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wollibs's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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? Yes
4.25
trve_zach's review against another edition
These are stories about people teetering on the edge, whether that be the edge of some terrible action, of some buried desire, of some great joy, of some perverted pleasure. It gives an off-kilter atmosphere to the stories wherein mostly pedestrian things happen. It’s a window into dark thoughts that usually pass quickly, here slowed down and expanded. The writing feels wildly free and also purposefully restrained.
Given the particular and peculiar nature (both realistically descriptive and dreamlike), I recommend reading the first three stories before making up your mind…it’s a style that takes some settling in. That said “Toddler-Hunting,” “Snow,” and “Conjurer” are top-tier (haunting) short stories and make this worth a purchase.
Most of the stories center around a single woman, or a woman in an unhappy relationship, looking at couples in seemingly happy relationships and bouncing off or into these people/relationships especially when, as there often is, there are children around; they center on motherless women and marriage, happy and unhappy (probably having to do with the invisibility of single, middle-aged women in a society, like most, that so values motherhood).
The ideas/relationships in the stories are combinations that are familiar but slightly, oddly different…maybe it’s the constant butting-up against taboo. Here are expressions of a sexually repressed culture, bold exclamations of the desires and sensuality of control and domination “…violent methods of arousal (141).” Masochistic women facing bumbling men, it’s fascinating to think about what’s behind the need to put this stuff to paper in such a structured and methodical way. Very unique and very good.
Given the particular and peculiar nature (both realistically descriptive and dreamlike), I recommend reading the first three stories before making up your mind…it’s a style that takes some settling in. That said “Toddler-Hunting,” “Snow,” and “Conjurer” are top-tier (haunting) short stories and make this worth a purchase.
Most of the stories center around a single woman, or a woman in an unhappy relationship, looking at couples in seemingly happy relationships and bouncing off or into these people/relationships especially when, as there often is, there are children around; they center on motherless women and marriage, happy and unhappy (probably having to do with the invisibility of single, middle-aged women in a society, like most, that so values motherhood).
The ideas/relationships in the stories are combinations that are familiar but slightly, oddly different…maybe it’s the constant butting-up against taboo. Here are expressions of a sexually repressed culture, bold exclamations of the desires and sensuality of control and domination “…violent methods of arousal (141).” Masochistic women facing bumbling men, it’s fascinating to think about what’s behind the need to put this stuff to paper in such a structured and methodical way. Very unique and very good.
ahin_cqd's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
yuefei's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I feel like this is one of those writings that loses more in the process of translation than it gains, which is ironic(?) given that Kōno's stories are partly built upon Japan's complex reception of the texts on sexuality which were so constitutive for European modernity (e.g., Freud, de Sade, de Beauvoir, etc.). A loooot of anglophone readers seem to dismiss this as inscrutably strange and excessively grotesque—a rly typical way for contemporary "westerners" to consume Japan—or, on the other hand, affirm it as a positive feminist portrait of desire and freedom. The second reading is a bit closer to "the truth", which, for me, delves into finding (or attempting to find) agency within the constrictions of gender (which aren't so easy to shake off because they are the bindings that connect a person to the social world).
This "agency" seems to find itself in both the flesh and the imagination, and often it takes the vague form of the desire for self-immolation (like a displacement of some unbearable intensity). There's also a lot about the things unsaid, that can't be said (which Kōno depicts more effectively than Woolf's The Voyage Out), and the distances in relations of intimacy. The language is prosaic and everyday, but traces of the poetic (or the real) linger, subdued, under the surface of things, constantly threatening to rupture that very surface—and maybe this is the key to Kōno's elliptically mundane approach; her writings are ripples gradually swelling into waves, but the stories cut off somewhere before the breaking of the waves, before that point where language fails.
"The girl and her father walked on until they reached a bridge, where they stopped for a while. The river, once full of shimmering reflections from the shining neon night sky, now lay in complete darkness. Only the faint rippling of the water could be heard as the river flowing out to sea rose slowly with the incoming tide." p. 45. This is the way "Full Tide", a coming-of-age story revolving around the war, ends—before the war even begins.
Favourite story is still "Snow", but "Full Tide", "Final Moments", "Conjurer", and parts of "Night Journey" and "Bone Meat" are defo highlights.
This "agency" seems to find itself in both the flesh and the imagination, and often it takes the vague form of the desire for self-immolation (like a displacement of some unbearable intensity). There's also a lot about the things unsaid, that can't be said (which Kōno depicts more effectively than Woolf's The Voyage Out), and the distances in relations of intimacy. The language is prosaic and everyday, but traces of the poetic (or the real) linger, subdued, under the surface of things, constantly threatening to rupture that very surface—and maybe this is the key to Kōno's elliptically mundane approach; her writings are ripples gradually swelling into waves, but the stories cut off somewhere before the breaking of the waves, before that point where language fails.
"The girl and her father walked on until they reached a bridge, where they stopped for a while. The river, once full of shimmering reflections from the shining neon night sky, now lay in complete darkness. Only the faint rippling of the water could be heard as the river flowing out to sea rose slowly with the incoming tide." p. 45. This is the way "Full Tide", a coming-of-age story revolving around the war, ends—before the war even begins.
Favourite story is still "Snow", but "Full Tide", "Final Moments", "Conjurer", and parts of "Night Journey" and "Bone Meat" are defo highlights.
kaytee's review against another edition
Too much really violent sex, and I'm definitely not interested in stories about an adult getting turned on by little boys and causing them harm.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual violence
sadfasfdsad's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
swhitewat's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
paulataua's review against another edition
5.0
Any stereotypes of that you may have had about Japanese woman being quiet, shy, and non-confrontational will be swept away in this collection of short stories. Taeko Kono’s women are strong and know what they want, and their desire is not satisfied by the usual ‘conventional' means. Toddler Hunting takes you to the very edge of what is usually acceptable, and, at times, it maybe slips over that edge. I found it refreshingly subversive and totally unsettling, and I wonder why this is the only one of her books that is translated into English
lpdodds's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
vampirelake's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0