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Title: N.P.
Author: Banana Yoshimoto
Translator: Ann Sherif
Published: Scribner, 2016 (1979)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 200
Total Page Count: 390,695
Text Number: 1465
Read Because: found on some or another list of books with incestuous relationships, read via OpenLibrary
Review: The final short story from a celebrated Japanese writer is surrounded by suicide (the author's, the would-be translators') and by incestuous desire, the focus of the story and recurring in his children's relationships, which sweep into the protagonist's life and consume a single, brilliant summer. Stories like this are often set in summer, aren't they? And this is why: the drifty, dreamy, hazy-but-intense atmosphere; the narrator standing enraptured but a step removed from that intensity. It's atmospheric and evocative but slight; intentionally so in this slim volume with a lot of dialog and short, vignetted scenes. This book really worked for me, but mostly because I dig the combination of content and style which it so perfectly encapsulates; its actual distinguishing features and plot are more forgettable.
(Wikipedia says: She adopted the pseudonym "Banana", after her love of banana flowers, a name she recognizes as both "cute" and "purposefully androgynous." The takeaway here is that you can and should just name yourself Banana, and then other people will have to say Banana, and they will be delighted by it.)
Title: Mexican Gothic
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published: Del Rey, 2020
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 300
Total Page Count: 391,250
Text Number: 1468
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A socialite makes a journey to visit her ill cousin at a decaying manor in the Mexican mountains—a manor which is unwilling to let anyone leave. The execution of this is just so-so: a lot of repetition in the characterization and in the cluttered sources of inspiration; as always I wish that modern gothics would pull back like 10%, as the reveals are so substantially speculative that they grow setpiecey and infodumpy. But it's hard to fault that impulse to go all-out, because the all-outness of the rest of the book is great fun: strong atmosphere, memorable setting, intentionally and effectively exploring the gothic of this specific socio-cultural context; a solid balance of good intentions and just plain fun to read. (It also makes for a strong appendix in the book of the month edition, mostly short essays from the author.) Call it good bones and weaker musculature, or maybe just that Moreno-Garcia isn't the right writer for me.
Title: Dream Boy
Author: Jim Grimsley
Published: Algonquin Books, 2012
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 195
Total Page Count: 391,445
Text Number: 1469
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Set in a rural Southern town in the 60s, new kid Nathan hides from abusive home within the dubious love and protection of his neighbor Roy. I adore an evocative atmosphere and this certainly has that: the dregs of summer, the racial and social tensions of a changing South, the flawed but brilliant potential of an adolescent love which is shadowed by abuse and (very internalized) homophobia. But the ending gets ... weird. The steady, realistic pacing and slightly oblique voice are tossed aside for ( spoiler )—interesting but not necessarily effective, and certainly messy. This is a short book, and that complements all aforementioned strengths but perhaps means the end is doomed to fail.
Author: Banana Yoshimoto
Translator: Ann Sherif
Published: Scribner, 2016 (1979)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 200
Total Page Count: 390,695
Text Number: 1465
Read Because: found on some or another list of books with incestuous relationships, read via OpenLibrary
Review: The final short story from a celebrated Japanese writer is surrounded by suicide (the author's, the would-be translators') and by incestuous desire, the focus of the story and recurring in his children's relationships, which sweep into the protagonist's life and consume a single, brilliant summer. Stories like this are often set in summer, aren't they? And this is why: the drifty, dreamy, hazy-but-intense atmosphere; the narrator standing enraptured but a step removed from that intensity. It's atmospheric and evocative but slight; intentionally so in this slim volume with a lot of dialog and short, vignetted scenes. This book really worked for me, but mostly because I dig the combination of content and style which it so perfectly encapsulates; its actual distinguishing features and plot are more forgettable.
(Wikipedia says: She adopted the pseudonym "Banana", after her love of banana flowers, a name she recognizes as both "cute" and "purposefully androgynous." The takeaway here is that you can and should just name yourself Banana, and then other people will have to say Banana, and they will be delighted by it.)
Title: Mexican Gothic
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published: Del Rey, 2020
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 300
Total Page Count: 391,250
Text Number: 1468
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A socialite makes a journey to visit her ill cousin at a decaying manor in the Mexican mountains—a manor which is unwilling to let anyone leave. The execution of this is just so-so: a lot of repetition in the characterization and in the cluttered sources of inspiration; as always I wish that modern gothics would pull back like 10%, as the reveals are so substantially speculative that they grow setpiecey and infodumpy. But it's hard to fault that impulse to go all-out, because the all-outness of the rest of the book is great fun: strong atmosphere, memorable setting, intentionally and effectively exploring the gothic of this specific socio-cultural context; a solid balance of good intentions and just plain fun to read. (It also makes for a strong appendix in the book of the month edition, mostly short essays from the author.) Call it good bones and weaker musculature, or maybe just that Moreno-Garcia isn't the right writer for me.
Title: Dream Boy
Author: Jim Grimsley
Published: Algonquin Books, 2012
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 195
Total Page Count: 391,445
Text Number: 1469
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Set in a rural Southern town in the 60s, new kid Nathan hides from abusive home within the dubious love and protection of his neighbor Roy. I adore an evocative atmosphere and this certainly has that: the dregs of summer, the racial and social tensions of a changing South, the flawed but brilliant potential of an adolescent love which is shadowed by abuse and (very internalized) homophobia. But the ending gets ... weird. The steady, realistic pacing and slightly oblique voice are tossed aside for ( spoiler )—interesting but not necessarily effective, and certainly messy. This is a short book, and that complements all aforementioned strengths but perhaps means the end is doomed to fail.
