Strange Weather in Tokyo - Oct 2021 Book Group discussion thread

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McGoohan
McGoohan
Sep 2021
8:06am, 29 Sep 2021
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McGoohan
Hiromi Kawakami's short novel Strange Weather in Tokyo is our October 2021 choice. It's translated by Allison Markin Powell. Weather forecasts by Darren Bett with occasional scattered showers. Traffic is moving freely around the outskirts but there are long tailbacks at Shinagawa City from an earlier broken down vehicle.

Now, back to the studio.
LindsD
LindsD
Oct 2021
11:35am, 6 Oct 2021
50,014 posts
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LindsD
OK. Here I am.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I whizzed through it. On the other, I found it both irritating and boring. And a little unsettling.

Nothing really happens. The narrator/main character is so passive and seemingly lost, that I wanted to shake her. I kept looking for hidden meaning. Was she unreliable because she sometimes contradicted what she had said earlier? E.g. Sensei never let me pour his drink. I poured his drink and he criticised it. I could never find the hidden meaning.

Were we supposed to think that she should have been with the classmate - she mentions they have spoken a lot, but was only interested in Sensei? She doesn't even use his name until he dies.

I found the power dynamic really unsettling and uncomfortable. He seems to control everything and she lets him. And there's such a LOT of drinking. When she goes to him on the island and she's drunk and he caresses her breasts it was just creepy.

And the bit near the end when they seem to be in some kind of heaven/dream world was just weird, and never explained.

I think I didn't like it. On balance.
LindsD
LindsD
Oct 2021
11:36am, 6 Oct 2021
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LindsD
I've given it a 3. And want to make clear that 'nothing really happens' is not always a criticism of a book. But it is here.
McGoohan
McGoohan
Oct 2021
11:43am, 6 Oct 2021
50,396 posts
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McGoohan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxbIU0X-lCI
Diogenes
Diogenes
Oct 2021
11:55am, 6 Oct 2021
63,258 posts
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Diogenes
[love that song]
LindsD
LindsD
Oct 2021
12:03pm, 6 Oct 2021
50,016 posts
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LindsD
Prefer the song to the book :)
McGoohan
McGoohan
Oct 2021
12:03pm, 6 Oct 2021
50,397 posts
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McGoohan
[I played that album to death. See also: Kiss This Thing Goodbye]
McGoohan
McGoohan
Oct 2021
11:07am, 7 Oct 2021
50,405 posts
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McGoohan
FFS
LindsD
LindsD
Oct 2021
11:13am, 7 Oct 2021
50,040 posts
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LindsD
I. rest. my. case.
McGoohan
McGoohan
Oct 2021
1:49pm, 7 Oct 2021
50,410 posts
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McGoohan
FFFFS


Know a lot about birds? He just misidentified a woodpecker as a cuckoo! He hasn't got a scooby.

About This Thread

Maintained by McGoohan
Hiromi Kawakami's short novel Strange Weather in Tokyo is our October 2021 choice. It's translated by Allison Markin Powell. Weather forecasts by Darren Bett with occasional scattered showers. Traffic is moving freely around the outskirts but there are long tailbacks at Shinagawa City from an earlier broken down vehicle.

Now, back to the studio.

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