Welcome to Litsy!

Manazuru was the last of Hiromi Kawakami's books (that have been translated into English) that I hadn't read -- until Under the Eye of the Big Bird comes out in September. This one was quieter than some of her others. The fantastical parts weren't as colorful as in Dragon Palace or People from my Neighborhood. The pace was on the slow side, but once I got into it, I found it to be a gripping rumination on grief and memory.

Cute and cozy but wish there was a little more underlying story between the short stories

Dewey‘s 24-Hour Readathon is about to begin! It‘s my 32nd consecutive ‘thon (which: whoa) and I‘m all set to kick it off with another chapter from THE KAMOGAWA FOOD DETECTIVES. It‘s lovely so far; a little bit like MIDNIGHT DINER in how it uses particular dishes to unravel the mysteries behind people‘s lives, but without the show‘s underlying grit. #deweysapril2024

Written in the 1940s about the lives of the 4 well to-do Makioka sisters this had all the elements of translated Japanese fiction I enjoy; the gentle style, the formality with which people address each other, the need for rules, politeness and order. And yet, this was just so incredibly slow. Even the drama unfolds painfully slowly. At first I settled into the pace, but around 300 pages in I was getting impatient and it was a struggle to finish.

This is a sweet little book… not quite a novel, maybe more connected vignettes? Surrounding a father-daughter team who run a restaurant that specializes in recreating a meal the customer is trying to remember from their past. Very cozy.

Food and memory are uniquely entwined. This is a sweet story of a father-daughter owned restaurant / food detective agency.

Weekly Report

I almost DNF Confessions of a Mask, but the second half improved enough to press onwards. Meanwhile I started the different books as my subway book: Bluebeard's First Wife, Winter in the Blood, and The Bitter Glass. Still reading 2666.

I enjoyed this chance find of a detective mystery involving government corruption, shady business dealings, cynical emotional manipulation and malignant jealousy. And who knew that train timetables could be so murderously interesting? (Ok, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, etc, etc. ?)
I paired this with The Dave Brubeck Quartet's 1964 Jazz Impressions of Japan, as it has a track, "Toki's Theme", the book having a character of this name. ⬇️

The charity book table at our local supermarket has some of the most awful titles on it (Jeremy Clarkson! Boris Johnson!!), a sad indictment of the reading habits of my neighbours (though, who am I to judge 🧐), but I still cast an eye over it each time I pass, which has eventually paid off.