In fairness Soseki Natsume wrote ‘I am a Cat’, and Junichiro Tanizaki has ‘A Cat, a Man, and Two Women’, so can’t necessarily dismiss Japanese works just because they feature a cat 🐈
what a great and varied selection you offer. i've read some and loved almost all (banana yoshimoto and mieko kawakami are some of my all time favorite authors). i have kirino's books on my tbr for a year now and you just gave me the extra push to finally pick them up! really enjoyed hearing you talk about these titles. wishing you well ~
thanks so much for the video! I didn't really like the convenience store woman so it was great to stumble upon a recommendation of japanese lit video that didn't focus on this book too much! found a lot of new names
Glad to hear you mention Kitchen - I read it when it first came out in English and you are right when you said it was ahead of its time - I’d never read anything like it. I was amazed to find a new book by her last week in my local bookshop.
I am so happy I found your channel. I am still new to Japanese lit, but I absolutely loved Convenience Store Woman. I've also read Malice by Keigo Higashino, who writes crime fiction. If you like Agatha Christie I'd definitely recommend that.
I'm a hugeee Soseki and Kawabata fan and have read all the former's work (my favorite is probably 'Grass on the Wayside', 'Kokoro', 'Ten Nights of Dreams', or 'And Then') and the majority of the latter's. 'The Old Capital', in my opinion, is way better than 'Snow Country' and I'm so glad you've given it recognition! I've watched some of your videos and they're phenomenal. Keep it up!
I've now added more to my reading list!!! I found your channel by searching for The Buried Giant reviews. That book really spoke to me and you've just made me realise with this video that maybe I'd be a fan of the Japanese perspective in fiction! thank you!
The first Japanese novel I read was Yukio Mishima's "Temple of the Golden Pavilion". It was compelling in it's way, but definitely not a comfortable read. Thanks for the informative post.
The worst book I've attempted to complete reading in the past 10 years is a Japanese book, much hyped by the youngsters here on RU-vid, called 'There's No Such Thing as An Easy Job'. I read a great deal of Japanese literature and love the effortless 'quirkiness' that is impossible for writers from any other culture to replicate authentically; it's distinctly, uniquely Japanese. Their classic literature also has a very unique, unmistakably Japanese sensibility. I'm very drawn to Japanese authors and the better translations (no easy task, I acknowledge). TNSTAAEJ is not a charmingly quirky 'slice-of-life' meets magic realism book. It's by far one of the worst novels I've ever attempted to battle my way through. In the end I literally threw it from my sudsy bubble bath last winter all the way into the hallway. Any grown adult who liked this book I narrow my eyes at and am unlikely to take recommendations from (same goes for anybody reading deep in the corrupt, characterless, anodyne land of woke-- you can stick your sensitivity readers). Cheers for this video, I love hearing about cool new things to check out and enthusiasm is by far one of the most attractive qualities a person can demonstrate. Contagious! 😊📚📚🗾