Mizuki Nomura

Where to begin? I have often found that Japanese light novels, translated to English, can be much more of a 'love them or hate them' sort of thing. They are meant for a younger crowd (equal to young adult novels) and culturally speaking Japanese high schoolers are in a different league then their American counter-parts. So when reading a light novel series, set in a Japanese high school, a lot of readers are unable to understand the significance of something as small as being seen talking with a younger classmate or seating next to a certain someone.

Suicidal Mime is a novel filled with despair and secrets. Konoha is a withdrawn, false sort of guy. He pastes a fake smile on his face, tries to keep people placated and inwardly is disgusted by his behavior. He wasn't always like this, but a tragic love in middle school coupled with a nervous breakdown from instant (and intense) celebrity has made him hard and brittle. He doesn't want the sort of responsibility that comes with loving someone or being loved. He keeps his relationships as shallow as possible.

Tohko, who other than her strange appetites is as normal as anyone else, is just as secretive and complex. Outwardly she is bubbly and bossy, pushing Konoha to keep writing her stories to devour and constantly hungry, but briefly you can see some truer feelings. The despair she feels over Konoha's continued isolation and withdrawal, her efforts to help others, the loneliness she feels. Her urgent need to help Chia Takeda at first seems entirely selfish, but over the course of the novel little remarks she makes or looks on her face reveal she has a deeper agenda.

One of the central themes of the book is a Japanese writer's work called No Longer Human. The author, Osamu Dazai led an infamous life, much of which is detailed in Suicidal Mime. No Longer Human is semi-autobiographical and said to be his 'suicide note' to the world. Its a dark, bitter memoir of one man's intense desire to connect with the world, but can't no matter what. He pretends at being human and feels ashamed of that. Two of the characters in the novel truly identify with the protagonist of No Longer Human, feeling cut off from the world and separate because they don't understand or because they feel immense guilt over not being as emotional as their peers.

This isn't necessarily a happy book, or a 'light' read. Suicide, love, betrayal, jealousy, death, redemption... this novel covers some hefty topics. The translation by Yen Press is excellent; it reads very smoothly. I can't attest to some of the pop culture references strewn throughout the novel (if they were changed to match American references or not), but those aren't a problem regardless. The biggest cultural reference that western readers may not get is Osamu Dazai and Tohko talks about him at length at one point.

As a sidenote I agree with Tohko's assessment that you shouldn't read No Longer Human if you are feeling any amount of depression or despair; even translated the novel is powerful and provoking. I prefer his short story collection entitled [b:Blue Bamboo: Japanese Tales of Fantasy|194739|Blue Bamboo Japanese Tales of Fantasy (Japan's Modern Writers Series)|Osamu Dazai|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172591150s/194739.jpg|297542] available translated into English as part of Kodansha's 'Japan's Modern Writer's series.… (más)

This book would have been 10x better without referencing Touko's chest every chance it got, and making TOuko strip and basically treating it's female character's like utter shit. Because honestly there's a good story in there and it has this ecchi dressing around it for no good reason.

That being said I don't get why Touko needs to be a youkai. (The TL/editor used 'goblin' because racism and cultural censorship is cool) It really has little bearing on this story. It might come out later, but for now it just seems to be tacked in there.

Also the editing is... not good.
"YOu'll have lines of dialogue."
"Like this."
"And you wonder, who's talking?"
When they are all the same character. It's really confusing when you NEED to piece out who's doing what.

The final thing about this book is that it has Ju-on disease. It basically REPEATS the same story over and over for no real good reason other than to get MC-kun to save Moe-chan, which is just another handout to the gross otaku squad.
It also makes out Japanese drivers to be totally unsafe if they are going about running over people... or they don't get their brakes checked often.… (más)

This is another very compelling volume in the series. Nomura seemd to be doing very well with pacing, slowly building up an overall dramatic arc between the stories, while telling complex self-contained stories based on particular Japanese classics. She relies on two conceits: the Book Girl herself, and the overt parallels between the story and its source, which are discussed thoroughly within the story - they're not subtle, they're a deliberate savouring and echoing of the old, and a fact of the setting. Providing you're willing to accept these (not a big ask) they are excellent.

I personally preferred this to the previous volume, finding it much less problematic. While continuing to invoke mental illness as part of the stories, I found its manifestation here (obsession, destructive behaviour and self-harm) much more believable as part of a complex set of relationships between flawed people. The problems were self-evidently difficult to detect and to deal with, and it's not clear even to the reader exactly what could have been done when to keep things from spiralling as they did.

At the same time, Nomura spins a touching and compelling story of personal worries, complex relationships, and the general tumult of life that's very typical of adolescence but never really goes away. I was quite moved by it at several points.

That said, I'll highlight one issue that I've had throughout the stories - I often find I slightly lose track of what's actually happening, not in the immediate central story, but in the problems that the Book Club help with. The source material is often a bit intricate to begin with, there's a certain amount of (unnecessary?) authorial sleight-of-hand to help keep the mystery mysterious until the last, and characters fairly frequently turn out to have changed names for no very clear reason. Added to the fact that Japanese culture uses both first and last names alternately, the unfamiliarity of those names, and the way the main characters are always reflecting the behaviour of other (equally confusing) characters in some source novel or other... well, I tend to lose track of who people are.

Spoilers follow!

In this one, for example, we know there's a love triangle going on, and someone is obsessively destroying things. But Nomura always likes to pull bait-and-switch. Character A in the present seems to be Character B from ten years ago, but actually they're Character C (this, or something like it, always happens)! And the relationship of characters B and C in the past was actually just about the opposite of what was suggested (ditto). And Character A has changed their name from C to A for no apparent reason other than obfuscation, never explained in the story. And quite a lot of work has gone into trying to make sure you do get this wrong until it's explained. Also, everyone lies a lot to each other about what's going on.

Despite having just finished it, I don't think I could accurately sum up what *actually* happened over the years, and correctly separate this from what's very strongly implied to mislead you, what the characters say happened that isn't true, and things I just misunderstood. I do wonder whether the stories wouldn't be equally strong without this level of obfuscation, if Nomura would trust the reader to enjoy the mystery and character development without trying to keep it under wraps until the last minute, allowing them to know the truth before the protagonist twigs.

Sorry, explaining that took a lot of space, but it's not such a big complaint as it appears. These remain very enjoyable books and I look forward to the next.… (más)