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A review by esmeloa
Killing Kanoko / Wild Grass on the Riverbank by Hiromi Itō
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
It was a very raw and intimate read, rather like an unfiltered rendering of her every thought, which I found both disturbing and refreshing. I preferred the first part over Wild Grass on the Riverbank. Although very graphic and containing questionable boundaries between mother/daughter (the way Hitomi describes her baby daughter's physical reality felt a bit intrusive), poems in Killing Kanoko mostly all seemed to serve a clear purpose. This is not something I could get from Wild Grass on the Riverbank, which I found rather challenging to read especially since I did not understand the point of so much repetitive rotting in every poem.
Ultimately I was mostly interested in the very real description of a young mother's life and feelings, as well as in the linguistic aspect of the collection. In that regard, it might have been meaningful to read it with the Japanese original - might have been nice to actually include it in this collection and publish a bilingual edition.
My favorite poems were ''Nashite Mounen'' because of its very interesting reimagining of Lafcadio Hearn and his wife's relationship though the POV of his wife, and the powerful claim that language is the strongest barrier between them, and ''Snow.''
Overall, an interesting discovery!
Ultimately I was mostly interested in the very real description of a young mother's life and feelings, as well as in the linguistic aspect of the collection. In that regard, it might have been meaningful to read it with the Japanese original - might have been nice to actually include it in this collection and publish a bilingual edition.
My favorite poems were ''Nashite Mounen'' because of its very interesting reimagining of Lafcadio Hearn and his wife's relationship though the POV of his wife, and the powerful claim that language is the strongest barrier between them, and ''Snow.''
Overall, an interesting discovery!