L. J. C. Shimoda

If "The Fourth Treasure" was a slightly more "adult" version of Banana Yoshimoto books (adult in the sense of grown-up, not X-Rated) this one seems to be a Japanese version of Ballard.

I don't mean that Shimoda can't write without parroting someone else's style, it's just that this book is more about disturbed characters and the madness that can thrive under the surface of a perfectly ordinary and apparently sane society (in this case, Japan).

In a sense a very slight trace of this was already present in "The Fourth Treasure", but now this specific brand of insanity gets center stage.

The author tries a few tricks fragmenting the main narrative and supplementing it with sidebars told from the point of view of various other characters, most contemporary, some for the past).

I liked it, but be warned that the tone is dark and could leave some aftertaste.… (mehr)

"365 Views of Mt. Fuji" tells the story of Yukawa who is hired as museum coordinator by Ichiro Ono to create a museum display for a series of paintings by a ukiyo-e artist named Takenoko, dating from the 19th Century. The paintings are currently owned by the three siblings of the Ono family, but none of the siblings is on speaking terms with the others. It's up to the curator to gather all the paintings any way he can. Ichiro sends him first to his brother Gun, who owns a club, which turns out to be a gay sex club. Through flashbacks and asides, we find out about Gun's homosexuality, some of the obstacles he has faced since childhood and how he came to run the club.… (mehr)

This novel takes readers from Japan to the San Francisco Bay Area, from 1655 to 1998, with a significant pause in 1975.
The book is illustrated by calligraphy (which in Japan, is regarded as both art and a means of communication). Many pages also contain sidebars: these are not footnotes since they are not clued to any specific points in the text. One can choose to scan them simultaneously with the text or read them at the end of the chapter ~~~ they should not be missed!

The Daizen Inkstone is an inanimate object with a long history, and is of great value. All the people we meet in the book are affected by its presence.… (mehr)