Review: Life of a Counterfeiter

Life of a Counterfeiter by Yasushi Inoue
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Each of us holds one or two cards that have been in our hands for years, who knows why, while the cards that should be paired with them have disappeared."

I read one other book by this author (The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan), but it was very different in style, while these three short stories all have a very similar feel. I really enjoyed this short collection a lot. A book about reminiscences and a study in characters. 

Below my notes:

1. An interesting story. A man is supposed to be researching the life of a famous painter in order to write his biography, but he starts hearing about a man who forged his paintings, and starts to learn more and more about this man who probably doesn't deserve that much insight into his history, and likely would never have gotten it, had it not been for the narrator himself. 

2. Probably my favorite story, all about distant childhood memories.

3. Another story about a family's past (the same narrator's family?). These three stories all have that similar feel, and this story seems to feature the same 'grandmother' (geisha-concubine of the narrator's great-grandfather) as the second story. Regardless, this deals with memories of the grandmother that coincidentally pop up when visiting Nagasaki. 

I look forward to reading more by this author. 

4.5 stars

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