I found the early chapters to be the most interesting, especially how influential Korea and korean immGood and brief introduction to pre-modern Japan.
I found the early chapters to be the most interesting, especially how influential Korea and korean immigrants were in the early development of Japan. Importation of ideas and technology from China is also a recurrent theme throughout the period covered by the book. Everything from shipbuilding, horse-riding, rice-planting, metallurgy, musical instruments, clothing, political organization, religion and writing ultimately came from China. This trade eventually also brought devastating epidemics to Japan, with a similar social and demographic impact as what the Black Death had in Europe.
It's a bit light on political history, and quite heavy on social and economic evolution: every chapter ends with a discussion about the status of the peasants, male-female relations and class hierarchy in society. Overall a good read, though I would have liked some more details about the Emperor, the Shogunate, and how they interacted with each other....more
Natsu (single woman) receives a visit from her sister Makiko (who wants breast enlargement surgery) and niece Midoriko (who has decided to stop talkinNatsu (single woman) receives a visit from her sister Makiko (who wants breast enlargement surgery) and niece Midoriko (who has decided to stop talking altogether). The two older women struggle with their decaying and ageing bodies, Midoriko is struggling with her entry into womanhood and fears the future. They all suffer from an inability to communicate, and all of this is set with the crushingly depressing japanese labour market of the post-90's as a background. The two sisters have inane conversations without really talking to each other, giving us some small glimpses of their lives, and we get some more background information through silent Midoriko's diary entries. So far so good.
Three quarters of the way in Natsu discovers that she has bought two cartons of eggs that expire tomorrow, and she has to throw them out. I understand the allegory, her biological clock is ticking and her eggs are expiring. But as a man my very first association is that eggs stay perfectly fine in the fridge several months past the expiry date, and that the book is definitely written by a woman. I would brush past this if it were not for what follows:
All the tension builds up to a grand conclusion which involves Makiko coming home drunk and confronting Midoriko about her silence. In the middle of her sisters outburst Natsu decides the natural course of action is to open the fridge, find a bottle of french dressing (allegory for sperm?), and pouring it into the sink while commenting on its consistency and lumpiness. Midoriko one-ups her aunts performance by taking the cartons of expired eggs and smashing them one by one against her forehead and breaking her silence by screaming "mommy, mommy tell me the truth". We get a few pages describing the eggyolk and eggshells covering her head, running down her hair. The next day they get on the train and leave for home.
I can not take this seriously. Like an ungodly mixture of social realism and a terrible experimental arthouse movie. It touches upon interesting topics, difficulty of communication and expressing feelings, condition of women in japanese society, the nature of being female, but it never delivers (in my opinion). Maybe other readers will be able to relate to and engage with the characters....more
Highly amusing at times, but otherwise not very good. Flat characters, bland dialogue, unimaginative plot. Take one part Welcome to the NHK (puru puruHighly amusing at times, but otherwise not very good. Flat characters, bland dialogue, unimaginative plot. Take one part Welcome to the NHK (puru puru pururin~), kyubey from Madoka, add in some condensed angst and child abuse in lieu of an actual story, and top it off with some Elfen Lied gore. Literally just a giant meme.
Any similarity with Convenience Store Woman are superficial at best. It is like she wanted to rewrite the same book, but without any nuance and with as many anime tropes as possible. The entire "society is a baby factory" point is shoved directly in your face repeatedly. There's hardly any showing here, everything is told to the reader explicitly....more
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