Yukiko Motoya - “Paprika Jiro”
This felt like an action movie chase told from the view of the guy whose fruit stand gets wrecked. (Every movie has that guy.) I loved the ending, where Jiro fakes surprise out of respect because nobody believes in “them” anymore.
Mieko Kawakami - “My Baby”
The bizarre details are played totally straight, which somehow makes the parenting anxiety feel more real. The father’s “you can’t punish a crime before it happens” sounds reasonable, but he’s the one who gets to leave the room. Then the baby gets eaten anyway. It made me think about how worry gets dismissed even when it’s right.
Yoko Ogawa - “A Peddler of Tears”
She talks about tears like a craftsperson grading material. That calm voice is what makes the ending so disturbing, since she cuts off her toes in the same tone. It’s a love story that turns into self-erasure.
Hiromi Kawakami - “Mogera Wogura”
Having a mole narrate makes the humans seem like the strange ones. The people he collects aren’t dead but aren’t really living either, which read to me like a comment on burnout and loneliness in Tokyo. The office workers are cold to him, but he and his wife are gentle with the lost ones.
Masatsugu Ono - “I Chase the Monkey and the Monkey Flees from Me, the Monkey Chases Me and I Flee from the Monkey”
This was the hardest one, mostly because it’s one giant looping sentence. The form fits, though. She can’t tell where she ends and the monkey begins, and neither can the sentences. Unlike the other stories, the surreal thing here lives inside someone, and you never get distance from it.
Erika Kobayashi - “The Flying Tobita Sisters”
This flips the “humans dream of flying” story. Everyone has wings, so running becomes the rebellious thing. I liked how the Wright brothers get told like ancient legends. It made me think about how big tech leaps eventually just become normal and kind of boring.
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