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melonfizz's review
4.0
“It occurred to me that the wrinkles in the sheets would probably never be smoothed out, the sweater never put away in the drawer, the mathematics problems never completely solved.”
mis_lace's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
book_concierge's review
4.0
The subtitle calls them “three novellas”, but none is longer than 56 pages, so they are more accurately categorized as short stories. Regardless, I really enjoyed this collection; each was very different from the other two, but all dealt with relationships. It is the kind of literary fiction I love.
In the title story, a lonely teenager has a secret crush on her foster brother and spends time each day watching him practice his dives at the school pool. As she contemplates this infatuation, we learn more about the family and how she feels set apart, not only at school but at home.
Pregnancy Diary is NOT the diary of a pregnant woman, but rather of that woman’s sister. The narrator, who lives with her sister and brother-in-law, records how her sister feels about her pregnancy, and how it impacts everyone in the household. There is a rather other-worldly feel to this narrative, and the ending makes me wonder if the whole thing is a dream.
In the final story, The Dormitory, a young woman tries to help her cousin find accommodations at the university, suggesting the same building she stayed in when she was in school. It’s somewhat dilapidated but the price is right. What begins as a routine story, however, evolves into a horror tale of sorts. Where is her cousin? What is that dark spot on the ceiling? What happened to all the other tenants? My heart was in my throat as she gathered her courage to investigate further.
In the title story, a lonely teenager has a secret crush on her foster brother and spends time each day watching him practice his dives at the school pool. As she contemplates this infatuation, we learn more about the family and how she feels set apart, not only at school but at home.
Pregnancy Diary is NOT the diary of a pregnant woman, but rather of that woman’s sister. The narrator, who lives with her sister and brother-in-law, records how her sister feels about her pregnancy, and how it impacts everyone in the household. There is a rather other-worldly feel to this narrative, and the ending makes me wonder if the whole thing is a dream.
In the final story, The Dormitory, a young woman tries to help her cousin find accommodations at the university, suggesting the same building she stayed in when she was in school. It’s somewhat dilapidated but the price is right. What begins as a routine story, however, evolves into a horror tale of sorts. Where is her cousin? What is that dark spot on the ceiling? What happened to all the other tenants? My heart was in my throat as she gathered her courage to investigate further.
santi37's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
tessaloes's review
4.0
she always has me in a chokehold and im not a fan of short stories but when she does it its good
joanamproh's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Even though I love how Yoko Ogawa writes and what dark corners of human behavior make you get into I didn't find the second story, Pregnancy Diary, interesting at all. Therefore I am giving this book 3 starts.
bhall237's review
4.0
“There was something irreconcilable between Sweden, wrapped up in the yellow envelope, and the Manager, coughing pitifully in his room at the dormitory; and yet they were together.”
The Diving Pools is my second book read from Yoko Ogawa and I started it right after finishing Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales. Both are very beautifully written and masterfully executed collections of short stories, but The Diving Pool worked just a bit more with the three longer stories told rather than the eleven shorter stories told previously. What I love about the quote above is it perfectly describes, for me at least, my own form of a panic attack, when so much is happening and I can’t comprehend how all of these events are happening in my life and all at the same time, and yet there’s nothing else to do but accept. Each of the three stories crafts a tale of some underlying disorder in each of our main characters, and each give a unsettling story of obsession, family, isolation, pain, and paranoia. My favorite of the three stories has to be The Diving Pool, as I was hooked from beginning to end with that one, and once I finished it I felt I could do nothing more than curl in a ball and look back at what I had just read, reflecting on the actions that had just unfolded in front of my very eyes. The Pregnancy Diary is very well written as well, and it is a slow burner as the last 10 pages or so are where your anxiety will kick into overdrive. Dormitory is a very nostalgic tale, but one that has layers of unease and a dark history to cloud everything else around the building, luring into a sense of isolation and paranoia by the end. Overall, I enjoyed The Diving Pool immensely, and to see little descriptions of events that occurred in Revenge made me smile so wide like an Ogawa fanboy. Highly recommend this one, and I would suggest reading before or after Revenge, but definitely alongside as the two work wonderfully as companions to one another.
The Diving Pools is my second book read from Yoko Ogawa and I started it right after finishing Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales. Both are very beautifully written and masterfully executed collections of short stories, but The Diving Pool worked just a bit more with the three longer stories told rather than the eleven shorter stories told previously. What I love about the quote above is it perfectly describes, for me at least, my own form of a panic attack, when so much is happening and I can’t comprehend how all of these events are happening in my life and all at the same time, and yet there’s nothing else to do but accept. Each of the three stories crafts a tale of some underlying disorder in each of our main characters, and each give a unsettling story of obsession, family, isolation, pain, and paranoia. My favorite of the three stories has to be The Diving Pool, as I was hooked from beginning to end with that one, and once I finished it I felt I could do nothing more than curl in a ball and look back at what I had just read, reflecting on the actions that had just unfolded in front of my very eyes. The Pregnancy Diary is very well written as well, and it is a slow burner as the last 10 pages or so are where your anxiety will kick into overdrive. Dormitory is a very nostalgic tale, but one that has layers of unease and a dark history to cloud everything else around the building, luring into a sense of isolation and paranoia by the end. Overall, I enjoyed The Diving Pool immensely, and to see little descriptions of events that occurred in Revenge made me smile so wide like an Ogawa fanboy. Highly recommend this one, and I would suggest reading before or after Revenge, but definitely alongside as the two work wonderfully as companions to one another.