|
Oct 2021
10:56am, 8 Oct 2021
37,942 posts
|
Night-owl
Finished late last night or early this morning I can't really remember which
I breathed a sigh of relief I ended up reading another book alongside as it didn't grab me But in the end I persevered so I finished it quicker
None of the characters really appealed to me I did get a bit bored sorry Greg
It will probably be one of them books I will forget I read in a years time.
Giving it 4 stars probably generously
|
|
Oct 2021
11:03am, 8 Oct 2021
50,416 posts
|
McGoohan
Did you read the 'extra' (Parade) as well?
|
|
Oct 2021
11:30am, 8 Oct 2021
37,943 posts
|
Night-owl
I did but didn't understand it. Was weird
|
|
Oct 2021
11:33am, 8 Oct 2021
50,418 posts
|
McGoohan
Okay. I haven't quite got there yet.
|
|
Oct 2021
8:40pm, 8 Oct 2021
50,060 posts
|
LindsD
I actually preferred Parade
|
|
Oct 2021
7:08pm, 11 Oct 2021
21,346 posts
|
Columba
Finished this morning. Strange little book. Can't decide whether it's strange in absolute terms, or just because I'm not au fait with Japanese culture. There's a lot in it about food, and for the most part I don't know what all the dishes are.
For a while I thought Tsukiko was a bit of an oddity, maybe a bit aloof and Aspergery, but her memories of her school days didn't really shed any light on this. She mentions having friends; she is clearly holding down a job. I quite liked it, though it seemed to be full of side branches that didn't really go anywhere. The expedition to pick mushrooms; the cherry blossom picnic. Sad ending, but inevitable with that age gap.
Quite like Parade too. I suppose it draws on Japanese folk lore.
Now I shall read back and see what everyone else thought of it, though I already have a fair idea what McG thought.
|
|
Oct 2021
9:56pm, 11 Oct 2021
50,441 posts
|
McGoohan
Sensei, would you like the fish?
Sensei did not speak for several chapters but started straight ahead, drinking his sake. I opened another bottle. Later that night I smoked forty cigarettes, ate edamame beans and downed a crate of beer.
Sensei said, I do not like this fish. We both laughed. And later we cried.
I love you Sensei, I shouted, but he did not respond. I opened another bottle of sake. I followed it with a couple of sakes and a beer and another sake. Then I had a smoke. And a grilled gurnard.
Are we at the end yet? I asked suddenly.
For a long time Sensei did not speak but stared straight ahead. Indeed, it was only after another eleven bottles of sake, twelve hundred cigarettes, a scotch, four beers each and a platter of fried squid with green beans that I realised he hadn't died sitting there at the bar. Sipping his thirtieth sake, and looking straight ahead, Sensei at last spoke.
No, he said, there are eight more chapters to go.
Eight? I squealed mistranslatedly. Will it all be just the same? I interlocuted awkwardly.
No, Sensei said, staring straight ahead. Sometimes it will be snowing.
I sighed and opened another sake.
|
|
Oct 2021
10:08pm, 11 Oct 2021
50,114 posts
|
LindsD
Don't blame the translator!
|
|
Oct 2021
10:49pm, 11 Oct 2021
50,442 posts
|
McGoohan
Oh I blame her very much. She could have translated something else, but oh no, she had to translate this one.
|
|
Oct 2021
7:21am, 12 Oct 2021
50,119 posts
|
LindsD
Fair point
|
