Yamada's manner of stripped-down storytelling leaves much to the reader, but he manages tempo very subtly, as Harada moves between fear and elation, and his reacquaintance with his parents is deepened in nicely pitched snatches of dialogue and imagery: "I could see the mannerisms of a dashing artisan in the way my father swung his arms and strutted along, and I found it quite endearing." A) story that pens in spare strokes a portrait of urban alienation. (...) Less subtle, unfortunately, are the vagaries of the translation into American English. (...) What survives, however, is a memorably uncanny tapestry, and a powerful atmosphere, of heat and rain and sorrow." - Steven Poole, The Guardian I liked this book. Again, it was somewhat stilted and formalized in translation but that's easily overcome. The dialogue sometimes was kind of silly, with little annoying things like money being called "dough" etc which seems out of context in the story. Kind of simplistic in tone, although it does delve into the whole search of self by Harada-san and why he feels like he must continue to see his "parents." Harada is a very tragic figure to begin with, and by the end of the book I was really pulling for him. When a book does that for me, then it's a good read.

Ijintachi to no Natsu" a aparut in 1987 si il are ca protagonist si narator pe Hideo Horada ce traieste in Tokyo-ul anilor '80 fiind un scenarist de seriale de televiziune de succes. Ramas singur, divortat de sotie si cu finantele imputinate acesta incearca sa-si continue viata cum poate. Ajunge sa locuiasca in cladirea de birouri unde isi face si meseria. Acolo cunoaste o femeie stranie cu o cicatrice pe piept pe care incearca s-o evite dar care il si intriga. In their company Hideo can relive his childhood and make up for what he missed -- something so tempting that he can't pass it up, despite realising that it is somehow unnatural and possibly even dangerous. David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) said "highly recommended, a cerebral haunting ghost story" & Bret Easton Ellis describes this as "an eerie ghost story written with hypnotic clarity, intelligent & haunting with passages of acute psychological insight into the relationship between children & parents". Putem sa interpretam in mai multe feluri aceste elemente de supranatural: am putea crede ca eroul sufera de o tulburare psihica in care mintea sa cauta un refugiu confortabil in trecut, in copilarie, in parinti, atunci cand trece printr-o trauma cum ar fi un divort. Este firesc ca pacientul sa gestioneze necazul refugiindu-se intr-un loc unde s-a simtit bine. Dar atunci ar fi greu de explicat prezenta femeii cu cicatrice. Daca fortam un pic interpretarea putem spune ca ea reprezinta constiinta, vinovatia lui.

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Only by allowing colleagues, friends, and family -- all of whom he had largely abandoned or allowed to drift away -- to help can he be saved. In news designed to make homosexuals make weird sounds when they hear it: Looking and Weekend creator Andrew Haigh’s new movie includes Fleabag’s sexy priest, Andrew Scott, and Normal People’s sexy shorts wearer, Paul Mescal, in a loose adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel, Strangers. Also starring in the cast are The Crown’s Claire Foy and Kate Mara’s Jamie Bell. Foy has plenty of reasons to shout “A bunch of boys!” again. And the trailer for the film is just as sensual, gorgeous, and gay as any self-respecting homosexual might hope. It’s that yearning that compels him to make return visits. Every time he does so, he feels bathed in the warmth of their welcome and their easy acceptance of him. Over the course of a few visits he relaxes enough to begin calling them Mom and Dad, finding a deep pleasure in their company and the opportunity to re-live happy childhood experiences as well as make up for lost time. Then he meets a man who looks and sounds just like his father, and whose wife looks and sounds like his mother. They even call him son. But they are in their early thirties, the age his parents were when they died. This cannot be right. The Japanese original won the 1987 Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize for best human-interest novel. The English translation was one of sixteen works long-listed for the 2006 Foreign Fiction prize awarded by The Independent.

As an exploration of the power of delusion, Strangers is not without interest. As a ghost story, however, it is not very frightening." - William Skidelsky, Times Literary Supplement Strangers" was one of those books that has been left behind by another traveler on the shelf of an Airbnb apartment. Me, always being curious about what kind of reads others bring along on their vacations, decided to take it along for a couple of days at the beach. Nevertheless, it is still an engaging story: told from Hideo's perspective his desperate wanting to believe allows the reader to do the same. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-12-09 05:18:43 Boxid IA40009408 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier The narrator Hideo Harada, a 47-year-old TV scriptwriter, meets a couple who bear an eerie resemblance to his dead parents, and forms a friendship with them, visiting them often. As his health declines, he comes to realise that they are ghosts who are sapping his life-force.This terse novel by Taichi Yamada, a successful scriptwriter for Japanese television, is a ghost story that pens in spare strokes a portrait of urban alienation. The narrator is 47-year-old Hideo Harada, also a TV scriptwriter: he is working, he tells us wryly, on "a comedy of manners about men and women who spent a hell of a lot of time playing billiards and tennis". Harada is divorced from his wife and hasn't spoken to his 19-year-old son in a long time. He lives in his office and hardly sees anyone, and doesn't want to. Until one night when, looking up at his building from outside, he notices another lit window. As the story fairies would have it, there lives an attractive younger woman, with whom he starts a desperate affair.