Customer Reviews

The Laws of Evening: Stories

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"When you come first in someone's heart...when you feel the magnitude of another person's love for you...you become a different person. I mean something physically changes inside of you...I want you to have that feeling, because it will sustain you, all your life. Life...life can get so hard."
The sentiments above as spoken by a Mother to her daughter in the penultimate story, `The Way Love Works' in Mary Yukari Waters's "The Laws of Evening," pretty much sums up this short story collection as a whole.
Yukari has chosen to focus on the years in Japan surrounding the Second World War in this collection of stories and specifically, for the most part on the Japanese women's view of things.
Each story is well crafted, many are precious, snapshot views of the War and all have to do with relationships. Much of the writing is quite beautiful and a much of it is extremely revealing and psychologically true, as in this description of a son's relationship with his father: "Outsiders would not understand their exchange. They would not see that his father, far from begging for sympathy, would have considered it out of place. The truth was that there was an understanding; they had no need for embarrassing displays. Saburo thought of the railroad they were drafting at work, its parallel rails never touching, yet exquisitely synchronized, committed in their separateness as they curved though hill and valley. That he was comfortable with. That, he could do."
Mary Yukari Waters is a fresh, gentle voice whose writing, on the other hand, reveals a dagger like precision especially when applied to the mysteries and intricacies of Mother/Daughter and Father/Son relationships. I look forward to Yakari-Waters mixing it up a bit in her next book: maybe a novel about the Japanese Youth Culture or one about the Japanese American situation in America during WWII?

The Laws of Evening is a memorable collection of poignant and moving stories. Set in Japan, they provide a compelling perspective on the experiences of different generations during World War II and its aftermath. Viewed through the eyes of grandparents, parents and children, the author explores themes of loss and separation, not only between generations, but also between those who fared differently in the war.

Out of a typically edgy landscape, rife with divisions and disconnections, both big and small, the author conjures recurring instances of the painful, hesitant acknowledgment of a changed reality ("The Laws of Evening are not the Laws of Afternoon"). From this acceptance ensues a transformation of the present and a renewed, broader connection to life.

My personal favorites in the collection are Seed, Shibusa and Rationing, each of which is associated with astonishing images of pain and growth that have a heart-breaking intensity to them.

The writing is careful, poised and conveys with precision the nuances of feeling of the protagonists. The author skillfully creates a backdrop to the stories that is cool and restrained (sometimes to the point of eerieness) prior to the reader being swept into the visceral resonance of experience that is profound and deeply moving. This, in my opinion, is writing at its best.

Other reviewers understandably and accurately comment on the way the author informs the reader on cultural and historical issues, but I believe this most remarkable masterpiece works because of the depth of its sensitivity to private human experience and its rare literary style. Not a word should be added, not a word removed.
Most of the stories speak of women who have confronted loss, but this is in no way a "woman's book." I have purchased a half dozen copies to share with friends here and overseas, and several of those have subsequently purchased more copies to send to their friends. All have loved it, both men and women. My only complaint about the work is that it ended too soon.
(While I myself generally prefer novels, in contrast to another reviewer I am not certain this author should be encouraged to write novels: she has developed too well the capacity to carve small fine gems.)
You will be glad to have read this rarely engaging and uncommonly touching short book.

As a writer myself, I've been trying to figure out the short story medium for several years. I usually come up short at the end of one, flip the page looking for more, and go huh? Where's the rest of it?
With The Laws of Evening, such is not the case. It's a collection of stories around a central theme, the clash of cultures in post-World War II Japan. They have female protagonists and a very feminine point of view, tho the tales deal with strong and tough material: death, abandonment, fading of cultural values, war's aftermath, national guilt, individual shame...
There is a strain of wistful saddness that binds these tales, each of which can stand alone. But together they take us on an elegant journey that holds together artistically like a perfectly arranged bento box lunch.

I first encountered Mary Yakuri Waters' stories in the O. Henry and Best American Short Story anthologies, and thoroughly enjoyed the stories I read in those volumes. During my first-ever trip to Japan, I chose "The Laws of Evening" (TLE), a collection of eleven of Ms. Waters' stories, to put my mind in the proper frame for the visit. It turned out to be an excellent choice. Each story was not only enjoyable, but provided insight into a different segment of modern-day Japanese society and 20th century history.

Unlike some short story collections by a single author, each story in TLE stands on its own and explores a different element of Japanese society. Waters is able to avoid seeming to rewrite the same story over and over. The primary commonality across all stories is that they explore incidents in the lives of average middle-class Japanese people. Waters focuses her attention on the characters' thoughts and feelings, and uses their actions to illuminate her characters' personal philosophies on life and living. The characters in her stories typically place limitations on their actions and formulate routines that end up defining their roles in their families and society. There is also an underlying theme of the rapid modernization of Japan, and the adaptation that Japanese citizens have therefore had to undergo to transform their culture and society. Waters explores these themes with descriptive, precise prose and interesting plot lines, and the result is a collection of very well-crafted stories.

I would be hard-pressed to choose a most favorite story in this collection or to identify a dud - they were all enjoyable and insightful. I plan to reread these stories again in the future, when I want a refresh on Japan. For anyone with an interest in getting inside the minds of average, everyday people in modern Japanese society, I highly recommend "The Laws of Evening".

It was such a delight to come across this collection of short stories by Waters. One remarkable thing about this author and her works that I discovered was that she has got this keen sense of 'balance'; I wonder how many readers recognized that her effortless and insightful writing was actually doing the rarest of rare justice to bridge East and West. Her stories represented Japan and people there without destorting them into 'understandable silliness, uncanniness and unintelligiblity for America' which we often find in Western media with tons of racial prejudice. But the phenomenon only reveals the extreme low level of American comprehension of other cultures. Waters' srories presented an incredibly valuable voice that we should be just grateful to be able to access finally.

The keys of success that Waters' works brought about were the authors' very neutral standing between two different cultures and languages; her handle and persepective did come from where she situated herself, free from 'white supremacy' and quite level to Asia, that kept her works from undermining new concepts and cultures of Japan eveb when she introduced in English. She never succumed to favoring Westerners just by serving their ancient exotism and narcissism. Since these are all I could observed in most English language writers including tons of lackluster Asian American writers, I was very pleased to find this author after long await and wanted to drop a line to inscribe the celebration for her unusually valueable accomplishment.

The only complain I have got was the cover design. The pink silhouette of a woman of kimono had nothing to do with the book's contents. I was ashamed to see this for it reminds me of regular and potential American audiences' ignorance; are we crazy enough to expect them (japanese people) to keep on issuing the same old stereotypical signifier like kimono, geisha samurai, forever? That is why Japanese people despise American as ignorant moron of three years old. This is not only pathetic but problematic. I demand that this cover should be changed when it comes out as a paperback version.

I rarely write comments about books but this is a welcome exception. A beautifully written, thoughtful collection of short stories. With quiet grace the author touches on deeply felt and experienced life issues. As a writer and an obsessive reader I must say this is the best book I have read in a long time. I highly recommend it.

The short stories deal with the vague passing of time and how things change. Set in Japan after World War Two the stories seem to be trapped between the trappings of the past and the changing landscape of the coming future. It focuses on the changing relationships between mother and children, between people and places, and between their minds and their own bodies.

I enjoyed the stories in this book and loved learning about the Japanese-American experience. I especially loved "The Way Love Works."

This collection of short stories is poignant, delicate, breathtaking. I can never come up with exactly the right words to describe it, but the stories make my heart ache, they are so tremblingly, delicately beautiful.