Monkey Brain Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction

This collection of short stories is arguably to Japanese fiction what the famous Granta “Class of '83” was to British fiction. In both, the emerging authors not only went on to dominate the literary scene for the coming decades, but also constituted a break with the status quo. The modern breed of authors in this collection generally prefer rebellion over adhesion (to convention) and favour a more “Western” approach to narrative and dialogue. The hallmark style of Murakami (the fusion of the bizarre with the quotidian) is also on show here, and it is perhaps no coincidence that not only does Murakami open this collection, but also that his initial language translator is its compiler. The introduction (by Birnbaum) provides further useful context. I also rated the pieces by Hashimoto (‘Re lesbianism’) and Takeno (‘Re the Metaverse’).

By Alfred Birnbaum (editor)