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A review by mx_remy
Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Ueda Akinari
5.0
These stories are beautiful. I understand how fine a line the translator must walk for stories like these; he mentions as much in the introduction, as well as his particular approach and its justification. Just as an example of the difficulty, Akinari largely did without any punctuation or structure, and it's unclear how much one can change that without harm. Although I can't speak for its adherence to the original, I would call this book overwhelmingly successful in terms of its beauty and readability in English. Previous translations apparently have done too much to accommodate the reader, losing much of Akinari's grace in the process. This version seems like a much more even compromise, although only to my untrained eye.
On to the text itself; I was enraptured. Indeed, I finished it in all likelihood well before I should have. An optimal reading of a collection like this would involve long bouts of contemplation between each story, or possibly between each book (it's split up into 5 books of mostly 2 stories each). I, however, am not much for literary criticism, and am most emphatically for simple enjoyment, which was to be had in spades. Fans of Lafcadio Hearn will enjoy this, although now I suspect reading Akinari first would be a more natural progression.
I do agree with a previous reviewer that some of the translator's prefaces to the individual stories are best suited to scholarly pursuits. Their suggestion was to skip these spoilers and come back afterwards. I had read this advice before the book itself, but could not bring myself to follow it. Although the beforehand comments did not significantly detract from the stories, some of the key details would have been better left to the afterwards section. Only that information which provided needed context for the story, and would not color one's reading of it, should have come first.
On to the text itself; I was enraptured. Indeed, I finished it in all likelihood well before I should have. An optimal reading of a collection like this would involve long bouts of contemplation between each story, or possibly between each book (it's split up into 5 books of mostly 2 stories each). I, however, am not much for literary criticism, and am most emphatically for simple enjoyment, which was to be had in spades. Fans of Lafcadio Hearn will enjoy this, although now I suspect reading Akinari first would be a more natural progression.
I do agree with a previous reviewer that some of the translator's prefaces to the individual stories are best suited to scholarly pursuits. Their suggestion was to skip these spoilers and come back afterwards. I had read this advice before the book itself, but could not bring myself to follow it. Although the beforehand comments did not significantly detract from the stories, some of the key details would have been better left to the afterwards section. Only that information which provided needed context for the story, and would not color one's reading of it, should have come first.