Mieko Kanai

In this stream of conciousness novel, a 40-something housewife living an ordinary somewhat mundane life goes through her daily activities--planning, shopping for and making meals, taking care of her kids, going shopping with her mother, helping with her elderly father, and so on. It reminded me very much of Ducks, Newburyport (which, true confession, I didn't finish yet, but still intend to...one day).

The novel was originally published in installments correlating to 8 sections, each roughly correlating to a particular subject. There are two anomalies: About three-quarters through the book there is printed verbatim for several pages a review/essay that the housewife, Natsumi, read, about a photography exhibit at an art museum. This led me down the google-hole, as this was a real exhibition by real photographers. So I learned about Kineo Kuwabana, who documented Tokyo life from the 1930's through the 1980's/90's, and Nobuyoshi Araki who took avant-garde photographs, some of which were said to verge on the pornographic.

The other unusual thing was the Afterwood, which I initially thought was a separate story, but part of the book. Instead of being in the mind of a Tokyo housewife, we are in Brooklyn with two female writers, Sophie and K. K has been engaged to write an essay about a recently translated Japanese novel, and she has taken on the job because she need the money, because her daughter needs dental work---and so on. We get to the end and I find that this was written by Kate Zambreno, whose work I discovered earlier this year, so that was nice.

This is all a bit convoluted, but I liked the book.

3 stars… (altro)

fiction, translated into English from Japanese - modern feminist-leaning narrative about the monotony of a housewife's daily activities, at once underwhelming and overwhelming with its litany of tedium and unending consumerism. Originally published in serial in a women's magazine, so perhaps best appreciated in sections, as the stream of consciousness prose can bring feelings of exhaustion.

I appreciated it more after reading the afterword. It was sort of hard to get into (and I thought perhaps something was lost in the translation?), but once you understand that it's ok to let your eyes gloss over the page, and not register every word of every mundane thought, it gets easier, and more interesting.… (altro)

It is always interesting to see what sorts of books capture the imagination of people in other countries. Best sellers and prize winners aren't always translated into English so those of us who do not read in another language don't have access to them or the insights they might give about the culture out of which they sprang. So it's always cause for curiosity when something relatively celebrated is finally translated. Mieko Kanai's Oh, Tama! is one such book. Written in 1986-7 as short pieces for magazines and then published as a complete novel, this is the second of the Mejiro novels (named for the neighborhood in which the books are set) and it won the Women's Literature Award in 1998. There is something ineffably foreign about it, a tone or construction, or focus, it is unmistakably Japanese.

Tama the cat is pregnant and her owner, Tsuneko, is also pregnant. As Tsuneko has intentionally disappeared, someone must care for Tama as she waits for her kittens. Alexandre, Tsuneko's mixed race half-brother, a model and sometime porn star, takes the cat to his friend Natsuyuki's home with the intention of leaving her there with the currently unemployed freelance photographer. Complicating matters is the fact that Natsuyuki could potentially be the father of Tsuneko's unborn child. But he's not the only one. In fact, his long-lost older brother, Fuyuhiko, who he only meets as a result of the situation, could also be the baby's father. Sounds complicated and bananas, right? The mystery of where Tsuneko, who has asked the potential father candidates for money, has disappeared to is not even really at issue here in this essentially plotless novel. The bulk of the story is taken up by Natsuyuki's dysfunctional friends and brother moving in and out of his house while Tama observes their philosophical discussions and bewildering behaviour.

The novel has, perhaps, far more of a Japanese sensibility than I understand from my own cultural vantage point. And without the cultural frame of reference that its original audience had, I entirely missed the allusions and parodies. The characters are quirky but aimless and I felt swamped by the slow moving, meandering story. I completely missed the humor that is supposed to be abundant here and am not sure if it is dependent on knowledge of the area in Tokyo where Natsuyuki lives or on an understanding of their generation within Japan or something else entirely. Even situations that are important and life-altering, like the revelation of Fuyuhiko as Natsuyuki's brother, are relayed with flat affect and treated as fairly unremarkable. Even Natsuyuki's mother dismisses the discovery of her oldest son by her youngest as unimportant. Baffling for sure. This has the feel of a stage play with its constant comings and goings and swirling conversations over art and literature, photography and film, fashion and cats. Those who have a deeper appreciation for Japanese literature than I do will likely enjoy reading this brief, almost absurdist novel more than I did.… (altro)

This offbeat, quirky little novel from Mieko Kanai is certainly one to enjoy, especially for fans of Japanese literature. Indeed, those who are familiar with some of the great ‘cat’ literature of the 20th century, or anyone who has read a lot of Japanese authors, will recognise the style and themes of the book which, superficially, can be quite hard to completely get a grasp of for the uninitiated.

Natsuyuki Kanemitsu, a freelance photographer, lives a quiet enough life but it is soon interrupted by the arrival of his friend Alexandre (real name Kanemitsu) who announces that his sister Tsuneko is pregnant and that there are several possible fathers – one of whom, perhaps, is Natsuyuki himself. Alexandre also brings with him the eponymous hero of our tale, the heavily-pregnant Tama, and leaves the cat with Natsuyuki. And that’s pretty much it, plot-wise. There appears another character called Fuyuhiko, a friend of Alexandre’s who, as it happens, is Natsuyuki’s half-brother, and who may also be the father of Tsuneko’s child. As is the case in much of the Japanese literature I have read, the pace is slow, the main focus is on dialogue and scene-setting, on the quiet unravelling of themes and ideas which, in the case of ‘Oh, Tama!’, rely a lot on coincidence. There is much discussion and reference to literature and film, art theory and fashion, and always in the background is Tama, having had her kittens and caring for them in Natsuyuki’s wardrobe, watching from the side-lines at the eccentricities of the human race!

Without over-playing the parallels, there is obviously the comparison between Tsuneko and Tama, between the human and the animal world and our attitude to sex and relationships. There is a lot of humour and almost farcical plot developments as all of the characters arrive at and leave Natsuyuki’s small apartment. It is a little gem of a book that will stand up to multiple re-readings to tease out the subtlety of the writing. If you are looking for a fast-paced page-turner, a thrill a minute ride, then this is not for you. If you are looking for a quiet, eccentric little book and have a penchant for Japan and Japanese literature, then this should definitely be on your reading list.… (altro)