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Life in the Cul-De-Sac (Paperback)

~ (Author), Philip Gabriel (Author) "Silently, the clock struck 7:00..." (more)
Key Phrases: toy room, Miss Katase

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Price:	$12.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The rensaku shosetsu, or novel of linked stories, is a popular format in Japan. Kuroi, a major Japanese author, has written two of them around the idea of life in a single neighborhood. This is the better of the two, a 1984 Tanazaki Prize winner often considered to be his masterpiece. The book consists of 12 stories involving four families living in a quiet Tokyo suburb. Kuroi's themes of anomie and personal disconnection in suburban life are not new, especially to readers of authors such as John Cheever and Raymond Carver. But there is a troubling, surreal quality to all the incidents in this book and a meaninglessness in all the interactions of its characters that make its vision unique. Unfortunately, Kuroi is a member of what is known as Japan's "Introspective Generation" of writers, and neither the uneventful tales nor the distanced, unadorned prose (as this translation presents it) promises to attract a broad readership. So while the book is an essential purchase for Japanese fiction collections and essential for fans of Japanese literature it is recommended only for larger fiction collections. [The novel was awarded Columbia University's 2001 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the best modern Japanese literature in translation. Ed.] Tom Cooper, Richmond Heights Memorial Lib., M.
- Tom Cooper, Richmond Heights Memorial Lib., MO
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Kuroi's collection of short stories centers on four families who live in a cul-de-sac in a Tokyo suburb. The families deal with their own foibles and pain while interacting with their neighbors' issues. As kids grow up, marriages fall apart, and, in the bigger picture, history is made and forgotten, the stories pose different views of relationships, all helping to build well-rounded and sympathetic characters. However, despite the Japanese "group ethic" that is so often trumpeted to the world, these neighbors are disconnected individuals, dealing with private pain, and feelings of alienation and loneliness abound. Strangely, though, as the characters grow and develop throughout the collection, the different points of view that originally fleshed out the people in the stories begin to create a feeling of surrealism. Do the families tell the truth about themselves or are the neighbors' observations more accurate? Even if these questions remain unanswered, the book is intriguing and beautifully written. Ellie Barta-Moran
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

Paperback: 216 pages
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press; 1 edition (April 1, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1880656574
ISBN-13: 978-1880656570
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #525,901 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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› Visit Amazon's Senji Kuroi Page

Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Silently, the clock struck 7:00. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
toy room

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miss Katase

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Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 2 books:

Wind and Stone (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature) by Masaaki Tachihara in Back Matter
The Twilight Years by Sawako Ariyoshi in Back Matter

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	91% buy the item featured on this page: Life in the Cul-De-Sac 4.2 out of 5 stars (5) $12.95
	9% buy The Name of the Flower (Rock Spring Collection of Japanese Literature) 4.8 out of 5 stars (4) $14.95

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a Japanese "Short Cuts"--a wonderful read!, May 22, 2001

By	Nicole North (Walnut Creek, ca) - See all my reviews

This is a beautiful sequence of interwoven short stories about four Japanese families living on a suburban cul-de-sac in Tokyo. If you like Raymond Carver-esque/magical realism, you'll love the lyrical, almost spooky connections and poignant near-misses of Life in the Cul-de-Sac. Very readable, often quite funny, full of surprises.

I actually got turned onto this book by the translator, who's also done a lot of Haruki Murakami stuff (novels & in The New Yorker)...

A great read for anyone looking for new adventures in fiction.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Isolated but not insulated., August 16, 2009

By	Dick Johnson (Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

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Kuroi gives us the merging of tradition with the modern world in the Japan of the 1980's. Some families run to the future, some are dragged kicking and screaming into it and others have no idea how to deal with it.

In twelve interrelated stories, we meet the residents of five homes in a cul-de-sac - another name for which is dead-end street. Many of these folks are already at a dead-end, while others seem destined to get there soon. Some would escape it if they just knew how.

All of the stories are about every-day folks (though the mixture of extremes is unlikely in such a small group). There is no real central conflict, but rather the reactions of the characters to the challenges of keeping families and themselves 'healthy' amidst real world struggles.

Translator Philip Gabriel captured the modern Japanese style while presenting us with a very readable book. Writing a novel through linked stories is quite common in Japanese literature and Kuroi did a good job with the threads that tie them together.

Far easier to 'figure out' than many modern Japanese authors, Senji Kuroi wrote a book that I found quite enjoyable.

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4.0 out of 5 stars The "blah" of life, December 30, 2002

By	Daitokuji31 (Black Glass) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

As the first reviewer stated I was attracted to this book because of the translator because he translated many of Murakami Haruki's books. While I did not enjoy this book quite as much as those written by Murakami, I did find it to be an interesting read. The book is one big down note. We are first introduced to the Oda family. The father Fusao is a depressed man who is often left at home with his two children while his wife is off taking classes. He tells his children about his family home that had stood in the same spot as their present house, and the reader can feel the family's past being melted away because of the destruction of the home. The rest of the chapters in the book deal with the families who live close to the Odas their stories are similar to his: lonliness, lack of roots, and a desire to return to the past. An Interesting read.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Entrancing, more intertesting than Murakami Haruki by far
At first I was not so sure, the book seemed a rather Soap Operaish. But after a bit I was hooked. Very clear and yet subtle examination of Japanese life in the suburbs. Read more

Published on March 2, 2003 by Deran Ludd

3.0 out of 5 stars ImportantBut not really timely or enjoyable
For those unfamiliar with Japanese literature, I recommend starting this connected series of short stories only after first flipping to the back to read the Translator's... Read more

Published on June 12, 2002 by A. Ross

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