Customer Reviews

The Stones Cry Out

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"and his face resembled a skeleton of wires covered with parchment"

The metaphor of a person wasting away is not unique. What is usually different between Authors is what they say about the material that covers the bones. What it is like that is not human, and denotes fragility. The quote I reference is on page one, and the metaphor of wires I found unique, as I found the entire book. Mr. Hikaru Okuizumi is a talented writer who transfers enormous amounts of information and emotion in a very small space. In the case of "The Stones Cry Out" 138 pages is all he uses, all he needs.

I don't know how much elegance is lost when translating from Japanese into English, but there were a few points that seemed too rough and out of step with the cadence the Author set for this piece. The story as a whole is wonderfully written, however the reader must reach to nearly the very end before the book's genius is realized. At least this was the case for me. I found much of the contemporary plot, with lengthy highly detailed writing about stone collecting tedious. It is true this flows from the book's opening line "Even the SMALLEST stone in the riverbed has the entire history of the universe inscribed upon it." Where and when the protagonist hears these words is the real center of the tale, and it is as dark as the cave it is heard in.

Ms. Renoir mentioned that the possibility of illusion being present in the mind of Manase whose story is the one we read. When I reached the end I was struck with two strong reactions, one was that I was astounded at how much was relayed in so short a story, and secondly how unsure I was of what had happened. I read the book a second time only reading the earlier of the two time frames with one exception, and the result while different, is still not definitive for me.

There indeed are 138 pages, when you remove what I felt did not have a direct bearing on what actually happened, the number is easily cut in half. That only doubled my amazement at what this man can write, and I still am not certain I can draw the line between fact, dreams, and possible illusions.

The book is remarkable; I hope it serves to have more of his work translated.

This novel is a well-crafted study of the effect of war on a young soldier Manase and the secondary effect on his family. At the point that the focus changes to that of the second son, the reader may, for a short while, wonder if Okuizumi has drifted from the otherwise tight structure; rest assured that he has not.

The first section of the book narrates the events of World War II that plague Manase - time in a cave with sick and dying comrades who dreamed of one last chance to die in battle while killing the dying to decrease the need for food an water. One of the dying spoke to Manase of rocks - rocks containing the history of the world.

The second section narrates Manase's obsession with rocks, his emotional distance from his family, his outward success and inward failure - all under the cloud of nightmares of the cave. When tragedy comes, the surface normality of his family life collapses.

The final section narrates the story second son, the son raised by his aunt. The son's fate becomes the vehicle through which Manase is forced to remember that part of the history of the cave that was sublimated. As part of that remembrance, he is forced to reevaluate the destruction of his family.

That the author tells the story in such quiet and compact a manner adds to the impact of the book. Add this to your must read list.

This profoundly beautiful, horrifying and seamless novella begins in the darkness of an island cave at the end of World War II and ends fewer than 200 pages later in a final paroxysm of tragedy.

The novel takes its title from the New Testament book of Luke: "Be answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out." It is the memory embedded in the stones that preoccupies Tsuyoshi Manase, the book's protagonist.

As a war veteran, Manase has seen suffering beyond what any imagination could conjure, including prolonged hiding from the enemy in a cave where he is plagued by hunger, thirst, disease and rotting corpses. It is a dying Lance Corporal, however, who becomes the catalyst that will change Manase's life forever as he speaks to Manase about his own love of geology.

After the war, Manase, himself, becomes fascinated with geology and spends increasing amounts of time gathering stones allowing his business, his marriage and his children to recede in importance beside his mounting obsession. The symbolism of the stones, and the way they carry Manase's particular memories, as well as the memories of the universe itself, is woven into the narrative in such a way that any reader would be hard-pressed to forget.

As this harrowing story weaves its way expertly in and out of Manase's memories, reality and hallucination intertwine until finally, the real world, Manase's sanity and even his own innocence regarding a ghastly crime begin to weaken and implode. The two time periods, past and present, are so skillfully and artfully intertwined that one has to wonder if Manase's entire life is really nothing more than an illusion in the cave.

Manase, we come to see, is battling an immense, but nebulous, evil, an evil of which he may be the victim or he may be the perpetrator.

Okuizumi renders this profound tale of terror and beauty in the most subtle and delicate prose style, much like an exquisite painting on a grain of rice. The result is that Manase's nightmarish past becomes all the more real and horrifying.

A surrealistic tragedy of one man's passions, fears and delusions, this book, although short, is extremely complex, much like the classical Japanese novels of Yasunari Kawabata. And the horror of Manase's story is only magnified by the exquisite quietness of its telling.

This is a gorgeous book in concept and design and in its sharp impressionistic tale weaving. The story is a story the ancients would recognize and the future will, I'm sure, see its eternal truths as well. The prose is simple and clear but evocative at all times.This work is a model of concision, a nice contemporary effort that reflects the virtues of most modern Japanese lit. The story is a heart crusher. If this was music it might be something by Arvo Part or Steve Reich. I wish more work by this man would be translated, and soon.

Through the eyes of one man, the author exposes the fragmented lives of war survivors, how every moment stands out in sharp relief ... how poignant and sometimes futile their attempts at interaction, their desire to protect their loved ones from the horror bound into them, yet the inevitability of that expression. This character's inarticulate pain is played out in quiet dignity, organized around one clear idea that coalesces in his mind like the very stones he comes to love. The book has a profound tenderness, as softly piercing as death itself.

This is perhaps THE most haunting and fascinating book I have ever read. I find myself thinking about it at the weirdest moments over and over again.

Among the many themes in the book, the most compelling is an examination of how unforgettable trauma can crystalize into a lens that forever refracts and warps one's view of reality. The plot follows the life of a Japanese soldier who survived WWII and is trying to return to normalcy in the aftermath. An amateur geologist, he finds escape in the stones he collects, but the horrors he experienced in a cave in the Phillipines are always close by, brought to a terrifying crescendo when an unthinkable tragedy befalls his young son.

The ending will leave you questioning what really happened--and whether it even matters, as the mind understands and experiences reality not as a discrete incident of the present but as part of a greater continuum with the past.

As a person who loves to read books, this one doesn't leave your concience right away. After you finish reading it, you evaluate it some more and try to look at it from different angles. I read it a year ago and plan to read it a second time after I am done passing it around. I bought it on line with some others books because it was on special and I wanted to surpass the 25 dollar range for free shipping. See what you get when you aim for that free shipping deal! It is a story about a Japanese WWII veteran who tried to supress his horrible war time experience by immersing himself in the study and collection of rocks. He also chose to get on with a normal life by marrying and having two sons. When you first open the book and lay your eyes on the first paragraph, the words just ascends and you know you are reading a great story. The author expertly weaves memories of the pass into the present, as Manase, the main character is revisited by the same horror, he tried to leave behind. It is wonderful how he uses few words with so many levels of meaning and understanding, that you marvel at this author's talent. The story draws you in, as you start to wonder if all the things that happened in that little cave was imagined or just magnified. This book is more like a short story than a novel, but it reads like a classic. I am truly impress by Hikaru Okuizumi's profound ability to tell so much with so little words. Notice how he mirrors a rock to the main characters being. A rock just laying there, innocuous, but yet when you take a closer look, you can see layers of different sediments, minerals and other little stones, a universe contained full of mystery. This is genuine talent in story telling. And I look forward to reading his future work. And I highly recommend this book to anyone who is willing to challenge their own minds.

"Even the smallest stone in a riverbed has the entire history of the universe inscribed upon it," Okuizumi remarks in his opening sentence, and he illustrates his belief in this principle by choosing a "small" man as his main character, a sometimes helpless man on whom the history of the universe will be written as he struggles with the themes and challenges which have occupied men since the beginning of time.

Tsuyoshi Manase is a young Japanese survivor of the World War II battle for the Philippines, but he has not survived intact. In the war's aftermath, he is beset by personal demons that are at least as terrifying as the war itself. An amateur geologist and rock collector after the war, Manase marries unhappily, has two sons, and runs his business as a bookseller. He tries to escape the humanizing emotions which made his life as a soldier such hell, and which allow his post-war nightmares to flourish, by retreating to his rock collection and his workshop. He can never escape the final days he spent in a cave in Leyte, however, a time in which following orders meant closing his eyes and killing the dying, even his friends, as they stared at him with the enlarged eyes of the starving.

With taut prose and stunning imagery, Okuizumi generates sympathy for this damaged veteran whose internal war continues long after the peace treaty, and affects, especially, his relationships with his sons. The climax, when it comes, is breath-taking, its power enhanced by Okuizumi's restraint and his belief that the careful reader will figure out the details for himself. As the reader's comprehension of the events grows, so, too, does his understanding of the stones, the river, and the universe which Okuizumi creates here. This is a novella of tremendous power which transcends national boundaries and touches on what makes us all human. Mary Whipple

After reading Hikaru Okuizumi's The Stones Cry Out, I wondered if I was supposed to understand it as slice-of-life fiction, a cautionary fable about the lasting horrors of war, or something else entirely. The fable-like feel of The Stones Cry Out results because Manase, the story's protagonist, never fully reenters the world after his experience near the end of World War II. His devotion to rock collecting keeps him emotionally tied to the cave in the Philippines where, as a soldier, he first learned about stones. Because this cave continually reappears in the book, The Stones Cry Out also reminded me of a painting, a tableau of rocks, caves, and death, where the characters are trapped in single setting, at a single point of time.

This is the kind of book that reminds me of what constitutes great literature. With an economy of words Okuizumi presents a wide range of emotions, evocative images that invite reflection, a plot twist that will make you question everything you have read, and a stunning conclusion that delivers one final powerful image.

Okuizumi weaves various themes together deftly. Each theme contributes to the portrait of Manase, a solitary man who is haunted by fear and who is more comfortable with his stone collection than he is with other human beings. Differences between organic and inorganic matter become blurred. Stones bathe; convictions crystallize in the heart. Even a piece of green chert, which is central to several key events, is composed of the petrified bones of ancient organisms.

I liked the way that one of the other reviewers outlined the book's structure. Here is another way of looking at it:

Chapter 1 introduces Manase and the two men who made the greatest impression on him during World War II: a captain and a lance corporal. The captain teaches Manase how to kill fellow soldiers who are too weak to survive, and the lance corporal introduces Manase to the study of stones, which became Manase's passion.

Chapter 2 focuses on the lance corporal's legacy as Manase, now a husband and father of two sons, passes his love for stones on to his eldest and favorite son.

Chapter 3 turns to the lessons learned from the captain, which Manase has tried to repress, but which he ultimately passes on to his youngest son, whom has not seen for most of his life and whom he now fears.

Okiuzumi's achievement is outstanding. Whatever you see in this book, and however you interpret some of the plot, you will not forget it easily. I hope we will see translations of more of his work soon.