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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
Chuyện bắt đầu như không phải ở thế giới này và kết thúc lại quay về với hiện thực phũ phàng. Cách mà truyện hợp lý hoá tất cả mọi chuyện tưởng như ảo diệu, mê tín dị đoan làm mình vừa thấy hay vừa thấy hãi, như kiểu à thì ra còn những chuyện như vậy. Phần phá án làm mình ghê hết cả người, đúng là sáng suốt khi ăn xong rồi mới đọc phần phá án. Mình đọc truyện như nửa tỉnh nửa mê vì phần giải thích những chuyện tâm linh, hồn,… giải thích quá dài dòng, dù mình biết chuyện đó là cần thiết nhưng mình đọc phần đó khá nản. Nhờ đọc truyện mình biết thêm nhiều điều về yêu ma quỷ quái của Nhật và một vài kiến thức y học (dù sau vài ngày nữa là quên hết). Còn một điều mà mình rút ra sau khi đọc là mê tín dị đoan chẳng giúp gì được cho đời, cho người. Kết thúc truyện theo mình thấy là điều tốt nhất cho tất cả mọi người nhưng đọc xong mình ngơ ngẩn cả 1 lúc.
They only translated one out of a nine part series! D: Anyway, it's super slow and talky and creepy. I only finished it for bookclub and now it's going to give me nightmares :p
One of my favourite novels ever, and a very nice translation - Alexander O. Smith has made a wonderful effort here overall, utilising challenging language forms which are consistent with both the original Japanese form and the storyline as translated. There are a couple of minor problems with the translation, mostly in terms related to everyday Japanese culture (are "rice-flower dumplings" actually "mochi" or "dango", or something else entirely?).
The story itself is delightfully logical. Kyogoku spends a lot of time explaining in detail the theories behind the psychologically-supernatural occurrances in the novel - all possible plotholes are tied up so effectively that it is easy to forget that the theories presented probably wouldn't hold up in real life.
All in all, an entertaining supernatural thriller which will turn out to be not so supernatural after all.
The story itself is delightfully logical. Kyogoku spends a lot of time explaining in detail the theories behind the psychologically-supernatural occurrances in the novel - all possible plotholes are tied up so effectively that it is easy to forget that the theories presented probably wouldn't hold up in real life.
All in all, an entertaining supernatural thriller which will turn out to be not so supernatural after all.
Really powerful. Stayed up too late to finish. I'm not sure if it's misogynistic or not; it's definitely not judgmental, or if there's judgment it's not making it through the cultural translations. Some of the materialist talk-around gets tiresome, but -- reality as constructed, delusions and denial, women trapped by pregnancy or the lack of. Though mostly it's about the narrator, trapped by guilt and desire. I wonder if he narrates the others in the series.
I read a lot of mysteries and this has both one of the weirdest setups and one of the most complex conclusions that I've ever seen. It breaks almost all conventions of structure and plot, so if you're tired of the same old and want to go in a drastically different direction, you may want to give it a try. But be warned: the first half of the book consists largely of very very very long philosophical conversations where you keep waiting for a thing to happen or for the conversation itself to matter and I can't quite say that it ever actually does. Though it does set the stage for the time and place and characters.
Set in the 50's in Japan, our narrator is a tabloid reporter who comes across a story of a woman who's been pregnant for a year and a half whose husband has gone missing in a classic locked-room scenario. In the search for the missing man, the book weaves itself through the obstetrics clinic where he worked, the narrator's history with the woman, and the legends of spirits and possession that have persisted around the family. Our detective is his friend, a bookseller/priest, with uncanny abilities.
By the time I reached the bizarre denouement (a conversation that lasts even longer than the opening one, a real feat) I was ready for the weirdness. But I still wanted a book that didn't quite meander so much, that would just get to it already. Or at least a book with more purpose to its meandering. Truly a weird book but I can certainly see myself trying another book about Kyogokudo.
Set in the 50's in Japan, our narrator is a tabloid reporter who comes across a story of a woman who's been pregnant for a year and a half whose husband has gone missing in a classic locked-room scenario. In the search for the missing man, the book weaves itself through the obstetrics clinic where he worked, the narrator's history with the woman, and the legends of spirits and possession that have persisted around the family. Our detective is his friend, a bookseller/priest, with uncanny abilities.
By the time I reached the bizarre denouement (a conversation that lasts even longer than the opening one, a real feat) I was ready for the weirdness. But I still wanted a book that didn't quite meander so much, that would just get to it already. Or at least a book with more purpose to its meandering. Truly a weird book but I can certainly see myself trying another book about Kyogokudo.