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caroisreading's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I'm still grasping at the layers of symbolism within "The Hole" with its cicadas, its ambiguous beast, and a grandfather who endlessly waters his garden even in the rain.
Our narrator is a woman in her 30s who moves to the countryside due to her husband's job. They live rent-free in her in-laws' spare home next door. She quits her own job due to the distance, and doesn't know how to spend her days other than cleaning the home, grocery shopping, and cooking dinner. Strange things start happening after she has to go to the closest 7-Eleven, and we end up with very weird, somewhat disconnected events happening that feel dreamlike, starting with her falling in a hole that's perfectly sized. Cicadas are the constant in this story, only falling silent when things aren't...right.
After separately reading more about cicadas, I understand that they symbolize rebirth, leaving their shells, burying in the earth.
I think Hiroko Oyamada has written a very artful book, the kind that reflects back to you your most personal insecurities and worries. For me, this was about feeling lost and dismissed as a woman, at work and at home. Her husband inhales the dinner she makes him, never looking up from his phone. Do they even love each other? She's given up everything to fit into his life, and he is simply not there. She's expected by other women to want to be a mother, but she feels indifferent to it, and isn't sure she could raise a child there. A seemingly comfortable lifestyle as a trad wife is painted as a rather unsettling world, something she can't make sense of.
This is a quick read, so I recommend you give it a try, especially if you like Japanese fiction, and thought-provoking pieces on society and women.
Our narrator is a woman in her 30s who moves to the countryside due to her husband's job. They live rent-free in her in-laws' spare home next door. She quits her own job due to the distance, and doesn't know how to spend her days other than cleaning the home, grocery shopping, and cooking dinner. Strange things start happening after she has to go to the closest 7-Eleven, and we end up with very weird, somewhat disconnected events happening that feel dreamlike, starting with her falling in a hole that's perfectly sized. Cicadas are the constant in this story, only falling silent when things aren't...right.
After separately reading more about cicadas, I understand that they symbolize rebirth, leaving their shells, burying in the earth.
I think Hiroko Oyamada has written a very artful book, the kind that reflects back to you your most personal insecurities and worries. For me, this was about feeling lost and dismissed as a woman, at work and at home. Her husband inhales the dinner she makes him, never looking up from his phone. Do they even love each other? She's given up everything to fit into his life, and he is simply not there. She's expected by other women to want to be a mother, but she feels indifferent to it, and isn't sure she could raise a child there. A seemingly comfortable lifestyle as a trad wife is painted as a rather unsettling world, something she can't make sense of.
This is a quick read, so I recommend you give it a try, especially if you like Japanese fiction, and thought-provoking pieces on society and women.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Excrement and Infertility
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