Book Anti-Recommendation: Miri Yu

[queerbychoice]

I would like to recommend that all of you not read the novel Gold Rush by Miri Yu. I bought it in part because it said on the cover "Winner of the Akutagawa Prize," which I took to mean that it was well-written. Unfortunately I have now come to the conclusion that the Akutagawa Prize must be an award for literary sadism rather than literary merit. So far in the book, the 14-year-old boy who is the main character has, in this order:

• watched, been upset by and avoided participating in, but also didn't intervene in, a gang rape committed by his friends
• bashed a dog's skull in with a golf club
• beaten his family's housekeeper half to death
• stabbed his father to death with a knife

And I'm not even halfway done with the book. And I can't think of the slightest reason whatsoever why I should want to read any more about this kid.

Comments

[unitarymatrix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can't say much about the book since I've only read about it rather than the book itself. It's supposed to be some sort of response to some sort of epidemic of Japanese teenage violence.

I wonder if it is somehow better in the original Japanese.

Have you read "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" by Dai Sijie. It's interesting and I think, a semi-well translated Asian text(I say this not because I read the original Chinese text, but because I read the English and recognized certain passages that I though only made sense when I tried to think about what the original Chinese was). Not anything like the topic in Gold Rush. It's short. If you ever read it, tell me what you think about the way it ends. It's always been sortof cryptic to me.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't love it in the original Japanese, because the problems I have with it would require inserting substantial paragraphs on almost every page to make the character more sympathetic. However, it's possible that the book won the prize primarily for being full of little beautiful turns of phrase of the kind that can rarely be translated well.

I haven't read anything by by Dai Sijie. Actually, almost all the translated works of Asian literature that I've read have been Japanese; the Chinese and Korean writers I've read tend to write in English. The only exception I can think of right now is Li Yu, whose book The Carnal Prayer-Mat was really too funny for words. I read some of his other books too, but that one was the best.

[(Anonymous)]

actually, i'm pretty sure balzac and the little chinese seamstress was originally written in french (dai sijie has lived in france since 1984). good book, anyhow.

[unitarymatrix.livejournal.com]

Ohh... you're right I think. It's wierd though, because there are phrases in it that just doesn't sound quite right in English that make sense when you think about the Chinese idom. I can't think of one right now, but when I go home and look at the book again, I'll try to see what gave me that impression.