Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata BOOK REVIEW
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- Опубліковано 4 лют 2025
- Translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Life Ceremony is a collection of twisted and dark short stories by subversive Japanese author Sayaka Murata.
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The story with the girls who have the man as a pet "Poochie" (SPOILERS AHEAD), I thought it said the one girl found him in a business district of a town/city wandering aimlessly, and I read it as or assumed he was a burnt out office worker who had a total nervous breakdown...did anyone else read it like that? He kept saying "finishitbytwo", like a work deadline that was impossible for him to meet, and he just snapped
I think you’re probably very right! I’ll have to read it again
Thank you for introducing me to Sayaka Murata, I read convenience store woman this morning, and now I'm nearly finished earthlings. She is a fantastic author.
I found both her books at my local library and read them in a week, which is a achievement for me 😅 but the way she words her characters motives and their inner dialogues with a society that will forever see them as "other" and the acceptance of that notion. It felt liberating for someone like me who's on the spectrum and you can bet my naked in the countryside under the stars with a person who is definitely! Not my cousin, that i'm getting this book.
Hahaha I love all of this
I also love Murata. I'm neurotypical, but I don't think you need to be neurodiverse to feel at arm's length from much of the rest of the world, and yes she captures that so well. I saw this in my local bookstore yesterday, and almost picked it up, but in the end (Earthlings in the back of my mind) I decided it might be a better fall book for me. (And now I'm glad I waited because I love the UK cover, and I'm intrigued by the last story, so I think I'll order from overseas.) Your description of these stories and her themes was fabulous, Willow, thank you. (Unrelated, but your thumbnail photos always make me smile. 😊)
The UK cover is gorgeous! I’m so glad I got it :) And thanks for praising my thumbnails! I always have fun making them :)
I can listen to you talk about books forever. I’m Japanese and I watch book reviews by Japanese people as well but you are my favorite by far. I just finished reading life ceremony and I loved it. I immediately ordered three other books by her (one of them is an essay collection ). I hope more of her books get translated so I can come here and watch you review them too.
Body Magic was 100% the first draft of Earthlings. I also love Sayaka’s interpretation of masking , the functions of our bodies and asexuality
Best short stories I've read, Especially loved life ceremony, eating the city, and the magnificent spread.
I read the first two you mentioned (because of you) and now I have to get this newest one. Thank you. She's fantastic.
What a relief! Recommending her can often go badly lol
She has quickly jumped to the top of my list of favourite authors. Each of her books have been excellent and thoughtful and scary. Long after closing the book her narratives remain with me. Ordered her new and looking forward to diving into it. Thanks again for another brilliant review
Same for me. With everything of hers that I read, I love her more and more.
Always a pleasure to see another book review from you! ❤️
Aww that’s so sweet, thank you!
Your enthusiasm for Sayaka Murata's writing has convinced me to read all three of her translated works without trepidation. I feel like I am prepared, but also expecting to be challenged, which is a good place to be. I can't wait!
Ooh, I put this on my want to read list when I heard it was coming out - thanks for reminding me that it has now been published!
You’re very welcome!
I just finished Convenience Store Woman yesterday and really enjoyed it - I'm super excited to read this and Earthlings ASAP - thank you for your well thought out and exciting reviews; you always make me want to drop what I'm reading and pick them up!
Aw thanks so much! I really hope you enjoy them both. They’re a far cry from Convenience Store Woman!
Everytime I click on one of your videos, I have to brace myself for the reality that you are going to convince me to want to buy the book by the end.
It’s my gift and my curse
Thanks for inspiring me to read more! I'm slow but I've not given up on my goal of reading 20 books this year. Haven't read this author because Earthlings intimidates me, but that's probably a sign I should work up to reading it.
Maybe this collection is a good way to work up to Earthlings!
I love listening to you talk about books, it’s just so calming
Aww thank you so much! I like to deliver the calming vibes
Thank you for the review!!! She is also my favourite Japanese author 😊😊
So jealous you've managed to read it already! I am so excited to go to my local bookstore this week when it is released! I love both her books, but especially Earthlings, which I read maybe two years ago and still think about often. Yes, I believe that many of these stories predate her novels. I love the themes in her works and can't wait to read her short stories, especially those you mentioned are the prototypes of her ideas in Earthlings.
Yeah I’m not sure any story has stuck in my head like Earthlings!
I read Convenience Store Woman in Back in 2018. It was my first taste of modern Asian literiture. I suppose it must've prompted me to read more, 'cause that exploration led to me finding this chanel. Can't remember when exactly. Now you are helping me out in what to read. A lot. thanks for that. Don't like everything you recommend, but hey. I am a straight white 62yo English man, open to whatever fiction throws at me since I learned to read, back in the day.
This is all very sweet, thanks so much for your support. Happy reading!
Additional shout out for Ginny Tapley Takemori and her wonderful translation work, bringing great books and authors to broader audiences!
Absolutely! She’s a legend!
Yes! I’m so glad I’ve gotten to read Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings thanks to her
your videos are really helpful n entertaining!! from now on I'm doing my best to compliment all people i feel compelled to, so know me and many other viewers sincerely enjoy your page and the work you put into it:) i too am a huge mieko kawakami fan (reading all the lovers in the night rn), and I've been really planning to check out sayaka murata's work, so this is v encouraging!! to think i nearly didnt have any mind to check my yt recommended before sleeping:P so thx!! hope this comment wasn't weirdly long lol
You’re so sweet! I sincerely appreciate every kind word I’m ever given. It’s what keeps me going! I can never decide on a fave between Kawakami and Murata. I can’t live without them both!
I really enjoyed this one too, but I agree with what you're saying in comparison to Earthlings, I kind of wish I read Life Ceremony before either of Murata's books.
Yeah I think anyone who hasn’t read her at all should read this first, or at least before Earthlings.
I've only read Convenience Store Woman but I can feel in that novel the possiblities for these stories. My experience with having read a number of books about or by neurodiverse people is that they open up whole new worlds I would never have thought of. Those worlds Murata present to us aren't always comfortable
but if there is one thing I come away with from interacting with autistic students, friends and family, it's just how foreign they consider the neurotypical world. They have to work very hard to wrench the slightest bit of comfort from "our" world. Murata made me feel uncomfortable in Convenience Store Woman and I find it very brave of her to do so.💜😮💜
earthlings!!!! 🧡🧡🧡🧡 just started life ceremony today
Have read both CSW and Earthlings and you convinced me to pick this up too. On it!
Hell yes!
Omg i wish i can find this book in our online shop here in Philippines, i love your vids so much! I just finished Convenience store woman, i'm gonna read earthlings next when it arrive!!! 🥺💖
You should be able to order it online from the UK! Especially if you order from Blackwell’s :)
I’m from the PH too and I got my copy from Book Depository. Hope it helps!
Lol, you keep dropping these fab reviews of books I pre-ordered and am desperate to get my hands on!
At least I only have 3 more days for it to arrive now :)
The wait will be worth it!
I love the way you introduce this book! You've opened up my eyes to a whole new world. I've sent you an email about a UA-cam sponsorship to review a book. Hope you get a chance to read it.
So looking forward to picking this one up
Oh you should be!
This actually convinced me to get Earthlings! I loved Convenience Store Woman and I can't wait to sink my teeth into this next one
Oh cool, yay! It might be interesting to read this before Earthlings. I’d love to know what that would be like!
Your description of that dog story very much reminded me of Dog Days by Judy Budnitz.
I haven’t read it but I certainly want to now!
I finished reading earthlings a while ago after watching your videos, and wow... i don't know how to describe it until now. as a brazilian, i'm not used to this kind of literature, the asian perspective about social events, and then i started reading sayaka murata and mieko kawakami, and i'm amused. i've already read earthlings and convenience store woman, and heaven by kawamaki, and now i'm reading breasts ang eggs, again on your recomendation. i'm really excited to life ceremony and all lovers in the night after your both videos about it. xx
Have you read Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica? The author is Argentinian, not Brazilian, but it’s a great example of something very chilling and bleak from your corner of the world.
@@WillowTalksBooks yes!! i just finished reading it a few days ago, it was my first audiobook experience hahah i really loved it. btw reminded me so much of earthlings
There was one story in this book that genuinely gave me a little jump-scare and it was so thrilling-(SPOILER?) it’s the one where she casts a spell on you, gave me that chest sinking feeling when I realized. She’s definitely my favorite author!!
when I read Convenience Store Woman i related to it as asexual woman. Even though the tone is light I was surrounded by darkness because as an Asian woman living here, i kept thinking if this is going to be my future. As for Earthlings there the theme of an asexual marriage is once again present. So I am curious to know if this aspect is present in this collection as well. She's my fav author as well btw! thanks for this stellar review 💜
She is definitely doing good for representation of queer and neurodiverse minorities like us! And I think we attach ourselves to her work very intensely!
"More Earthlings than Convenience Store Woman".....OH, GOODY! 😈
Haha that’s the response I’m after!
OMG the stray dog story sounds really good! If I only read one story in the collection I want to read that one!
It’s tiny, too, and very wonderfully weird!
I don't know why but I only now I got the brilliant idea to check my library's Japanese section for Mieko Kawakami. In my defence not everything that got translated to English was translated to French and viceversa. This time I checked on there website and made a reservation for Erthlings ( Les Terriens :) ). The new one isn't available yet, I'm not sure if it's already out in French.
Yeah it’s very interesting what does and doesn’t get translated into different languages! There must be whole essays written on this trend
@@WillowTalksBooks When I was still living in Poland, I had a period of reading every crime novel writen by Alexandra Marinina. Funny thing there were more books translated to French then Polish at that point, so I started ordering them in a french bookshop. That was good language training for me, although I catch spoken language easier than written. Anyway, eve taking into acount the alphabet I'm sure it's easier to translate Russian to Polish than to French, so I found that edditing trend weird.
Is this anything like Cursed Bunny? Thanks for the review :-)
I guess so? In the sense that the stories are surreal and strange sometimes. But also no because Cursed Bunny explores a really broad range of genres and goes for a “fairy tale” vibe, while this is more literary I guess. Hard to say!
thank you for the review! I'm looking forward to reading this after earthlings chew me out and spat me back out
Love being chewed up by Murata 😈
Thanks for the review. I just bought this for a friend of mine...oops...I think I'll have to keep it, as 1. it appeals to me and 2. it might scare my friend away. Just saying... I did read "A Clean Marriage" a long time ago, in the New Yorker or some other magazine. It really stayed with me. Looking forward to this disturbing book.
If it’s going to scare you friend, better to keep it and enjoy it ;)
Are all these book in trilogy or some kind of sequence?
Nope
@@WillowTalksBooks Thankyou so much
Ahh thank you for mentioning that the narrator in Convenience Store Woman is autistic coded! I related to her so much before I found out I am autistic. I did love Earthlings as well. The way it escalated was brilliant. This collection sounds interesting. The thought of having sex at a funeral for the purpose of conceiving freaks me out because I don't want children and I'm afraid of pregnancy 😬 I still look forward to reading these stories. Also I both hate and love the cover for the UK edition. 😨
Oh that’s very interesting! I don’t want to definitively say she’s autistic but the signs are certainly there.
Yeah I also don’t want children and get very freaked out by pregnancy lol
She can repeat the same themes for the rest of her life and I'll keep reading her till I die, I did not stop reading Chandler because he kept telling private eye stories and I won't stop with Sayaka because she keeps telling cannibal ones 😄😸 I think some of these apparently early stories might be even more disturbing than "Earthlings" in that the title story is about normalized cannibalism!! The way she went into detail about how they calmly "prepared the dinner"! 🤢 That is the thing with her, she portrays insane societies willingly tolerated by the vast majority. No secret police and so on seem necessary. Much more like Huxley than Orwell. I'm glad for you all there that you got the extra story they cheated us out of here in the States 😡😾
I’m guessing the reason we got A Clean Marriage and you didn’t is because Granta owns it and decided to flaunt it lol 🤷🏻♀️
I think in describing "A Clean Marriage" you may have been using the word "asexual" where you mean "sexless." Not entirely sure, since I haven't read it, but unless it's describing animal reproduction, "asexual" means someone who doesn't experience sexual attraction, so this could be the case, but I don't think it is.
I was actually waiting for this comment. I had a sneaking feeling someone would leave it. A lot of my friends are aro/ace (and I myself am demisexual) so I’m very familiar with what it is. When describing this story, asexual felt like a more accurate term than sexless. Maybe I was wrong but it’s what I went with in the moment. Granta also used “asexual” in the marketing materials and on the blurb so I guess I was influenced by that.
@@WillowTalksBooks OK, fair enough!