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Berengaria's Reviews > Life Ceremony
Life Ceremony
by
by
4 stars
short review for busy readers: A shocking, impressive collection of short stories that is far more gripping in concept than in actual storytelling. The reader is forced to confront societal biases and moral values in extreme fashions, making this collection perfect for a horror or philosophical book club. Much closer to Earthlings than Convenience Store Woman. IMHO, the title story “Life Ceremony” is a masterpiece!
in detail:
Contents:
First Rate Material
A Magnificent Spread
A Summer Night’s Kiss
Two’s Family
The Time of the Large Star
Poochie
Life Ceremony
Body Magic (same characters as in "Earthling")
Lover on the Breeze
Puzzle
Eating the City
Hatchling
My only real niggle with this collection is that, unfortunately, the translation errs on the side of being faithful to the original Japanese wording instead of rendering it into normal English. This leads to very stilted, awkward dialogue and descriptions that sometimes don’t make much logical sense to non-Japanese readers.
Below are a few of the ones I enjoyed the most:
Poochie is about a little girl who keeps a ‘pet’ called Poochie in a shed. One day, she invites her school friend to come and meet her pet. Turns out, dear Poochie is a middle aged salaryman who went a bit gaga one day and wander out of central Tokyo into the surrounding hills. He’s been her happy pet ever since…
Lover on the Breeze is a love triangle between a girl, her boyfriend and the girl’s sentient window curtain. The girl loves the curtain. The curtain likes the girl, but desires the boyfriend.. The boyfriend is clueless. The most original love triangle I've ever read!
First Rate Material is set in a future Japan where human bodies are ‘recycled’ after death and made into household furnishings and clothing. Sofas and chairs, bowls, bags, sweaters. Much in the same way we use animals’ bodies today. Most people in this future time believe this to be a very good thing, because that way they can continue to be useful and pretty long after their demise.
As mentioned above, the story Life Ceremony is, IMHO, a modern masterpiece. It makes us question our view of funerals and how we express grief. To say too much would ruin it, but major trigger warnings! You will deffo feel queasy after reading it, but you'll never look at funerals the same way again.
short review for busy readers: A shocking, impressive collection of short stories that is far more gripping in concept than in actual storytelling. The reader is forced to confront societal biases and moral values in extreme fashions, making this collection perfect for a horror or philosophical book club. Much closer to Earthlings than Convenience Store Woman. IMHO, the title story “Life Ceremony” is a masterpiece!
in detail:
Contents:
First Rate Material
A Magnificent Spread
A Summer Night’s Kiss
Two’s Family
The Time of the Large Star
Poochie
Life Ceremony
Body Magic (same characters as in "Earthling")
Lover on the Breeze
Puzzle
Eating the City
Hatchling
My only real niggle with this collection is that, unfortunately, the translation errs on the side of being faithful to the original Japanese wording instead of rendering it into normal English. This leads to very stilted, awkward dialogue and descriptions that sometimes don’t make much logical sense to non-Japanese readers.
Below are a few of the ones I enjoyed the most:
Poochie is about a little girl who keeps a ‘pet’ called Poochie in a shed. One day, she invites her school friend to come and meet her pet. Turns out, dear Poochie is a middle aged salaryman who went a bit gaga one day and wander out of central Tokyo into the surrounding hills. He’s been her happy pet ever since…
Lover on the Breeze is a love triangle between a girl, her boyfriend and the girl’s sentient window curtain. The girl loves the curtain. The curtain likes the girl, but desires the boyfriend.. The boyfriend is clueless. The most original love triangle I've ever read!
First Rate Material is set in a future Japan where human bodies are ‘recycled’ after death and made into household furnishings and clothing. Sofas and chairs, bowls, bags, sweaters. Much in the same way we use animals’ bodies today. Most people in this future time believe this to be a very good thing, because that way they can continue to be useful and pretty long after their demise.
As mentioned above, the story Life Ceremony is, IMHO, a modern masterpiece. It makes us question our view of funerals and how we express grief. To say too much would ruin it, but major trigger warnings! You will deffo feel queasy after reading it, but you'll never look at funerals the same way again.
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Reading Progress
June 6, 2024
–
Started Reading
June 6, 2024
– Shelved
June 7, 2024
–
43.98%
""It was the first time I’d met Kumi’s boyfriend, and he seemed pleasant, not at all the type of weirdo who would purposely get someone to cook dishes from the magical city of Dundilas.""
page
84
June 8, 2024
–
69.63%
"Incredibly inventive ideas, but the stilted dialogue and some repetition mars a good many of the stories.
The title story Life Ceremony is truly shocking - in the best way possible. A masterpiece, really. (And some of the other stories are good, too)"
page
133
The title story Life Ceremony is truly shocking - in the best way possible. A masterpiece, really. (And some of the other stories are good, too)"
June 11, 2024
–
100.0%
""When you follow beautiful words with nasty ones, pretty much everyone will crow about how you’ve spoken truthfully. And if you do the opposite, they’ll lament that you’re a hypocrite with your lies. Maybe they find it more reassuring that way.""
page
191
June 14, 2024
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)
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message 1:
by
Ian
(new)
Jun 14, 2024 10:59PM
Interesting review! The stories certainly sound original, and original is good!
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Ja cool. Dann lese ich das auch. Kurzgeschichten lasse ich für gewöhnlich aus. Hier mache ich mal eine Ausnahme.
Added. $14 on kindle a bit much at the moment. I like stories way out of left field.
I'm generally not a fan of short story collections, but having loved Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings, I was already considering reading this one—and you convinced me. Thanks :)
Ian wrote: "Interesting review! The stories certainly sound original, and original is good!"It is! I often wonder where such wild creativity comes from. The people who have it say it "just occurs to them" and don't see it as special. 🤷♀️
Anna Carina wrote: "Ja cool. Dann lese ich das auch. Kurzgeschichten lasse ich für gewöhnlich aus. Hier mache ich mal eine Ausnahme."Bei Murata bin ich langsam der Meinung, Die Ladenhüterin war eine Ausrutscher in die Nettigkeit. Was sie wirklich schreibt ist Den Seidenraupenzimmer, also Horror, das kein normales Horror ist, oder sein sollte, nur ein anderer Blickwinkel auf die Gesellschaft.
Aber ich mag Kurzgeschichten, also...
Sportyrod wrote: "Added. $14 on kindle a bit much at the moment. I like stories way out of left field."These are far left field of way out in left field. And agreed, 14 bucks is a bit much, esp since it's not all that long.
Mimi wrote: "I'm generally not a fan of short story collections, but having loved Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings, I was already considering reading this one—and you convinced me. Thanks :)"if Earthlings wasn't too much for you, these won't be either. 😄 Hope you enjoy when/if you get to them.
Oh these sound quite intriguing, but I'm disappointed about that translation. That's a quick way to make the stories less compelling. Glad you enjoyed this one so much, and excellent review!
