I absolutely loved Fear and Trembling. I actually watched the movie first and loved it as well. I must say it follows the book almost exactly. It’s a fascinating study of the clash of cultures. The book is translated from the French, and the film is a combination of French and Japanese with English sub-titles.
In this short semi-autobiographical novel, Amelie Nothomb describes the experiences of ‘Amelie’ during her year at a Japanese corporation. Amelie is smitten with Japan, knows the language, and is ecstatic that she obtained a corporate position as a translator in the country where she was born. The job is not all she hoped, but she tries her best to stick out her position the way a Japanese person would. I found this book (and movie) to be truly fascinating. Nothomb obviously loves Japan and Japanese culture, but even she finds that the differences of East and West are sometimes difficult to overcome.
In speaking of the Japanese woman:
“It is best to avoid any kind of physical pleasure because it is apt to make you sweat. There is nothing more shameful than sweat. If you gobble up a steaming bowl of noodles, if you give in to s*xual craving, if you spend the winter dozing in front of the fire, you will sweat. And no one will be in any doubt that you are coarse.
The choice between sweat and suicide isn’t a choice. Spilling one’s blood is as admirable as spilling sweat is unspeakable. Take your life, and you will never sweat again. Your anxiety will be over for all eternity.”
X-Kai- Vol. 2 by Asami Tohjoh is only the second manga I’ve read. The first was X-Kai- Vol. 1 last year, which I primarily read because it was an ‘X’ title, and because I wanted to expand my horizons by reading manga. I liked the first volume quite a bit better. This second volume does finish up Kaito’s story which is nice, but it also has some darker themes going on as well.
Kaito is an assassin who works in a flower shop by day and also takes care of a boy named Renge. He doesn’t like his occupation but does it to help pay for his brother’s hospital care. His brother is a severe burn victim. There are four ’secrets’ in this volume, and the book includes both Renge and Kaito’s brother in the story. As I said, interesting to read — but dark.
Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata, was first translated into English in 1958. Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, and he died in 1972.
I found Thousand Cranes interesting, but a little hard to follow. Two of Kikuji Mitani’s father’s mistresses insert themselves into Kikuji’s life. He falls for one of them, and later her daughter. A tea ceremony is central to the story, but it’s meaning is a little lost on this Westerner. It’s a short novel, but one I’m afraid I just didn’t ‘get.’
I also own Kawabata’s Snow Country, which I still plan on reading at some point, but unfortunately I didn’t find Thousand Cranes to be all that exciting.
1949-1952, 1958 for the English translation, 147 pp.
(This post is book-related as the movies I’ve watched have mostly been book adaptations.)
Anyway, I thought my internet provider was going to start limiting my monthly usage to an unreasonably and ridiculously low amount (5 GB – are you kidding?) in January, so in December I started my own Netflix Net-a-thon and started watching as much stuff as I could ‘instantly’ online. It’s unlimited through Netflix but of course not necessarily through your internet provider. I keep going to my provider’s site to see if they’ve implemented the limit, but they haven’t yet so I keep on expanding my ‘instant’ watching. Let me tell you, I’ve watched some gems!
I really adored all of these, but especially Bleak House. Excellent! Where Angels Fear to Tread just felt like it had an abrupt ending, but perhaps it’s because the other ones I viewed were so long and well-developed.
I also viewed two Japanese language films because I’m doing the Japanese Literature Challenge. I love foreign films. I started watching them when my kids were small and would be noisy playing whenever my husband and I would rent DVDs. The kids could be as loud as they wanted to when we were watching the subtitles! I truly hate dubbing. I want to hear the original language of the film. I don’t mind sub-titles at all. Hearing the original language is part of what makes foreign films so wonderful.
In After Life, after they die, people go to what looks like an abandoned school of sorts and they get to choose one memory of their lives to be re-enacted. This is a slow, but beautiful movie. I’m just the geeky sort to love slow, thoughtful movies, though, so I loved it.
In Last Life in the Universe, a Japanese neat-freak librarian is living in Bangkok and is constantly thinking of committing suicide. After a tragic event, he meets a Thai girl who is a total slob. Opposite attract, though, right? Very weird but interesting movie. It would have received an ‘A’ except there was quite a bit of bad language. In Japanese, Thai, and English.
I’m really having fun with these and will probably be watching more. I’ll keep you posted with any interesting titles.
‘Math has proven the existence of God, because it is absolute and without contradiction; but the devil must exist as well, because we cannot prove it.’
Absolutely wonderful — I loved this book!!
Have you seen the movie 50 First Dates? It’s one of my favorite movies, and a very similar situation occurs in this book. A mathematics professor has only 80 minutes of short term memory due to a car accident, but he remembers everything clear as a bell that happened before his head injury. He continues to solve mathematical proofs and has an uncanny ability to know exactly where the North Star is in the sky, even when there’s no visibility. He is kind and has a great love for children. But, he remembers only 80 minutes at a time in the here and now. His sister-in-law lets him live in a cottage next to her main house, and she has hired a ninth housekeeper to cook and clean for the professor.
The housekeeper does her best to please the professor and works around his disability. She tells him about her 10 year old son, and he insists on letting the son come to his cottage after school, even though it’s against the cleaning agency’s rules. The professor writes notes to himself to help remind him of the housekeeper and her son. The boy and the professor both have a love of baseball, and the professor uses this to teach the boy mathematics. Soon a strong bond is formed among the three of them.
There is quite a bit of math in this book, and of course I enjoyed those references tremendously. I have an engineering degree, and mathematics has always been a love of mine. I don’t think you have to know math like I do to enjoy this book, but you will certainly appreciate the beauty of it a bit more if you do.
‘Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won’t find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give them expression — in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.’
Very highly recommended!!
2003, 2009 for the English translation by Stephen Snyder, 180 pp.
[Disclaimer: This copy was received from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.]
I do confess that the only reason I read this was because it was an ‘X’ title that I needed for the A-Z Challenge. It was also my first manga, AND since it was originally in Japanese, I also counted it for the Japanese Literature Challenge. Reading a manga is interesting because you read the book from back to front and right to left. It wasn’t really that difficult to do, and I enjoyed reading this book just for the experience.
This book features Kaito, a skilled assassin who trained at a very young age. His day job is at a flower shop, and a mysterious woman comes there to give him his assignments. He then uses lilies as a guise to kill his victims. Kaito does have a heart, though, and even takes in a homeless boy. He also cares for his brother who is in a coma.
There are three mini-stories in this book, and some of the drawings are fairly graphic in nature so I would recommend this for adults only. Kaito is drawn in such a way that at first I didn’t know if he was male or female. However, he uses that as a disguise sometimes to lure his victims.
I would read the second volume, if only to fill the need for another ‘X’ title. Mangas are a new and very different genre for me. If you like manga and know of a series I might like, please let me know.
2006 for the English translation, 200 pp.
Rating: 3.5/5
"Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." (John 6:27, ESV)
X-Kai- Vol. 2
Thousand Cranes
(This post is book-related as the movies I’ve watched have mostly been book adaptations.)
by Charles Dickens – 450 minutes – A+
by Elizabeth Gaskell – 375 minutes – A
by Anne Bronte – 159 minutes – A
by E.M. Forster – 112 minutes – B
by Charles Dickens – 351 minutes – A-
-118 minutes – A
– 103 minutes – B+
I do confess that the only reason I read this was because it was an ‘X’ title that I needed for the 
