There wasn’t much depth to them on their own, but once I got the hang of how the book worked and understood those smaller stories were only bits and pieces of the larger story, the book grew on me. The readers have to read them all to see the bigger picture, and sometimes find out what really happened to the characters in previous stories.The first couple of stories almost turned me off.
Each part on its own is creepy and satisfying in itself, but they are all connected either by characters crossing paths or working/living in the same space. Revenge is a story that is divided into eleven parts. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon's neighbor-who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. Sinister forces collide-and unite a host of desperate characters-in this eerie cycle of interwoven tales from Yoko Ogawa, the critically acclaimed author of The Housekeeper and the Professor.Īn aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. But this collection may linger in your mind - it does in mine - as a delicious, perplexing, absorbing and somehow singular experience." - Alan Cheuse, NPR
Ogawa stands on the shoulders of giants, as another saying goes. one may detect a slight bow to the American macabre of E.A. "It's not just Murakami but also the shadow of Borges that hovers over this mesmerizing book.
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