Rin is twenty-two, with a troubled adolescence behind her. She is flying back from her honeymoon, madly in love with her husband, Shin, and the future looks rosy. Then Shin disappears to the bathroom while he thinks Rin is sleeping and she starts to imagine that he has gone to seduce the flight attendant. As her thoughts spiral out of control the phrase 'madly in love' takes on a more sinister meaning. Prizewinning author Hitomi Kanehara's sensational new novel, "Autofiction", follows Rin's life backwards through time from this moment so that we see her when she is eighteen, sixteen and finally fifteen, and a picture of the dark heart and violent past of this disturbed young woman gradually develops.
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About the Author
Hitomi Kanehara is a young Japanese writer who left school at the age of eleven. After leaving home as a teenager, she emailed her stories to her writer father who helped her edit them. Her previous novel, Snakes and Earrings won the top Japanese literary award, the Akutagawa Prize. One of the judges, celebrated writer Ryu Murakami, said her book was 'easily the top choice, receiving the highest marks of any work since I became a member of the selection panel'.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Burnt Pubic Hair,
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This review is from: Autofiction. Hitomi Kanehara (Paperback)
In 2003, at the age of twenty, Hitomi Kanehara made her literary debut with her novella Snakes and Earrings. Filled with twisted and violent sex, the novel drew the attention of the Japanese literati and earned Kanehara the coveted Akutagawa Prize, Japan's highest literary prize. However, while the novel is indeed brimming with shock value, one cannot help but wonder if the novel or its author--a young, attractive, and fashionable woman--drew the most attention and if the novel could withstand the passage of time as Murakami Ryu's--one of the judges for the Akutagawa Prize--debut novel Almost Transparent Blue has done. Well, with the release of her second novel in translation, Autofiction, the reader can judge for his or herself if Kanehara has matured as a writer or if she might become yet another fad in the extraordinarily fickle world of Japanese popular entertainment.
Life seems to be going swimmingly for Rin. She is a successful novelist and she is just leaving on a plane after having a wonderful honeymoon with her beloved husband Shin. However, after a stewardess spills a single droplet of champagne on Shin and wipes it away, Rin transforms from a gushing bride to a malevolent and jealous woman who wishes death on herself, Shin, and the stewardess. She does not vocalize this hatred, but instead lets it smolder inside of her to the point that she imagines Shin having sex with the stewardess in the bathroom. This scene is only the introduction to the complex, schizophrenic mind of Rin and her struggles to contain the multitude of personalities within her head. In Autofiction, Kanehara focuses on Rin's relationships at the ages of 22, 18, 16, and 15. Beginning with the disturbed mind of Rin at the age of 22, Kanehara goes back in time to show Rin's somewhat twisted relationships with the men in her life and how these relationships might have warped her overly dependent being. The writing, like Rin's mind, is quite disjointed in the books first chapter as Rin jumps from one pained rant after another, but as the story descends into the past it becomes more coherent and Kanehara's highlights major ruptures in Rin's life when she breaks up with the music obsessed Shah, the violent, gambling addicted Gato, and the college student Kitty. While the disjointedness of the opening chapter might be a little difficult to bear, the whole is a finely crafted character analysis which is stronger than its parts. Although I am unable to recommend this book to the average reader of Japanese fiction, I would recommend it to those who like some of the darker works coming out of Japan today such as Natsuo Kirino.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Auto Fiction by Hitomi Kanehara,
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This review is from: Autofiction. Hitomi Kanehara (Paperback)
The book starts with an auto biographical theme inside the mind of a just married, insecure young woman called Rin. As you read, you wonder if the thoughts are real; being a female myself I could relate to the crazy that can go on in ones mind sometimes. However, then the main character is asked to write a book, an auto-fiction. The genre of auto fiction is defined as a fictional autobiography, or an autobiography with fictional elements. This is the main draw at the beginning of the story. Her mind is flawed and her actions desperate, but as the book progresses back in time you start to learn of what may have caused the issues she has in the present, aka the beginning of the book.
The book is written in a first-person stream-of-consciousness style, Rin frequently sidetracks from her narrative and makes you wish she'd go on with the story, to get over her issues and move onto the next phase, but somehow Kanehara has a talent to keep you tied into the story, her word-weaving skills are definitely shown in this book. It is a short read, about 216 pages, but still very interesting.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sadly, I advise you to pass on this.,
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This review is from: Autofiction. Hitomi Kanehara (Paperback)
I absolutely loved snakes and earrings, Hitomi Kanehara's last book, so I was so excited when this came out, thus I was very upset when I read it and it was terrible :-(. The book makes no sense, at least none that I could come up with and I was almost sad that it was Hitomi's writing, thinking she might already be failing and she is so young. Maybe she can move on and get it on the flip-side.
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