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(*) (trans. by Michael Emmerich) ()(LNI-0007Les mismo libro. Titulo original : Oyayubi P no shugyo jidai [ew P ĢCsć] 1.Every decade or so a novel appears that leaves its mark on an entire generation. For Japan in the 1990s, that novel was Rieko MatsuuraLs LThe Apprenticeship of Big Toe PL. An astonishing, gripping read, this now legendary book was both a critical success and an instant sensation that flew off the shelves. Selling more than 300,000 copies in hardcover, it rocketed its cult author to stardom almost overnight. LThe Apprenticeship of Big Toe PL tells the story of Kazumi Mano, a naive twenty-two-year-old who wakes up one afternoon to discover that her big toe has turned into a penis. Her life as an ordinary girl is over, and a rigorous LapprenticeshipL has begun. Kazumi flees her homophobic fiance after he tries to castrate her, and hooks up with a blind pianist with whom she falls in love. Together they join a troupe of sexually deformed and emotionally twisted men and women who tour the country performing sexual freak shows. In the course of her bizarre journey, Kazumi is forced to reconsider what she had always passively accepted : her body, her sexuality, and her life. By turns provocative, intelligent, humorous, heartbreaking, and grotesque,LThe Apprenticeship of Big Toe PL is like no other novel you will read. Matsuura is a master of sensual slipstream, and this is her chef dLoeuvre. 2.Rieko Matsuura was born in Matsuyama, Japan, in 1958, and graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University with a BA in French Literature. She debuted as a writer in 1978, while still in college, withLThe Day of the Funeral,L a short story that won that yearLs Bungakusai Prize for New Writers. Since then, she has published six works of fiction and three essay collections -among themLNatural Woman [1987]L, a series of three related novellas exploring lesbian love,LThe Apprenticeship of Big Toe P [1993]L, a bestseller that won the WomenLs Literature Prize, JapanLs most prestigious literary award for women writers ; andLA DogLs Body [2007]L, about the intimate but nonsexual relationship between a woman withLspecies identity disorderL who turns into a dog, and her friend-turned-owner.LThe Apprenticeship of Big Toe PL is MatsuuraLs first novel to be translated into English.) |