I recently wrote about how I was discovering Japanese fiction. I said I was going to quiz my friend Kazz about Haruki Murakami and I predicted that he would be scornful about that author. Well, I was right!
Here's what Kazz said in his email:
U guess it right!
I'm not into Haruki but Murakami is not too bad.
"The future 5min from now" (I dun know the English title) was cool.
"Audiotion" was a copy of Misarry but Takashi Miike made it into a very good film.
Banana is not my cup of tea.
And I hate "Snakes & Earrings".
Its too cheap.
As I am a person who like to make holes on my body, I found it so fake.
My fave is Seisyuu Hase but I have no idea if Englis version is available...
"Ring" is available here so U may wanna ask Wan Hui to buy 4 U.
"Battle Royale" is on sale as well.
(This, by the way, is Kazz. One of the coolest people I know.)
Well, yes, I know his email is a bit confusing. I will have to ask him to explain when we meet ...
But that bit about Banana not being his cuppa, I read my first Banana Yoshimoto last week - her two-in-one novellas, Hardboiled/Hard Luck - and liked them. Hardboiled was really good, really spooky in the best way: subtle-spooky.
Speaking of spooky, I read Koji Suzuki's Ring, just as Kazz said I should (not in th eemail, but in a conversation we had once upon a time) and yes, it's a damn good book. And yes, I was pretty scared by it. The way he builds up the suspense is wonderful. There's nothing really overtly frightening. Even the images described are just ordinary images, but the way he puts it all together is freaky. Wow! Can wait to read Spiral and Loop, the other books in the Ring trilogy.
Right now I'm reading a Japanese children's book: Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuronayagi (Illustrated by Chihiro Iwasaki, Translated by Dorothy Britton). It's very cool - a happy little book which I've chosen as my new Book for Breakfast. It's the sort of thing that makes you want to skip. I swear!
I also got Natsume Soseki's Botchan and have been told that I have to read I Am a Cat and Kokoro too.
And I was told today that Kiki's Delivery Service - that movie made by Miyazaki - is actually based on a book by Elko Kadono. That's another title to check out.
Kit my picture-book-guru friend introduced to a couple of Japanese picture books: Breasts by Genichiro Yagyu (I love it. Every child, male and female, should have this book, but I can imagine some religious groups gasping in horror.) and Anno's Counting Book by Mitsumasa Anno (lovely, lovely illustrations, full of detail so you keep noticing new things each time you look at the pictures.).
So, really, lots and lots to read and discover, which is always, always a good thing.
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