Inside and Other Short Fiction--Japanese Women by Japanese Women [Hardcover]

Amy Yamada (Author), Tamaki Daido (Author), Chiya Fujino (Author), Shungiku Uchida (Author), Yuzuki Muroi (Author), Junko Hasegawa (Author), Rio Shimamoto (Author), Nobuko Takagi (Author), Ruth Ozeki (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 2006

Inside and other short fiction showcases the very best of recent writing by Japanese women writers today-including prize-winning novelists and authors never before published in English-as they explore the issue of female identity in a rapidly changing society.

AMY YAMADA ("Fiesta"), widely published overseas and with many fans among Western readers, offers us a sophisticated psychological portrait of a sexually repressed woman. TAMAKI DAIDO ("Milk"), winner of the Akutagawa Prize in 2002, and talented young newcomer RIO SHIMAMOTO ("Inside"), paint two very different pictures of teenage life. The trials of a busy working mother are depicted by SHUNGIKU UCHIDA ("My Son's Lips"), who shocked Japan in 1993 with the publication of her novel, Father Fucker. YUZUKI MUROI ("Piss"), a prolific, popular and outspoken essayist, novelist and TV commentator, tells the sexually explicit and very moving story of a young Tokyo prostitute. Winner of the 1999 Akutagawa Prize, CHIYA FUJINO ("Her Room"), delves into the relationship between two women, one divorced and one single, with a subtle and powerful tale. Well-known essayist, JUNKO HASEGAWA ("The Unfertilized Egg") , makes a first foray into fiction with a hard-hitting portrait of the single thirty-something lifestyle. NOBUKO TAKAGI ("The Shadow of the Orchid") is a highly respected member of the Japanese literary establishment, and winner of many prizes, including the Akutagawa Prize in 1984. Her short story is a sensitive depiction of a moment of crisis in the life of a fifty-year-old housewife.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of eight stories offers a provocative introduction to notable contemporary literature by Japanese women. The savvy, modern protagonists in this volume are enmeshed in the recognizable dramas of women across the industrialized world—sexual awakenings, marriage, desire for children, trust and friendship with other women—but their tales unfold within the distinctive context of an emerging Japanese feminism. Many stories link sex and intimacy with feelings of powerlessness, as in Yuzuki Muroi's sexually explicit and tightly narrated "Piss," which chronicles the harsh working life of a Tokyo prostitute desperate not to slide into invisibility. In the piercing story "The Unfertilized Egg" by Junko Hasegawa, a 36-year-old single working woman crumbles under her family's expectation that she produce a fourth-generation B blood-type Year-of-the-Horse baby. The stories are peppered with adulterous, often lecherous and emotionally unavailable men, with the exception of the adolescent, geeky boyfriend who helps his girlfriend cope with her parents' divorce in Rio Shimamoto's title story, "Inside." Despite several underdeveloped narratives, this engaging collection well illustrates the complex history of social and sexual norms in Japan. (June)
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From Booklist

This hip anthology of short fiction in translation features portraits of contemporary Japanese women. The eight stories share a sense that female identity in Japanese culture is changing, as novelist Ruth Ozeki observes in the foreword, "The demure schoolgirl has morphed into superheroine, or antiheroine, out to save or destroy the world." Junko Hasegawa's protagonist imagines the surrealist birthing of a giant egg as her biological clock ticks toward middle age. In "Her Room," Chiya Fujino explores female friendships, specifically when one woman is plagued by the neediness of another. And in Nobuko Takagi's "The Shadow of the Orchid," a wife is haunted by the ghost of her husband's dead patient. Other characters include a young prostitute and a working mother. Divorce, marriage, infidelity, apathy, boredom, and sex are frankly explored in tales that never veer toward the sentimental or overwrought. The authors included are some of the most popular and prolific female writers in Japan today, and this anthology marks their debut in English. Move over, Haruki Murakami. Emily Cook
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA (April 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770030061
• ISBN-13: 978-4770030061
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars white, milky eggs, June 8, 2007

By 

Daitokuji31 (Black Glass) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Inside and Other Short Fiction--Japanese Women by Japanese Women (Hardcover)

Of recent a handful of Japanese writers have come to the attention of the English reading world. Primarily among these is Haruki Murakami whose stories of magical realism and fantasy have grabbed the imaginations of thousands who would not have been able to read his books in his native tongue. However, there are those who lament the popularity of Murakami's works because they lack "Japaneseness" or an "exoticness" that would distinguish his works from the Western writers whom he was influenced by. This cosmopolitan flavor of Murakami's works is shared by Banana Yoshimoto, probably Japan's most famous writer in the West, whose works have been called "Murakami-light" because of the same magical realistic qualities and the non-Japaneseness that can be found within her body of work. However, it is unfair to lump these writers together because of the Western-ness of their works, because if one reads a number of recent Japanese stories one can see that a number of these stories are not "Japanese" or "Western," but more of a cosmopolitan nature and suffused with issues pertinent to all modern--post modern?--societies of the world.

This volume of short stories opens with an introduction written by Ruth L. Ozeki, the author of My Year of Meats, who challenges both the postwar stereotype of Japanese women held primarily by Westerners, as submissive "geesha" (sic) and the present day representation as presented in anime and horror films. For her, literature is the way to truly understand a people and she begins with mentioning classics such as Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon. However, for a modern representation of Japanese women, the number of works for an English reader are, unfortunately quite limited, and she hopes that this book can fill some of that gap. However, is this book a true representation of Japanese women writers as a whole? Probably not considering that this book only contains eight stories.

Another issue that some reviewers have with this book is supposedly over sexualized nature. However, this is not really the case, because only five of the stories deal directly with sex. "Milk" written by Tamaki Daido concerns the life of a young girl in high school on the verge of her first sexual experience with her boyfriend. The title story "Inside" penned by the then twenty-year-old writer Rio Shimamoto deals with another young girl and her sexual awakening during high school. Yuzuki Muroi's story "Piss" deals with a nineteen-year-old prostitute who is dumped by her boyfriend after he steals 2 million yen from her, and Junko Hasegawa's "The Unfertilized Egg" concerns a former party girl turned business woman who is desperate to become pregnant during her thirty-sixth year of life. None of the sex scenes within these stories are graphic. They are not meant as much to titillate as they are to allow one to feel trepidation, "Milk," warmth, "Inside," despair, "Piss," and desperation, "The Unfertilized Egg. Amy Yamada's story "Fiesta" is the only one that takes sexual desire and puts a darkly comic aspect to it when she gives voice to a woman's unbridled desire for her boss.

Besides sexuality, the stories also tackle such issues as sexism, urban malaise, and the like. While the book might not entirely be a completely pleasant read, it is one that does provoke thoughts. A good book for those who want to read Japanese writers outside of those readily available in English, Inside and Other short fiction makes for a good quick read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expertly engaging short stories, April 23, 2007

By 

Peter Baklava (Charles City, Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside and Other Short Fiction--Japanese Women by Japanese Women (Hardcover)

Eudora Welty said that the task of a fiction writer was "to enter into the heart and skin of a human being who is not oneself".

All eight of the stories that make up "Inside and Other Short Fiction" are triumphs in terms of the writers' abilities to chart the inner topographies of characters. One story ("Fiesta") even goes so far as to inhabit the very emotions of one woman, written out as separate characters in her inner drama.

I found three of these stories to have a brilliance that outshines the others. "Milk", by Tamaiko Daido may remind readers of the wonderful Japanese girl character in the movie "Babel", because it captures the interplay of adolescents in contemporary Japan so unerringly.

"Shadow of the Orchid" by Nobuko Takagi is a wonderful examination of the uncertainties of a middle-aged relationship, at the same time as it flirts with the haunting traditions of the Japanese ghost story.

Finally, there is "Inside", by Rio Shimamoto, a staggeringly poised writer who is only 23 years old. This is one of the most flawlessly written stories concerning familial conflicts that I have had the pleasure of reading. Expect to hear from this writer in a big way, in the future.

All in all, "Inside and Other Short Fiction" is a marvelous volume, and is worthy of comparison to the earlier "This Kind of Woman", another volume of writing by Japanese women which is definitely worth sinking your literary teeth into...(if you can find it.)

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great collection, August 16, 2006

By 

P. Price - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside and Other Short Fiction--Japanese Women by Japanese Women (Hardcover)

First of all, I should start by saying that I am one of the translators of this anthology, but I'd like to let people know what a great collection of stories this is: certainly fascinating for anyone interested in Japan, but also very accessible to anyone with an interest in world fiction and women's issues in particular. My favorite story, which I didn't translate but wish I had, is Yuzuki Muroi's Piss - shocking, perhaps, but also very sad and moving. If you want to discover the reality of Japanese women's lives today, in all their complexity, I would really recommend this book.