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A review by apurvanagpal
Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
3.0
There’s a reason why I love reading short books. Apart from the fact that I can finish them in a single sitting, it always surprises me to see how much (or little) a writer chooses to convey in words and how much they decide to leave it for the reader to interpret on their own. It’s a gamble but if it plays well, totally worth it!
Weasels In The Attic by Hiroko Oyamada (tr. from the Japanese by David Boyd) is slim novella comprising of three interconnected stories and it did just that!
Two friends meet across three dinners. Every conversation takes an unexpected route.
In the back room of an exotic pet shop, they snack on dried shrimp and talk about fish-breeding.
In a remote new home in the mountains, they end up discussing about weasel infestation and how to get rid of it.
And finally, our narrator and his wife travel in the midst of a snowstorm back to their friend’s house to meet their newborn child and confined in a room overnight, is haunted by a dreadful dream.
Exploring the themes of marriage, parenthood and fertility, Oyamada creates an unsettling atmosphere right from the beginning and you get a premonitory eerie feeling about something you can’t quite place your finger on.
In less than 80 pages, I thought Oyamada strikes the right balance and restraint to let their uneasiness seep through and unfold with what’s left unsaid between them.
Laced with a slight touch of magical realism, there’s a mesmeric quality and wry humour to the stories that doesn’t lead you to something, rather ends with the same ambiguity that run through these encounters.
And through them, it’s a side eyed commentary on women’s position in the society, men feeling boastful about younger wives and bossing them around, gender roles and how women feel incomplete without embracing motherhood while their partners couldn’t care less about their roles.
Did I love it? Not really. But do I still think about how unusually surreal it felt? Absolutely yes!
Weasels In The Attic is a bite sized wonder that leaves a big impact and conveys much more between the lines! My only qualm, I just wish it were longer or packed a little more ‘wow’ 🙊
TW for animal cruelty.
Weasels In The Attic by Hiroko Oyamada (tr. from the Japanese by David Boyd) is slim novella comprising of three interconnected stories and it did just that!
Two friends meet across three dinners. Every conversation takes an unexpected route.
In the back room of an exotic pet shop, they snack on dried shrimp and talk about fish-breeding.
In a remote new home in the mountains, they end up discussing about weasel infestation and how to get rid of it.
And finally, our narrator and his wife travel in the midst of a snowstorm back to their friend’s house to meet their newborn child and confined in a room overnight, is haunted by a dreadful dream.
Exploring the themes of marriage, parenthood and fertility, Oyamada creates an unsettling atmosphere right from the beginning and you get a premonitory eerie feeling about something you can’t quite place your finger on.
In less than 80 pages, I thought Oyamada strikes the right balance and restraint to let their uneasiness seep through and unfold with what’s left unsaid between them.
Laced with a slight touch of magical realism, there’s a mesmeric quality and wry humour to the stories that doesn’t lead you to something, rather ends with the same ambiguity that run through these encounters.
And through them, it’s a side eyed commentary on women’s position in the society, men feeling boastful about younger wives and bossing them around, gender roles and how women feel incomplete without embracing motherhood while their partners couldn’t care less about their roles.
Did I love it? Not really. But do I still think about how unusually surreal it felt? Absolutely yes!
Weasels In The Attic is a bite sized wonder that leaves a big impact and conveys much more between the lines! My only qualm, I just wish it were longer or packed a little more ‘wow’ 🙊
TW for animal cruelty.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty