NOTA |
(★)(Translated by Kenneth J. Bryson)(or, attempted double-suicide)(´NI-0561´es mismo libro. Titulo original : 赤目四十八瀧心中未遂 [Akame shijuyataki shinju misui]/ Ikushima lives as a drone, slaving away for an advertising company that neither values him nor cares about his existence. He flees the city to become a vagabond, catching local trains to anywhere, eventually finding a miserable job skewering refuse animal organs for a local restaurant in Amagasaki, a town riddled with gangs and miscreants./ He settles into a routine in the city, and through his brief and accidental encounters with his deeply troubled neighbors -the evil-worshipping tattoo artist, his former-prostitute-cum-Madame employer, an unclaimed child, and the fleetingly striking Ayako- he bridges the gaps in his social world and inadvertently begins to live./ With this newfound, yet unacknowledged, passion for life, Ikushima embarks on a love affair with Ayako, which leads to dangerous consequences and threatens to tear through the barriers he has partitioned around his existence for so long./ At once quietly reflective and bitterly gritty, ´The Paradise Bird Tattoo [or,´Attempted Double-Suicide´]´ explores a new generation of worker bees who possess a candid fear of living with an inexplicable sense that they must go on for the sake of going on./ Choukitsu Kurumatani artfully illustrates a world where not even love can provide salvation for those who are weary of life./ ◆Choukitsu Kurumatani [車谷長吉, 1945-2015] graduated from the German Literature Department of Keio University. He began writing fiction on the side while working at an advertising agency. His official debut as a writer came with ´Shiotsubo no saji [Salt Spoon]´, in 1992. Kurumatani has carved out a special niche as a writer of the now-rare ´I-novel´, an autobiographical genre of Japanese fiction.) |