The Steady Read

Your home for book reviews, recommendations, and more

Tag: Japanese

  • Review: Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami

    Review: Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami

    Mieko Kawakami is one of my favourite authors, at least regarding works from the twenty-first century. All of her works have scored 4/5 and above here on The Steady Read, which should indicate my fondness for her writing style and handling of stories. However, as this setup may allude to (and the score above), Ms…

  • Review: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

    Review: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

    Murakami is an author who has grown on me. I have many of his acclaimed novels and non-fiction works resting on my bookshelf, but I have yet to read most of them because Murakami is an author that requires you to be in a certain mood — an attentive, glum, and thoughtful one. Because I…

  • Review: Patriotism by Mishima Yukio

    Review: Patriotism by Mishima Yukio

    Perhaps one of the most tense and disturbing short stories I have ever read, leaving me unsure whether to praise it or regret having ever read it. The story itself follows the suicide of a young Japanese lieutenant, and his even younger wife, at the tail end of February 1936. The premise sounds simple and…

  • Review: All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami

    Review: All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami

    The last in Mieko Kawakami’s main trio of works — All the Lovers in the Night evokes much of the same emotions and motifs found within her acclaimed debut Breast and Eggs, whilst also successfully mixing in the emotional messiness of her much shorter work Heaven. The story follows Fuyoko Irie, a freelance proofreader who…

  • Review: South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

    Review: South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

    An excellent display of all of Murakami’s talents, bundled nicely into a much shorter package than that of his hit novel Norwegian Wood. South of the Border, West of the Sun follows Hajime, a flawed but very honest portrayal of a man who has had plenty of luck and success across his life, yet is…

  • Review: Behind the Prison by Kafū Nagai

    Review: Behind the Prison by Kafū Nagai

    A short story about a Japanese man, one who descended from a very well-off lineage, finding himself quite at odds once he returns home to his family’s large estate in Tokyo. Unsure of how to deal with his emotions and thoughts about the current state of Japan, he writes a lengthy letter to his Excellency….

  • Review: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

    Review: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

    You may notice my reoccurring fondness for Japanese fiction, and novel like Convenience Store Woman are exactly why this is the case. Despite being a funny, not-too-serious story about an oddball woman who has dedicated herself to working part-time at a convenience store since she was eighteen, Murata is surprisingly talented at tackling a lot…

  • Review: Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto

    Review: Tokyo Express by Seichō Matsumoto

    A short, riveting tale of a mystery that involves what seems to be nothing more than a tragic lover’s suicide quickly becomes quite an entrancing step-by-step deduction to the true motive behind two cyanide-filled corpses – a government worker and a waitress – turning up on a secluded beach in Hakata, Japan. Despite not expecting…

  • Review: Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

    Review: Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

    A tender, strange, and relatively short novella that explores love, age, and weirdness that forms our many life-long relationships. Following the lonesome and somewhat gloomy Tsukiko in her thirties, Strange Weather in Tokyo focuses on her deepening, almost-taboo and socially unacceptable relationship with the elderly Mr Matsumoto — nicknamed ‘Sensei’ — who taught her Japanese…

  • Review: The Story of Tomoda and Matsunaga by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

    Review: The Story of Tomoda and Matsunaga by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

    Well-written, intriguing, and rather insightful for a century-old work. The Story of Tomoda and Matsunaga can now finally be conveniently enjoyed by English readers within the Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. Told from the perspective of K, a Japanese novelist, the story concerns a strange and lively man, Tomoda Ginza, and a woman who…