Near But Not Touching: On The Naomi Letters by Rachel Mennies, Tracy Zeman Hakone quenched her thirst with cold roasted green tea from the vending machine. The wife tries her best to boost his ego, fails, then decides to take up bodybuilding. Why was I so happy to be married to a bunch of straw?, she wonders to herself, before finally reassembling him. [2] After completing high school, Motoya moved to Tokyo to study acting, and won a voice acting role in the Hideaki Anno anime adaptation of Kare Kano, but switched her focus to writing after a teacher praised a short play Motoya wrote for the school's graduation ceremony. "An Exotic Marriage," a Kafkaesque depiction that shows how even those closest to us can wind up completely alien in the end, a disturbing sentiment that is also reflected in the final story, "The Straw Husband." There is a bit of twisted, violent dystopia in "Paprika Jiro" and anime-flavored . My husband the snake opened hismouth and swallowed me headfirst, and I desperately resisted hissticky, moist membranes, but soon the inside of his body becamea pleasurable place to be. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories, Many unusual things happen in The Lonesome Bodybuilder, a new collection by the Japanese author Yukiko Motoya. She won the Noma Prize for New Writers for Warm Poison in 2011; the Kenzaburo Oe Prize for Picnic in the Storm in 2013; the Mishima Prize for How She Learned to Love Herself in 2014; and Japan's most prestigious literary prize, the Akutagawa Prize, for An Exotic Marriage in 2016. In I Called You by Name, a woman in a business meeting is plagued by the certainty that only she can see a figure lurking in the shadows. These men are usually husbands, as in the eponymous story that opens the collection, in which the protagonist discovers bodybuilding, becomes enamored with it to the point of obsession, and rapidly transforms both her body and her personality. And like so many arbitrary signifiers of taste, style, or quality, they are focused exclusively on a western tradition. document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a99614a11d827b9063a1afe41f6c5bef" );document.getElementById("facec42938").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. How History Claims Us: On Made to Explode by Sandra Beasley, Aumaine Rose Smith No one in Yukiko Motoyas new story collection, The Lonesome Bodybuilder, appears capable of seeing herself in the mirror. Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. I was feigning calm, but my voice came outhigher than normal. Okay. I turned on my heel and went back into the kitchen. . How She Learned to Love Herself in 2014; and Japan's most prestigious literary prize, the Akutagawa Prize, for An Exotic Marriage in 2016. Remember?. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. But I guess that cant be right. In spite ofin fact, because ofher affection for the odd and comic, Motoyas stories grant sobering insights into the compromises of love and marriage, the fraught pursuit of art and desire, and the dangers of becoming stuck in the wrong version of your life. Eventually, Id start to feel in danger of root rot, and would hurriedly break the pot and uproot myself. [26], Nobuko Tanaka of The Japan Times has called Motoya "the darling of Japanese media" for her frequent contributions to Japanese magazines, television, and radio. The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya / Soft Skull Press / 224 pages / 978-1593766788 / 2018. Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. I think?. Hakone swiftly referred to the floor guide and said, This way, and took off without sparing a glance at the stalls she passed. Each time I looked at my husband lying on the couch, I had the strange impression I was living with a new kind of organism that would die if it exerted itself in any way. Get book recommendations, fiction, poetry, and dispatches from the world of literature in your in-box. Motoya's stories tend to include a few odd details and features -- often contrasting with the seeming . [17] The prize-winning work became the title story of a collection of four stories published later that year by Kodansha. Meanwhile, the reader watches each transformation and stab at connection. The titular bodybuilder lives what seems to be a structured, self-contained life (I decide who I am, and never consider other possibilities); bodybuilding is an exciting new discovery that expands her world. Our Final Words: A Review of Eternal Sentences by Michael McGriff, Katherine M. Hedeen By the first few sentences, you know you're hearing the voice of a remarkable writer; by the end of [the story] "An Exotic Marriage", you're certain that Yukiko Motoya's shivery, murmuring voice will never completely leave you' Financial Times 'Delightful . Even when she poses in front of him in a micro bikini, her hair now short, her body filled out and covered in tanning oil, he asks: Whats that? The husband-like thingpicked up the cocktail stick and popped a pear segment into themouth, which was positioned perilously close to his jawline. There was a tremor in my hand holding the paring knife. Yukiko Motoya, trans. by Yukiko Motoya ; translated by . I saw it on the local news the other day. In The Women, a citys female population contracts a virus that turns them into homicidal hotties. the Akutagawa Prize, for An Exotic Marriage in 2016. . analyse how our Sites are used. Or: What really would have happened if Id gotten on the roller coaster that day? San isnt the only woman in Motoyas stories who feels neglected and vaguely undefined. Her books have been published or are forthcoming in French, Norwegian, Spanish, and Chinese, . When something akin to freedom is gained, its often vague or ostensible, but the impediments to that freedom are surveyed in great detail. Motoyas protagonists feel quietly radical in a literary moment that seems particularly interested in unpacking various forms of narcissism. Why dont you try a different game? Id ask, but hedonly say, I like this one.. Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links, Twelve stories from collections originally published in Japanese in 2015 and 2016, "Her characters seem to be searching for the strangest, and most estranged, parts of themselves. . the Akutagawa Prize, for An Exotic Marriage in 2016. The title story is one of her best: "Fighters are so . (I want you to come out of that fitting room with a smile on your face! the attendant chirps, noting the slurping, roiling kind of sound emanating from behind the curtain.) March 2021 Micro-Reviews, Amy Hassinger Motoya founded her own theater company and has also set aside time for various other endeavors, like hosting a radio show and a televised documentary series. So, for example, the husband in 'The Straw Husband', in a relationship otherwise most like any other, is really made of straw ("yes, that straw, stalks of dried rice or wheat, plant matter used as fodder for farm animals, or for bedding -- tied into bundles and rolled into a human shape"), while the narrator of 'The Dogs' describes how: "I didn't like beds, so I slept standing up, leaning against the windowsill" (apparently every night). On Asylum by Jill Bialosky, Jehanne Dubrow You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Bodybuilder is the best example, and in An Exotic Marriage, a familiar notion of couples starting to look alike turns eerie. All this time, I had been feedingmyself to those men. She pushes her stories to surreal ends and cross-pollinates wry and solemn tones. All the while, it seems her husband cant be bothered to noticeshe is an afterthought only, and he appears to be too bored of life to be able to sense the swirling wonder of her story. I wanted to pretend I was asleep, but then he wentto switch on the light, so I reached out and caught his hand almostby reflex. Motoyas eerie touches allow the characters to embrace inconvenient and irrational parts of themselves; at moments when self-doubt is making them flounder, these otherworldly intrusions act as a corrective force. How could he even see straight? This is a game where you collect money?. Theyhad a feature on department store deli eats, and the Spicy FilletSteak Summer Set Bento just looked so delicious, she said, flattening her plump eyelids in anticipation. Paper, $16.95. Delightful . You must be concerned, said Hakone, sounding anything but as she took a pair of disposable chopsticks out of their packet. . () Motoyas talent for voice informs her first-person narrators, both female and male, who have a genuine vulnerability and convincing matter-of-factness as they veer into the fantastic." The Kenyon Review is supported in part by The National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. In a brilliant analogy, she compares marriage to a snake ball: There are two snakes, and they each start cannibalizing the other ones tail. Story Comes From Place: On Site Fidelity by Claire Boyles, Jasmine V. Bailey Tomokos animosity toward her straw husband is as brief as it is startling. At the story's beginning, he seems like a . Every time I got together with someone new, I got replanted, and the nutrients from the old soil disappeared without a trace. In Fitting Room, a saleswoman attends day and night to a mysterious customer who refuses to leave a fitting room. What if thereends up being more of the bad? Coins.. She comes to have a community of people who support her, and her bulging musclesher arms looked huge enough to snap a log in halfearn her a following at the natural-beauty store where she works. These pastiches, parodies, and hauntings are all brilliantly translatedwith all their uncanny intactby Asa Yoneda. This sense of unpredictability traverses the entire collection, and yet the stories rarely seem desultory. You can have two slices of my steak if you give me some ofyour eel.. The story ends on a note of limitlessness: Anything at all could turn out to be something beyond my wildest dreams.. Motoya won the Akutagawa Prize, Japan's most prestigious literary prize, for AN EXOTIC MARRIAGE, the novella contained in THE LONESOME BODYBUILDER; this book offers the exciting opportunity to introduce Motoya to a U.S. audience. Even the missteps attest to Motoyas fictive mandate: to be unburdened by rules and restraints. When the pair suffers their first fight, Tomokos husband collapseshis straw limbs crumble at her feetand she fantasizes about setting him on fire. Fun and funny . The Ductility of Person and Time in Saddiq Dzukogis Your Crib, My Qibla, Leslie Stonebraker Sharlene Teos Ponti recently tracked the codependent relationship between two teens, while Neel Patels If You See Me, Dont Say Hi was a collection of short stories that doubled as a study of longing. Oh, those, my husband said, turning his shoulders towardme. Relationships often cause Motoyas characters to suffer a loss of identity. No, I said. The fact that I couldnt stop, even if Itried, was proof that it wasnt actually a matter of anything as benign as acting or pretending. How had I ended up married to a completely different species of being from me? San wonders to herself, before her features begin to mutate too. Her first story, ""Eriko to zettai,"" appeared in the literary magazine Gunzo in 2002. "Why I Can No Longer Look at a Picnic Blanket Without Laughing", trans. Michael Staley. The stories tell us her meditation on loneliness, and many issues in man-woman relationship.The most impressive story is An Exotic Marriage in which the wife felt that she was losing her identity in the marriage, and her husband started Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. He's a founding member of Literary Starbucks (2016) and a recovering poetry editor with a chronic crush on nouns that get used as adjectives. In The Women, the eponymous characters are transformed into blood-thirsty warriors through the escalating fantasies of their partners. Such endings introduce a kind of ontological flexibility into the very structure of the storythey bring an essential playfulness to the work that is much more engaging and absorbing than a more rigid finale. But too much open-mindedness and empathy can become a kind of permeability, and that gets these characters into trouble. The characters featured in them arent particularly good at intimacy, even if they live in close proximity to spouses, old friends, and co-workers. The following is from Yukiko Motoya's collection, The Lonesome Bodybuilder. There seems to be an essential despair of heterosexual partnership in these storiesnot that they suggest that a just and joyful partnership is an impossibility! They may feel separated from others, but they also feel separated from themselves. There was no response. All rights reserved. The pears?. At other points, the couple are recast as ravenous snakes. [29] As of 2017 she is co-host of the Fuji TV documentary series 7 Rules. And in The Dogs, the protagonist gains a sort of freedom, but this sunders threads both social and psychic; something ambiguously terrible rises in their place. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many users needs. The other stories are trim and propulsive, itching to move forward, using their surreal elements to interrogate assumptions about intimacy and the complacency of partnership. In these contexts, Motoyas characters come to recognize the possibilities theyve denied themselves. The author reaches, with language, toward a reader who may or may not be there. No one in Yukiko Motoya's new story collection, . The weird garbled messages?, No, but you can just tell these things sometimes., Huh. Motoya likes her fiction to swerve, not drift or meander, and she doesnt have patience for wandering. I waited for something else to happen, but that was it. Winner of the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, Picnic in the Storm is the English-language debut of one of Japan's most fearless young writers. Her command of vivid detail comes through in close studies of perception and psychology, and in the conjuring up of outsized brutalities. Nov. 2018. Empire Gold : A Review of Claire Meuschkes UPEND, John Wall Barger I recalled seeing a circular in the mailroomabout plans to prune the plantings. He has received fellowships from the Edward Albee Foundation and the Ucross Foundation. Motoya won the Noma Prize for New Writers for Warm Poison in 2011; the Kenzaburo Oe Prize for Picnic in the Storm in 2013 . In the wonderful title story, the narrator returns from the grocery store to find her husband sitting on the couch, watching a boxing match. I didnt let myself be bound by anything as common as common senseonly to be rewarded with surreal proof that her eyes had not deceived her. When I sat down next to him, the husband-like thing pickedup the TV remote and started flipping through channels. On If by Song by Marcia Karp, Brian Chander Wiora Youre accommodating, San, and before you know itshe breaks off, as Sans features rearrange themselves to mirror her partners. His face was barely maintaining a form that could even berecognized as human. She has won numerous Japanese literary and dramatic awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the Mishima Yukio Prize, the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, the Kishida Kunio Drama Award, and the Tsuruya Nanboku Drama Award. She is typical of Motoyas women: conferring an excess of personhood on whomever or whatever is at hand, yearning to connect to something that isnt there. Do you think hes still getting them? "Life's not worth living if you're not tending to the whims and demands of a high-maintenance lover!". She endures this at first but later partakes in it, finding herself pulled into her husbands orbithis daily consumption of variety shows and deep-fried food. That only made the boundary between the skin of ourentwined bodies even hazier. How could he even see straight? The course of that career certainly indicates a restless curiosity. Okay, I heard a muffled voice say. A pulsing sense of anxiety pushes the story forward as readers are left to reconcile her male staffs tepid ignorance with her panicked interior monologue. Premium access for businesses and educational institutions. This criticism becomes pointed when juxtaposed with the final story in the collection, The Straw Husband, about a newlywed woman named Tomoko who is unfailingly devoted to her husband, a man made of straw. , those, my husband said, turning his shoulders towardme 224 pages / 978-1593766788 / 2018 stories surreal. Be concerned, said Hakone, sounding anything but as she took pair! Details and features -- often contrasting with the seeming is one of her best boost... In 2016 at her feetand she fantasizes about setting him on fire French, Norwegian Spanish... 224 pages / 978-1593766788 / 2018 Ishikawa Prefecture in yukiko motoya an exotic marriage in 1979 command of vivid comes... 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