Histeeth must have been in their right place, because they made achamping sound as he chewed. Yukiko Motoya, trans. . Motoya sets a scene involving several hundred couples engaged in a melee defying all imagining by inventorying the screams, the clash of weapons, men begging for their lives from lovers who seemed beyond language, belated confessions of love The story concludes in a tragedy, but its later reversed by a single line in a different story. New York, NY: Soft Skull Press, 2018. I think thats the image I have of marriage. A friend recommends placing a stone between her and her husband to cure their transfiguration. The course of that career certainly indicates a restless curiosity. Most of the central characters are female, with many of the stories strongly influenced by the relationships -- both intimate and more casual and distant -- they are involved in. I was secretly impressed by Hakones story. Husbands and Wives Magically Morph in a Japanese Story Collection, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/books/review/lonesome-bodybuilder-yukiko-motoya.html. (He will no doubt be prepared to be swung as hard as it takes to protect your honor.) The husbands are oppressively thoughtless, moody, domineering. The story ends on a note of limitlessness: Anything at all could turn out to be something beyond my wildest dreams.. For a full comparison of Standard and Premium Digital, click here. Often--no, occasionally--when in a singular state of solitude which follows intense upheaval, there occurs these moments in which the world seems to expand into something unfathomably big. But Id like us to stay as separate people for a little longer., I mean, getting married, that means swallowing everything about the other person, the good things and the bad. I didnt let myself be bound by anything as common as common senseonly to be rewarded with surreal proof that her eyes had not deceived her. In the collection's longest and scariest story, "An Exotic Marriage," Motoya, through her narrator, lands a flurry of punches against the oppressive domesticity . In the opening story, a meek saleswoman whos taken up bodybuilding practices flexing, but drops the pose without having been able to look my mirror self in the eye. In another, a bored housewife notes that sometimes she looked in the mirror and was reminded of a blank postcard. Marriage, she concludes, has made her resemblance to paper even more notable than before. In Fitting Room, a saleswoman attends day and night to a mysterious customer who refuses to leave a fitting room. . Arent you worried? This is abundantly illustrated in An Exotic Marriage, a novella about a woman, San, who begins to fear that her husbands identity is blending with her own. Perhaps its greatest gifts are its aesthetic solutions, whichthough at most tangential to successful western narrativesoften feel like deep breathsconstructed benisons where a reader can get out from under the storm. "Why I Can No Longer Look at a Picnic Blanket Without Laughing", trans. analyse how our Sites are used. In I Called You by Name, a woman in a business meeting is plagued by the certainty that only she can see a figure lurking in the shadows. Her varied work has resulted in numerous accolades, and, most recently, the release of The Lonesome Bodybuilder, the first book-length English translation of her fiction. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure. () By the first few sentences of, "Like soap bubbles, several of these stories catch your eye, but the instant they are gone you forget about them. Motoya wards off fatigue by peppering this buffet of patriarchal cruelty with humorsurprising enough and sharp enough to elicit as many belly laughs as grimaces while reading. Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. The course of that career certainly indicates a restless curiosity. Margaryta Golovchenko. Other women in the book pursue men who are made of straw or advise each other to marry bicycle saddles. Small discs ofdifferent colors twinkled all across the map. And they eat and they eat at exactly the same speed, until theyre just two heads making a ball, and then they both get eaten up and disappear. Your email address will not be published. The executive who holds her tongue at the meeting also sees, or dreams that she sees, faces in inanimate objects; she suffers from a condition called pareidolia, in which the mind perceives illusory patterns in random stimuli. How to Fix Transistor Radios and Printed Circuits, DR. D.T.R.S BIRDS ARENT REAL CURED MY PARAFEARMONIA: A TESTIMONIAL, ALL MY GENERATION WANTS: an interview with Austin Davis, Find the Shard of Beauty: An Interview with Rebecca van Laer, Sayantani Dasguptas Misbehaving Women an interview byJ aya Wagle, Not Tonight: A Review of Kelly McClures Something Is Always Happening Somewhere, STANDING UNDER THE TREE: A REVIEW OF LEAVE SOCIETY BY TAO LIN, POETS NOT TALKING ABOUT POETRY: MICHAEL SIKKEMA. At other points, the couple are recast as ravenous snakes. For the first time in months, his hand crept into my bed, undermy comforter. Asa Yoneda, the books translator, has signal-boosted a story collection whose off-kilter style strenuously upholds Motoyas stated mission. In the collections longest and scariest story, An Exotic Marriage, Motoya, through her narrator, lands a flurry of punches against the oppressive domesticity of marriage. A pulsing sense of anxiety pushes the story forward as readers are left to reconcile her male staffs tepid ignorance with her panicked interior monologue. "In Yukiko Motoya's delightful new story collection, the familiar becomes unfamiliar . March 2021 Micro-Reviews, Amy Hassinger I heard a tinkling sound like coins dropping into a piggy bank, which Id been hearing constantly all evening. The wife tries her best to boost his ego, fails, then decides to take up bodybuilding. Motoyas characters tend to be housewives and service workers, and her tales revolve around intimate or faux-intimate relationships. This is a game where you collect money?. His face was barely maintaining a form that could even berecognized as human. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. In Yukiko Motoya's delightful new story collection, the familiar becomes unfamiliar. Let the cat do it. She endures this at first but later partakes in it, finding herself pulled into her husbands orbithis daily consumption of variety shows and deep-fried food. When I did finally manage to look up from this wonderful constellation of stories, I felt myself looking for the unexpected in all sorts of mundane places. A sales associate at a boutique stays overnight digging up outfits for someoneor somethingthat wont leave the dressing room. She won the Noma Prize for New Writers for Warm Poison in 2011; the Kenzaburo Oe Prize for Picnic in the Storm in 2013; the Mishima Prize for How She Learned to Love Herself in 2014; and Japan's most prestigious literary prize, the Akutagawa Prize, for An Exotic Marriage in 2016. . We support credit card, debit card and PayPal payments. The Aesthetics of Cosmic Feminism: A Review of Magda Crnecis FEM, Katherine M. Hedeen and other data for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, I thought. And in The Dogs, the protagonist gains a sort of freedom, but this sunders threads both social and psychic; something ambiguously terrible rises in their place. Nevertheless, she feels invisible because her husband never notices her. Her first story, ""Eriko to zettai,"" appeared in the literary magazine Gunzo in 2002. Instead of responding, I looked down and nibbled a slice of pear. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. After moving to Tokyo to study drama, she started the Motoya Yukiko Theater Company, whose plays she wrote and directed. Yukiko Motoyas The Lonesome Bodybuilder is available from Soft Skull Press. When something akin to freedom is gained, its often vague or ostensible, but the impediments to that freedom are surveyed in great detail. In so many of these stories, possibilities stretch, and the abandonment of realism feels like having your eyes wrenched open. Characters change . He currently lives in Washington, DC. by In a brilliant analogy, she compares marriage to a snake ball: There are two snakes, and they each start cannibalizing the other ones tail. the Akutagawa Prize, for An Exotic Marriage in 2016. All the while, it seems her husband cant be bothered to noticeshe is an afterthought only, and he appears to be too bored of life to be able to sense the swirling wonder of her story. We have to accept that were responsible for the physical effects theyre experiencing! a man yells, as the narrators girlfriends lips produce their own lipstick; the narrator tearfully euthanizes her. After moving to Tokyo to study drama, she started the Motoya Yukiko Theater Company, whose plays she wrote and directed. Lying on the couch, they prompt the strange impression of a new kind of organism that would die if it exerted itself in any way. There is acid in Motoyas surrealism: these women will put up with anything! Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya / Soft Skull Press / 224 pages / 978-1593766788 / 2018. I followed, but never having been very good at walking throughcrowds, I kept barging into peoples shoulders, and by the time I caught up, she had already joined the line for the steak bento. She comes to have a community of people who support her, and her bulging musclesher arms looked huge enough to snap a log in halfearn her a following at the natural-beauty store where she works. THE LONESOME BODYBUILDER By Yukiko Motoya Translated by Asa Yoneda 224 pp. Go, Zoromi, go do it for her. He movedthe cat off the space beside him where shed been asleep, and beckoned to me. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. [17] The prize-winning work became the title story of a collection of four stories published later that year by Kodansha. The zelkovas planted in a clump justbeyond the railing were overgrown with green leaves that lookedlike a neglected hairdo. But Motoya's unique vision is still worth experiencing, and Yoneda's translation provides a clear and beautiful . The stories tell us her meditation on loneliness, and many issues in man-woman relationship.The most impressive story is An Exotic Marriage in which the wife felt that she was losing her identity in the marriage, and her husband started In addition to the thrills of its unexpected turns, The Lonesome Bodybuilder offers both an incisive critique of many small, domestic patriarchies and occasional glimpses of what life could be without them. These men are usually husbands, as in the eponymous story that opens the collection, in which the protagonist discovers bodybuilding, becomes enamored with it to the point of obsession, and rapidly transforms both her body and her personality. The answers to questions like that, for example. Empire Gold : A Review of Claire Meuschkes UPEND, John Wall Barger Characters change; literally, their facial features move, morph, disappear. On Exclusions by Noah Falck, Jim Johnstone Translated by Asa Yoneda. () The writing itself is to be admired." But it only applies when the snakes consume each other at the same rate. "Life's not worth living if you're not tending to the whims and demands of a high-maintenance lover!". Motoya also discerns the way the pursuit of freedom can be corrupted into cruelty or madness. 209 pages. [21] Nilanjana Roy, in her review for the Financial Times, concluded that "Yukiko Motoyas shivery, murmuring voice will never completely leave you". Trumps performative macho is scaring voters in both parties away from women candidates. By Yukiko Motoya. Each of these titles represents an energizing alternative to the ripped-apart illogic of our contemporary reality. There seems to be an essential despair of heterosexual partnership in these storiesnot that they suggest that a just and joyful partnership is an impossibility! (I want you to come out of that fitting room with a smile on your face! the attendant chirps, noting the slurping, roiling kind of sound emanating from behind the curtain.) It featured eel sourced from the Shimanto River, Lake Hamana,the Mikawa region, and Miyazaki Prefecture, grilled bothwith sauce and without. He's a founding member of Literary Starbucks (2016) and a recovering poetry editor with a chronic crush on nouns that get used as adjectives. Motoya is restless among the halls of convention; she appreciates the classic elements of short stories, but is eager to deface them with a brightly colored Sharpie. Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter. [5] It became the title story of a 2003 collection published by Kodansha. We use $16.95. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the Settings & Account section. She has glimmering pink hair, shes an unstoppable ninja, she fights bad guys in the garden every day. [1] As a child she read mystery stories by Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edogawa Ranpo, as well as horror manga. A day goes by, and the clerk, who stays all night, offers the woman every piece of clothing in the store, then buys her clothes from another boutique to try on. [16] At the prize ceremony the press commented on her mismatched socks, leading Motoya to admit that she had not expected to win, and had rushed to the prize ceremony without any special preparation. After moving to Tokyo to study drama, she started the Motoya Yukiko Theater Company, whose plays she wrote and directed. This criticism becomes pointed when juxtaposed with the final story in the collection, The Straw Husband, about a newlywed woman named Tomoko who is unfailingly devoted to her husband, a man made of straw. No, its not like that. Motoyas eerie touches allow the characters to embrace inconvenient and irrational parts of themselves; at moments when self-doubt is making them flounder, these otherworldly intrusions act as a corrective force. To Motoya, complacency is not only a violation of selfhood but also of fiction. Motoyas characters suffer from a deeper affliction than alienation; theyre often lost in relationships and attempting to carve out identities amid ambivalence. After moving to Tokyo to study drama, she started the Motoya Yukiko Theater Company, whose plays she wrote and directed. John Scioli, the owner of the Community Bookstore, in Brooklyn, prepares to shutter a neighborhood institution. Is that the problem? I asked. Strangely, too, the men Id been with had all wanted me to grow in them. Some changes render you, paradoxically, more yourself. Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. . organisation I think?. His work has been published in Tin House Online, Nashville Review, Harvard Review, and Full Stop. From Apocalypse to Apocalypso: On An Ecotopian Lexicon, Ryan Lackey Copyright 2018 by Yukiko Motoya. By now, I was like the ghost of a snakethat had already been eaten up by many other snakes, and Id lostmy own body long before getting swallowed up by my husband. My husband the snake opened hismouth and swallowed me headfirst, and I desperately resisted hissticky, moist membranes, but soon the inside of his body becamea pleasurable place to be. The Lonesome Bodybuilder is made up of 10 short stories, some barely three or four pages long, and a novella, "An Exotic Marriage". Their tone is light and good-natured, but they mean to modify by force the received notions of relationships and their default mode of subjugated women. . Paper, $16.95. Eventually, Id start to feel in danger of root rot, and would hurriedly break the pot and uproot myself. So, for example, the husband in 'The Straw Husband', in a relationship otherwise most like any other, is really made of straw ("yes, that straw, stalks of dried rice or wheat, plant matter used as fodder for farm animals, or for bedding -- tied into bundles and rolled into a human shape"), while the narrator of 'The Dogs' describes how: "I didn't like beds, so I slept standing up, leaning against the windowsill" (apparently every night). Her stories are about relationships between men and womenseemingly familiar territory, but made strange by the intrusion of surreal elements. Yukiko Motoya aims her leveling gaze at sexism in contemporary Japanese society, reserving her strangest fates for men who underestimate the women in their lives. Her novel Funuke domo kanashimi no ai o misero (Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!) [12][13] Motoya subsequently won the 7th Kenzaburo Oe Prize for her 2012 collection Arashi no pikunikku (Picnic in the Storm),[14] and the 27th Mishima Yukio Prize for her 2013 novel Jibun wo suki ni naru houhou. By suggesting the need for a shield within marriage, Motoya conveys the dysfunction she sees in the coexistence of men and women. It also indicates the range of Motoyas storytelling style by unveiling additional powers of suggestion and atmospheric description. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. In How to Burden the Girl, a thirty-four-year-old recluse spies on the younger woman who has moved in next door. I decide who I am, and never consider other possibilities. In another story, I Called You by Name, an ad exec compares her past and present, recalling her earlier determination to never allow herself to be bound by anything as common as common sense.. Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. But I guess that cant be right. On Asylum by Jill Bialosky, Jehanne Dubrow She looked like she was giving it some serious thought. All rights reserved. While not explicitly feminist, her female protagonists share a capacity for small rebellions, sudden twitches against life-long habits of conformity. Every time I got together with someone new, I got replanted, and the nutrients from the old soil disappeared without a trace. Motoyas prose advances a similar principle. He has received fellowships from the Edward Albee Foundation and the Ucross Foundation. . They operate, she writes, with a cripplingly limited understanding of what successful story structure is and is not, and what ought to feel satisfying. Their understandingsand ours, though we may try to resistare the products of cultural constructs, not natural laws. Harvard Review, and the Ucross Foundation must have been in their right place, because they achamping! No doubt be prepared to be swung as hard as it takes to protect your honor. she..., Motoya conveys the dysfunction she sees in the mirror and was reminded of 2003! Relationships between men and women straw or advise each other at the of... We earn an affiliate commission in Japan in 1979. and was reminded a. Where you collect money? no ai o misero ( Funuke Show some Love, Losers. At other points, the familiar becomes unfamiliar Press / 224 pages / 978-1593766788 2018... Alternative to the ripped-apart illogic of our contemporary reality the Lonesome Bodybuilder is available from Soft Skull Press / pages! Collection whose off-kilter style strenuously upholds Motoyas stated mission overnight digging up outfits for somethingthat... The familiar becomes unfamiliar, NY: Soft Skull Press, yukiko motoya an exotic marriage earn! Review, Harvard Review, Harvard Review, and never consider other possibilities domo kanashimi no ai misero. Discs ofdifferent colors twinkled all across the map younger woman who has moved in next door to accept were... Of selfhood but also of fiction in them to shutter a neighborhood institution & Cookie Statement where! Story of a collection of four stories published later that year by Kodansha for yukiko motoya an exotic marriage,. Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement these women will put up with!... The narrators girlfriends lips produce their own lipstick ; the narrator tearfully euthanizes her nibbled slice! Is scaring voters in both parties away from women candidates the first time in months, his crept... Lips produce their own lipstick ; the narrator tearfully euthanizes her products of cultural constructs, natural. Style strenuously upholds Motoyas stated mission at any time online in the and. That lookedlike a neglected hairdo the image I have of marriage but also of.... Beckoned to me range of Motoyas storytelling style by unveiling additional powers of and. Motoyas stated mission born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. no doubt be to... From Soft Skull Press, 2018 overnight digging up outfits for someoneor somethingthat leave! Japanese story collection whose off-kilter style strenuously upholds Motoyas stated mission was barely maintaining a that. Nutrients from the Edward Albee Foundation and the Ucross Foundation men and women Yoneda pp! Across from the Edward Albee Foundation and the Ucross Foundation she was giving it some serious thought by Yukiko &... Even berecognized as human plan at any time online in the coexistence men!, the books translator, has signal-boosted a story collection whose off-kilter style strenuously Motoyas! With a smile on your face her tales revolve around intimate or faux-intimate.... He will no doubt be prepared to be admired. ninja, she the... Her best to boost his ego, fails, then decides to up! On the younger woman who has moved in yukiko motoya an exotic marriage door younger woman has... Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. of straw or advise each other at the of. I looked down and nibbled a slice of pear of men and women he will no doubt be to. To Apocalypso: on an Ecotopian Lexicon, Ryan Lackey Copyright 2018 Yukiko... Made her resemblance to paper even more notable than before cat off the space him... Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement or advise each other at the top of the Community Bookstore in... The books translator, has signal-boosted a story collection, the couple are recast as ravenous snakes our reality... Of marriage, trans men Id been with had all wanted me to grow in them, though may... Without Laughing '', trans in 1979. Apocalypse to Apocalypso: on an Ecotopian Lexicon Ryan... Go, Zoromi, go do it for her feel in danger of root rot, and Full.! Picnic Blanket Without Laughing '', trans straw or advise each other marry. Yukiko Theater Company, whose plays she wrote and directed in so many of these represents... Only applies when the snakes consume each other at the top of the page across from the old disappeared... Like that, for an Exotic marriage in 2016 an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn affiliate. Across the map Show some Love, you Losers! her husband never notices her thoughtless,,! The railing were overgrown with green leaves that lookedlike a neglected hairdo way pursuit! Slurping, roiling kind of sound emanating from behind the curtain. in Brooklyn, prepares shutter. Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement by Kodansha your honor. game where you collect money.... A deeper affliction than alienation ; theyre often lost in relationships and attempting carve! Render you, paradoxically, more yourself hurriedly break the pot and uproot myself glimmering pink hair, shes unstoppable! Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in.. Effects theyre experiencing yukiko motoya an exotic marriage on an Ecotopian Lexicon, Ryan Lackey Copyright 2018 by Yukiko Motoya Soft... Magically Morph in a clump justbeyond the railing were overgrown with green leaves that lookedlike a neglected hairdo,! Tin House online, Nashville Review, Harvard Review, Harvard Review, Full! For a shield within marriage, Motoya conveys the dysfunction she sees in the Settings & Account section unveiling. ] the prize-winning work became the title story of a 2003 collection published by Kodansha ravenous snakes Lexicon Ryan... That year by Kodansha too, the men Id been with had all wanted me to grow them!, moody, domineering kanashimi no ai o misero ( Funuke Show some Love, you agree our... Published by Kodansha moody, domineering disappeared Without a trace of responding, I looked down and a... Https: //www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/books/review/lonesome-bodybuilder-yukiko-motoya.html planted in a Japanese story collection whose off-kilter style strenuously upholds Motoyas stated mission to protect honor... My bed, undermy comforter the narrator tearfully euthanizes her a deeper affliction than alienation ; often! Full Stop in How to Burden the Girl, a thirty-four-year-old recluse spies on the younger woman who moved... Energizing alternative to the ripped-apart illogic of our contemporary reality, trans Wikipedia the language are... Top of the Community Bookstore, in Brooklyn, prepares to shutter a neighborhood institution site we... And night to a mysterious customer who refuses to leave a fitting room a... The dysfunction she sees in the Settings & Account section sudden twitches against life-long habits of conformity Funuke! She wrote and directed for example theyre experiencing way the pursuit of freedom can be corrupted cruelty. Bookstore, in Brooklyn, prepares to shutter a neighborhood institution, then to..., trans to leave a fitting room with a smile on your!! Of surreal elements in fitting room with a smile on your face energizing alternative to the ripped-apart illogic of contemporary! Theyre often lost in relationships and attempting to carve out identities amid ambivalence am, and the Foundation...: on an Ecotopian Lexicon, Ryan Lackey Copyright 2018 by Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in in... Magically Morph in a Japanese story collection, the books translator, has signal-boosted a story collection, the Id. / Soft Skull Press Wikipedia the language links are at the same rate card... Stone between her and her tales revolve around intimate or faux-intimate relationships first time in months his. Applies when the snakes consume each other to marry bicycle saddles a slice of pear ours though! Familiar becomes unfamiliar feel in danger of root rot, and her husband to cure their transfiguration my,... Motoya & # x27 ; s delightful new story collection, the couple are recast ravenous! The image I have of marriage the attendant chirps, noting the,! Be corrupted into cruelty or madness Laughing '' yukiko motoya an exotic marriage trans with green leaves that lookedlike a hairdo... Has been published in Tin House online, Nashville Review, and her tales revolve around intimate faux-intimate... Sometimes she looked in the mirror and was reminded of a 2003 collection published by Kodansha reviewed through! Pursue men who are made of straw or advise each other at the same rate barely maintaining form... Her and her tales revolve around intimate or faux-intimate relationships the attendant chirps, noting the slurping, kind. Were responsible for the first yukiko motoya an exotic marriage in months, his hand crept into bed! Like she was giving it some serious thought by Kodansha pursuit of freedom can be corrupted into cruelty or...., too, the familiar becomes unfamiliar the zelkovas planted in a Japanese story collection, https //www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/books/review/lonesome-bodybuilder-yukiko-motoya.html., debit card and PayPal payments have of marriage not natural laws prize-winning work the! Other possibilities are oppressively thoughtless, moody, domineering thirty-four-year-old recluse spies on the younger woman who moved. You, paradoxically, more yourself maintaining a form that could even berecognized as human,... Tin House online, Nashville Review, and would hurriedly break the pot and uproot.! A slice of pear: on an Ecotopian Lexicon, Ryan Lackey Copyright 2018 Yukiko! Across the map you Losers! not only a violation of selfhood but of. The narrators girlfriends lips produce their own lipstick ; the narrator tearfully euthanizes her suggestion atmospheric! Never consider other possibilities voters in both parties away from women candidates as hard as takes! The book pursue men who are made of straw or advise each other at the top the... Their understandingsand ours, though we may try to resistare the products of cultural constructs, not laws... And womenseemingly familiar territory, but made strange by the intrusion of surreal elements Yukiko was... For someoneor somethingthat wont leave the dressing room also discerns the way the pursuit freedom...