Record of a Night too Brief (Japanese Novellas)

My first experience of Hiromi Kawakami's work was _Manazuru_ (2006), which I liked, followed by _The Briefcase_ (2001, also known as _Strange Weather in Tokyo_), which amazed me. Her short story in _The Book of Tokyo_ (2015), "The Hut on the Roof," was by far my favorite piece in that collection. I was happy, then, to find this collection of novellas, for one of which the author received the Akutagawa Prize. (Like Shusaku Endo, Kawakami has been awarded both of the great Japanese literary prizes: the Akutagawa and the Tanizaki.) The novellas included in _Record of a Night Too Brief_ are examples of magic realist fiction. Kawakami, as a matter of fact, recognizes Gabriel García Márquez as an influence. Now, I'm not necessarily a fan of magic realism. By this I mean that I like it, but that at this point this mode of writing has been so overdone that it has lost much of its magic. I am, on the other hand, a big fan of Kawakami and of Japanese literature, so let's say I enjoyed _Record of a Night Too Brief_ in spite of its magic realism.As you may have realized if you have read some of my other reviews, the novella is my thing. I wrote my doctoral dissertation on this genre, and I see it as the best way to enter an author's world. I thus got to know Tolstoy through _The Death of Ivan Ilyich_ (please see my review), Dostoevsky through _White Nights_ (which I've also reviewed), Conrad through _Heart of Darkness_, Joyce through _The Dead_, and Kafka through _The Metamorphosis_. The novellas gave me a wonderful, polished sample of what I later found in larger doses in the novels. Another great thing about the novella is that, as a result of editorial practices, it rarely comes alone. These days it is common for publishers to offer two or three of them in a single volume. _Record of a Night Too Brief_ is characterized by thematic unity, as all of the stories included are dreamlike or even hallucinatory, but each one of the texts represents a unique vision. I did not enjoy all of them equally, but the combination is quite pleasing.Here's what you'll find in this collection:* Record of a Night Too Brief: Of the three novellas included, this is the one that most obviously bears the mark of Lewis Carroll. The story follows the twisted logic of dreams, so it is free, but it may also come across as random. Regarding the "plot", the back cover states: "A woman travels through an unending night with a porcelain girlfriend." Not much more can be said to describe the story, except that anything can happen during this night. The writing is fresh, oneiric, like César Aira at his most delirious (think _The Literary Conference_, in which the protagonist wants to clone Carlos Fuentes), but not grotesque like, say, Yoko Tawada's _The Bridegroom Was a Dog_, another winner of the Akutagawa Prize.* Missing: This novella may seem as strange as the previous one, but it is more metaphorical than surreal. A girl's brother, who is about to get married, disappears, though she can still see him. (This reminded me of Aira's _Ghosts_.) The story takes place in a world that is almost like our own but not quite: families are required to live in groups of five, and people may adopt tiny "pipe foxes" that bring prosperity and happiness. The narrator also describes the nekoma, "a little creature that is covered with a thick coat of fur on its legs, arms, and back" (85), which lives in the foundations of houses, like those strange little animals in _My Neighbor Totoro_. As in the previous novella, Kawakami keeps piling up strange occurrences. What keeps the story from falling apart is the fact that this is a novella; had it been a novel, one would have gotten the sense that he/she was reading a string of aleatory unusual events. Regarding the metaphorical quality of the story, I kept thinking about that scene in Buñuel's _The Phantom of Liberty_ (1974) in which a man and a woman discuss their daughter's disappearance with the school principal... with their "disappeared" daughter right there in front of them. Those who are right next to us may be miles away. That's one of the things this story may be trying to convey.* A Snake Stepped On: A woman accidentally steps on a snake at the park, after which the snake appears in her apartment, often in the form of a woman who cooks for her and claims to be her mother. The protagonist, Hiwako Sanada, is a former teacher who now works for a couple who run a prayer-bead shop. She soon finds out that the wife of the shop owner also has a snake living with her. This interesting story may be playing with the Garden of Eden myth, but there's also a clear connection with traditional Japanese folklore, as in Izumi Kyoka's "The Holy Man of Mount Koya." The tale may also be read as a metaphor for guilt. As in the best fantastic stories, as in Kafka, the fantastic blends with the real: the characters react "objectively" to extraordinary events.I can't decide whether I prefer _Missing_ to _A Snake Stepped On_; bother stories are equally good and rich with possibilities when it comes to interpretation. The title novella is without a doubt my least favorite. It is extremely difficult to keep the reader's attention with a story in which anything at all may happen. Lewis Carroll could do it in his Alice books, but then few people read _Sylvie and Bruno_. I don't know whether magic realism *must* be metaphorical, but the best kind certainly is. There are plenty of examples of this in _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ and, perhaps most significantly, in Günter Grass' magnificent _The Tin Drum_. The second and third novellas in this collection are superior to the first one due to their strong metaphorical content. The title novella is a refreshing experiment, but those readers who still look for realistic depictions of the human condition (I trust there are still a few of us left) will most probably favor _Missing_ or _A Snake Stepped On_. These two prove that fantasy, when it is meaningful, is not mere escapism, but can make us think about what it means to be human. Isn’t this one of things literature is supposed to do?I will eventually read _The Nakano Thrift Shop_ and the books by Kawakami that have been translated into Spanish. Before that, however, I will read another Akutagawa Prize winner that has been published by Pushkin Press: _Spring Garden_ (2014), by Tomoka Shibasaki.For another wonderful trilogy of novellas by a Japanese author, try Yoko Ogawa’s _The Diving Pool_, which includes the Akutagawa Prize-winning _Pregnancy Diary_.Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!

Record of a Night Too Brief, the first story in kawakami’s book, is a series of dream sequences seemingly inspired by freud and lewis carroll, talking animals, shrinking girls, mathematical remarks and a malleable night sky, told by a running narrator.Missing, the second story, is a look at personal and cultural traditions, including folklore. strangely, nothing startles, everything is acceptable to two families about to be joined by matrimony, until one of the narrator’s brothers, the groom to be, goes missing, which isn’t surprising since the family has a history of family members disappearing into the spirit world and keeping contact.the third story, A Snake Stepped On, is the highlight of the book. kawakami pulls out all the stops on surrealism, nodding to western references of kafka and ionesco, but she seems more at home with the likes of alfred jarry and lautreamont. in the story, a young woman steps on a snake and the snake transforms into an older woman who moves into the young woman’s home, which comes as no surprise to the young woman’s employers.kawakami’s real influences are the animators and installation artists. her stories are vastly visual. fans of japanese culture, i’m guessing, will be able to identify and appreciate some of her jump off points.fans of kawakami might agree this isn’t her best work. for her new readers, those of us who like the riskier forms of fiction, her work is intriguing, and worth looking at more she's written.

“Record of a Night Too Brief” is a weird book and that I say in a good way. It took me some time to wind my head around it, but it proved to be a very satisfying read, nonetheless. This book is a collection of three fantastical short stories and on the surface, while they all seem to be rather easy and direct, they are anything but that.In the first titular story, there are dream sequences (reminded me a lot of Murakami when that happened), talking animals, shrinking girls, mathematics, and a night-sky that you should only experience while reading this story.The second one titled, “Missing” is about a sister mourning for her missing brother, while her entire family is rejoicing the fact of his would-be-wife entering the household. This is my favourite story in the book and you will know why when you read it.The last story is called “A Snake Stepped On” where a woman accidentally steps on a snake, the snake is transformed to a girl and follows her home, thus living with the woman and her family.You might think it to be super strange but like I said before, while these stories are strange, they are entertaining and profound to a large extent. These stories are about three women, trying to make their way in this world, surrounded by strange circumstances. In this way then, all these stories are sure inter-linked.The writing cannot be bracketed in any genre. It is refreshing, haunting and almost new (Like I said, it did remind me of Murakami to some extent). I’ve read Kawakami’s books earlier and I must say that this happens to be her best, according to me. She has truly evolved as a writer in this one.Lucy North has translated this book to perfection, because I didn’t feel anything lacking in it. If you want to start with contemporary Japanese literature and understand its people and way of life, I would most certainly urge you to read this collection.

I really wanted to love this. Strange Weather in Tokyo is such a powerful book and I adored it, so was desperate to read something else by the same author, but I really didn’t like these stories.I love Japanese writing, and am quite happy to accept the slightly surreal turns Japanese writers often employ, but this one was too much for me.The first story was just completely self-indulgent nonsense. Streams of dreams that I just wanted to end. Each part was too brief to grip you before she switched to something else entirely.The second story was definitely more readable & I think was the best of the three. It involves disappearing family members and is also a comment on culture and tradition.The third is about snakes turning into humans and assuming human roles etc. It is probably a clever metaphor for something but I didn’t get it and I couldn’t get into this one either.I won’t give up on the author yet, but I think I’ll stick to her novels rather than short stories in future.

Very well written, but very strange. Of the three novellas in the book the third is by far the best.

This is a collection of three off-beat short stories based on the lives of women dealing with grief, loneliness, loss and oblivion. Set in Japan, the stories focus on three women going about their mundane lives when the world begins to turn upside down. They are met with creatures of night and daze; some disappearing into the air, some sucking into their bodies, some speaking to themselves the darkest secrets. I found the three stories unique and fascinating. I loved the way the author used magic realism to show what loneliness and loss felt like. Particularly, I liked the second story ‘Missing’ the most. It was the story of a girl who was having a hard time moving on from her elder brother’s disappearance from her life. I felt the story cut itself into layers of emotions and expose what sadness over losing someone you love feels like. Loss of an individual doesn’t wear easily on us, we are constantly reminded of that person when the world has accepted and marched ahead but the loss tugs at us, holds us into itself and fixes us in its illusion. Truthfully, I liked the third story ‘A Snake Stepped on’ too. It was a story that was centred around a girl who finds a snake transfigure into her mother and stays put at her apartment. The three stories were a poignant commentary on what it is to be in the urban, metropolitan city, how its anonymity, its unchecked speed can sometimes bring one down with exhaustion and no shoulders to lay your head on, only a journey to somewhere called a happy life. The stories and its animals make you think, seduce you into submission and takes you down to a world where there are questions of making choices, being stubborn and finally a fight to stay or to recover. Certainly, I cannot wait to read more of her short stories and if you are looking forward to short stories do check this out. It’s worth it, I promise. Also, thanks to the translator for smooth translation of the story and also the cover designer for the attractive cover that made me buy the book in the first place!

Having joyously consumed Ms. Kawakami's novels 'Strange Weather in Tokyo' and 'The Nakano Thrift Shop', I was one of the first ones in the queue when 'Record of a Night Too Brief' hit the shelves.The three stories contained in this slim volume are fantastical fables, full of strange happenings - with a unifying theme of metamorphosis. While the author's prose is as delightful as ever, I found the stories themselves lacking in the heart so evident in her two novels. However, this disappointment aside, I will still wait with impatience for her next offering in an English translation.