J," in which the narrator's landlady grows carrots in her garden in the shape of human hands.īut as you read along, you find Ogawa ascending into an orbit of her own - one that's at least as high as Murakami's - as in the story "Sewing for the Heart," which features a bag designer whose customer is a woman with her heart growing on the outside of her chest or in the flatly told but utterly bizarre trio of linked stories "Welcome to the Museum of Torture," "The Man Who Sold Braces" and "The Last Hour of the Bengal Tiger. In the opening story, "Afternoon at the Bakery," a customer comes into a shop to buy strawberry shortcake for, as it turns out, a child who died years before. The situations seem made for Murakami's particular blend of the real and the fantastic.
You certainly get that feeling of being haunted by Murakami when you begin reading the "Eleven Dark Tales," as she calls them, in this story cycle by Yoko Ogawa. I'm not making a perfect analogy when I suggest that most contemporary Japanese writers seem to be working under the shadow of Haruki Murakami, but I hope it highlights the spirit of the situation. It used to be a truism among critics of British poetry that Keats and most of his fellow Romantic poets worked in the shadow of John Milton. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and innocent bystanders-their fates converge in an ominous and darkly beautiful web.Yoko Ogawas Revenge is a master class in the macabre that will haunt you to the last page. Your purchase helps support NPR programming.
Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Revenge Subtitle Eleven Dark Tales Author Yoko Ogawa Yko Ogawa Revenge Paperback 3 November 2020 by Yoko Ogawa (Author) 1,108 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle 15.99 Read with Our Free App Hardcover Paperback 17.70 14 New from 17.70 Audio CD 44.72 1 New from 44.
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