In fairness Soseki Natsume wrote ‘I am a Cat’, and Junichiro Tanizaki has ‘A Cat, a Man, and Two Women’, so can’t necessarily dismiss Japanese works just because they feature a cat 🐈
what a great and varied selection you offer. i've read some and loved almost all (banana yoshimoto and mieko kawakami are some of my all time favorite authors). i have kirino's books on my tbr for a year now and you just gave me the extra push to finally pick them up! really enjoyed hearing you talk about these titles. wishing you well ~
I've now added more to my reading list!!! I found your channel by searching for The Buried Giant reviews. That book really spoke to me and you've just made me realise with this video that maybe I'd be a fan of the Japanese perspective in fiction! thank you!
Glad to hear you mention Kitchen - I read it when it first came out in English and you are right when you said it was ahead of its time - I’d never read anything like it. I was amazed to find a new book by her last week in my local bookshop.
I am so happy I found your channel. I am still new to Japanese lit, but I absolutely loved Convenience Store Woman. I've also read Malice by Keigo Higashino, who writes crime fiction. If you like Agatha Christie I'd definitely recommend that.
thanks so much for the video! I didn't really like the convenience store woman so it was great to stumble upon a recommendation of japanese lit video that didn't focus on this book too much! found a lot of new names
I'm a hugeee Soseki and Kawabata fan and have read all the former's work (my favorite is probably 'Grass on the Wayside', 'Kokoro', 'Ten Nights of Dreams', or 'And Then') and the majority of the latter's. 'The Old Capital', in my opinion, is way better than 'Snow Country' and I'm so glad you've given it recognition! I've watched some of your videos and they're phenomenal. Keep it up!
The first Japanese novel I read was Yukio Mishima's "Temple of the Golden Pavilion". It was compelling in it's way, but definitely not a comfortable read. Thanks for the informative post.
If all you've read of Mishima to this point (the video) is Confessions of a Mask and Forbidden Colours , then yeah, Mishima doesn't fare so well. That's like judging Tolstoy on Youth or Cossacks, rather than on War and Peace or Anna Karenina.
The worst book I've attempted to complete reading in the past 10 years is a Japanese book, much hyped by the youngsters here on UA-cam, called 'There's No Such Thing as An Easy Job'. I read a great deal of Japanese literature and love the effortless 'quirkiness' that is impossible for writers from any other culture to replicate authentically; it's distinctly, uniquely Japanese. Their classic literature also has a very unique, unmistakably Japanese sensibility. I'm very drawn to Japanese authors and the better translations (no easy task, I acknowledge). TNSTAAEJ is not a charmingly quirky 'slice-of-life' meets magic realism book. It's by far one of the worst novels I've ever attempted to battle my way through. In the end I literally threw it from my sudsy bubble bath last winter all the way into the hallway. Any grown adult who liked this book I narrow my eyes at and am unlikely to take recommendations from (same goes for anybody reading deep in the corrupt, characterless, anodyne land of woke-- you can stick your sensitivity readers). Cheers for this video, I love hearing about cool new things to check out and enthusiasm is by far one of the most attractive qualities a person can demonstrate. Contagious! 😊📚📚🗾
I’ve only just found your channel. PLEASE COME BACK.
This is the sort of excessively-categorised stuff I live for!
7:01 Yes to the video on Japanese Literature by time periods.
I can’t believe you don’t have more traffic to your channel. I love your content!
In fairness Soseki Natsume wrote ‘I am a Cat’, and Junichiro Tanizaki has ‘A Cat, a Man, and Two Women’, so can’t necessarily dismiss Japanese works just because they feature a cat 🐈
what a great and varied selection you offer. i've read some and loved almost all (banana yoshimoto and mieko kawakami are some of my all time favorite authors). i have kirino's books on my tbr for a year now and you just gave me the extra push to finally pick them up! really enjoyed hearing you talk about these titles. wishing you well ~
I held my breath on Murakami but I’m happy you mentioned 1Q84 and how Murakami out-Murakamis themselves.
Yeah, I just couldn't deal with that book at ALL. About five hundred pages too long, which is a literal whole book that could be cut from it!
I like the categories that you have with the books. Very interesting categories.
Please do more of these videos and more recommendations! Love it!
I’ve heard great things about ‘Kitchen’. Glad to hear you mention it 👏🏽
Definitely would reccomend giving it a shot! As I say in the vid, it's pretty short so no time lost if it's not up your street in the end.
I've now added more to my reading list!!! I found your channel by searching for The Buried Giant reviews. That book really spoke to me and you've just made me realise with this video that maybe I'd be a fan of the Japanese perspective in fiction! thank you!
Glad to hear you mention Kitchen - I read it when it first came out in English and you are right when you said it was ahead of its time - I’d never read anything like it. I was amazed to find a new book by her last week in my local bookshop.
I am so happy I found your channel. I am still new to Japanese lit, but I absolutely loved Convenience Store Woman. I've also read Malice by Keigo Higashino, who writes crime fiction. If you like Agatha Christie I'd definitely recommend that.
I've never read Higashino - I've heard good things about his writing from crime fans, so I'd be keen to check some out
excited to read kitchen by banana yoshimoto!!
thanks so much for the video! I didn't really like the convenience store woman so it was great to stumble upon a recommendation of japanese lit video that didn't focus on this book too much! found a lot of new names
Thanks for watching! Glad that you got some names out of it!!
I'm a hugeee Soseki and Kawabata fan and have read all the former's work (my favorite is probably 'Grass on the Wayside', 'Kokoro', 'Ten Nights of Dreams', or 'And Then') and the majority of the latter's. 'The Old Capital', in my opinion, is way better than 'Snow Country' and I'm so glad you've given it recognition! I've watched some of your videos and they're phenomenal. Keep it up!
“Can’t believe I had to talk about bloody Mishima.” - The New York Times.
I'd love to see more vids on Japanese lit btw :)
My Recommendation: The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa.
It’s funny, trippy and adventurous and I like the illustrated version.
One of my favorite books of all time!
The first Japanese novel I read was Yukio Mishima's "Temple of the Golden Pavilion". It was compelling in it's way, but definitely not a comfortable read.
Thanks for the informative post.
BooksLikeWhoa (Booktuber) recently had a video on Japanese Mystery Novels.
The cat violence put me off Kafka On The Shore.
I got the book a few months ago without checking the content warnings and now I just don't even want to start it
Btw I’m reading ‘Before The Coffee Gets Cold’ now and I gasped when you mentioned it. Are you clairvoyant? 😂
It’s so cool that you lived in Japan! Sorry I sound like a wide-eyed tourist.
“I could talk about Japanese books all day.” needs to be a T-Shirt.
great! now im gonna read all of these. in order, most likely. remind me to update 2 months!!! ahre jajaja
Stand outside a thunderstorm > Read one of Osamu Dazai’s works
Of course I knew what ‘Kokoro’ meant! There was that Studio Ghibli movie: My Neighbour Kokoro.
The movie is actually called My Neighbor Totoro. :)
IMHO, the best choice, anything by Sayaka Murata and Yoko Ogawa
If all you've read of Mishima to this point (the video) is Confessions of a Mask and Forbidden Colours , then yeah, Mishima doesn't fare so well. That's like judging Tolstoy on Youth or Cossacks, rather than on War and Peace or Anna Karenina.
Please talk about Japanese books all day and post videos about them! =D
The worst book I've attempted to complete reading in the past 10 years is a Japanese book, much hyped by the youngsters here on UA-cam, called 'There's No Such Thing as An Easy Job'. I read a great deal of Japanese literature and love the effortless 'quirkiness' that is impossible for writers from any other culture to replicate authentically; it's distinctly, uniquely Japanese. Their classic literature also has a very unique, unmistakably Japanese sensibility. I'm very drawn to Japanese authors and the better translations (no easy task, I acknowledge). TNSTAAEJ is not a charmingly quirky 'slice-of-life' meets magic realism book. It's by far one of the worst novels I've ever attempted to battle my way through. In the end I literally threw it from my sudsy bubble bath last winter all the way into the hallway. Any grown adult who liked this book I narrow my eyes at and am unlikely to take recommendations from (same goes for anybody reading deep in the corrupt, characterless, anodyne land of woke-- you can stick your sensitivity readers). Cheers for this video, I love hearing about cool new things to check out and enthusiasm is by far one of the most attractive qualities a person can demonstrate. Contagious! 😊📚📚🗾
Thanks !!!
Ooooooooookay
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia. 1 Peter 1:1