Ogawa has won every prize in Japanese fiction, and each of her works translated into English seems to earn a new set of plaudits. Mina's Matchbox is very different in style to her prior The Memory Police, but no worse for it. Comparisons with Kazuo Ishiguro may be valid, for both authors demonstrate clear abilities to write persuasively across a range of styles and covering different time periods. Mina's Matchbox is a beguilingly simple work. Ostensibly it is a coming-of-age novel, capturing that transition from child to teenager with a growing awareness of the world. There is much that Tomoko (the narrator) and Mina see yet fail to appreciate fully, even if such acts as adultery or the onset of dementia are visible to the reader. This creates a subtle and enduring narrative tension. Ogawa adds an extra pair of layers, considering how we use stories as mechanisms for helping justify events, and also how the benefit of time—the events of the novel are described 30 years on—sees "fact" sometimes merging into fiction.
By Yoko Ogawa