MONKEY New Writing from Japan: Volume 4: MUSIC by Ted GoossenMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
A nice collection. I'll have to get more of these the next time I go to Japan. And the authors are seriously a who's who of contemporary Japanese fiction writers.
My favorites were:
Yoshiwara Dreaming, by Hiromi Kawakami
Flight, by Hiroko Oyamada (not as good as her books, but still good)
The Zombie, by Haruki Murakami
Angels and Electricity, by Aoko Matsuda (this may have been my favorite)
Transformers: Piano, by Kaori Fujino (this was so weird)
Takasago, a Noh Play, was surprisingly fun
I also really liked "A man opens a cafe in a shopping arcade, dreaming that it will become like the jazz cafe he used to frequent as a student; the cafe is open for nearly thirty years, then closes down" (real title), by Tomoka Shibasaki
Satoshi Kitamura's "Five Parallel Lines" was refreshingly odd as well.
In other words many more hits than misses. Contemporary Japanese Fiction is really a delight to read these days.
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