheard had been like rain falling, sometimes a comforting mist, sometimes pelting him with its malicious chant, 'Damn Kids! Damn Kids!' As he approached the temporary accommodation, the voices would fade away into the distance. As they neared completion, the giant dams that now loomed above the mountains had already swallowed up the woods and forests that had been sanctuaries for all kinds of wild birds." (p.56)
Stay safe. Be kind. Read some translation.
Monday, 27 January 2025
Holocaust Memorial Day
Sunday, 19 January 2025
16 year Blogiversary
Saturday, 4 January 2025
On Tyranny
I have been listening to Lord of the Rings on Youtube (for the third time) and at one point Frodo laments that the task has fallen to him, how hard it is to be living in such dark times. Monkey is currently on Okinawa and went today to the memorial to the 200,000 people who died in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. I found myself very moved by the photos she sent. I guess many people never realise at the time that they are part of a dark time in history, nor the role they may have played.
Timothy Snyder ends his lessons with this one and it left me feeling overwhelmed but also heartened to think that throughout history people have been prepared to die for their freedom, and wondering about my own courage:
"Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny."
Thursday, 2 January 2025
New Year Resolutions
Wednesday, 25 December 2024
Bookish Review of 2024
So onwards to the review of this year's reading (and I am not going to beat myself up about whatever the finally total turns out to be). From the beginning (or rather the end of December 2023) (some links lead to several books):
The Library of Heartbeats by Laura Imai Messina
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otttessa Moshfegh
Books do Furnish a Life by Richard Dawkins
Men Who Feed Pigeons by Selima Hill
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad
Breasts and Eggs by Meiko Kawami
Here is the Beehive by Sarah Crossan
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley
The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart
The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
Cold Crematorium by Jozef Debreczeni
The Advantages of Nearly Dying by Michael Rosen
We All Want Impossible Things by Claire Newman
The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing
The Life of a Banana by PP Wong
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Birnham Wood by Eleanor Catton
The Yellow House by Martin Gayford
Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
35 books. I find on passing by each post that Ann Patchett must be the author I have read most of and loved universally, from Bel Canto back in 2010 through to the Magician's Assistant this year. On reflection I have read some excellent books this year, other top picks being Eileen, Being Dead and Greek Lessons, so I am not going to concern myself with the few that I didn't care for. Currently reading 'On Tyranny' by Timothy Snyder. Having been to hear Richard Powers at the Literature Festival in November (what a wonderful and engaging man) I have 'Overstory' waiting in the pile, very much anticipating, and 'The North Light' by Hideo Yokoyama, that I am reading for a book club at The House of Books and Friends in January.
Stay safe. Be kind. Enjoy your reading.