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A review by afi_whatafireads
Asa: The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks by Natsuko Imamura
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It takes a certain patience for stories that are written with authors like Natsuko Imamura, but once you're hooked inside, there's no way out, and you find yourself falling deeper in the stories that almost felt like a fevered dream. You will ask time and time again, wether what you're reading will surpass what us, as 'normal' beings, thoroughly understand what the author is trying to say. And with stories like these, they don't necessarily need to be understood, but more of - is in the art of perception and how far are we willing to let something surpass the beliefs that we grew up with.
The book consists of three short stories , translated by Lucy North and an afterword from one of my favourite authors ever , Sayaka Murata, which was translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori. And if you're familiar with how Sayaka Murata writes, a book with an afterword from her is already so telling of what the story will take course, and it really did not disappoint me.
At the very surface of these three stories are of women, who are peculiar in their own sense. But when we looked down deeper, there is a root cause that leads from the root of society, of how women are being treated and the expectations that lies of women in society. These peculiarities stems from a deep sense of loneliness and longing that somehow will enable someone to act beyond the norms of someone normal.
In ASA: The Girl Who Turned into A Pair of Chopsticks, we follow Asa, a girl who longs to be accepted by everyone around her. Like the title, it became to a point that she became a pair of chopsticks instead. This story has a deep sense of dread, where we won't know what to expect to happen to Asa. The loneliness that has embedded way too deep and how it reflects a woman wanting to be acknowledged makes it heartbreaking to read. Even the ending had got me teary eyed as we Imamura brings us through the perspectives of abandonment and the feeling of humans to want to be cherished and acknowledged, even if, they were a pair of chopsticks that deems almost unusable to anyone.
In Name, Who Wanted to Get Hit (and eventually succeeded),is the story that got me on a roller coaster of emotions at most. Its a depiction of expectations from women in society and when its all torn down, the helplessness that happens after, where the emotional damage occurs after. The first half of the story is repetitive at the very best but the second half had gotten me so so sad. The instincts of motherhood and the fight to live as a human.
And A Night to Remember is one of those stories where you will really feel that the stories that you are reading feels like a dream. The societal expectations of a woman and where you will deem as a whole and normal once you fulfil it.
These stories sets a tone to the peculiars who didn't find a place in the world. Stories like this reminded me that you are never truly entirely alone. Some things will border through the lines of reality but its one that found me through an episode in my life in which it soothes the darkness through the stories of these imperfect characters. And at the end, like what Murata said in her afterword about this book :
The book consists of three short stories , translated by Lucy North and an afterword from one of my favourite authors ever , Sayaka Murata, which was translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori. And if you're familiar with how Sayaka Murata writes, a book with an afterword from her is already so telling of what the story will take course, and it really did not disappoint me.
At the very surface of these three stories are of women, who are peculiar in their own sense. But when we looked down deeper, there is a root cause that leads from the root of society, of how women are being treated and the expectations that lies of women in society. These peculiarities stems from a deep sense of loneliness and longing that somehow will enable someone to act beyond the norms of someone normal.
In ASA: The Girl Who Turned into A Pair of Chopsticks, we follow Asa, a girl who longs to be accepted by everyone around her. Like the title, it became to a point that she became a pair of chopsticks instead. This story has a deep sense of dread, where we won't know what to expect to happen to Asa. The loneliness that has embedded way too deep and how it reflects a woman wanting to be acknowledged makes it heartbreaking to read. Even the ending had got me teary eyed as we Imamura brings us through the perspectives of abandonment and the feeling of humans to want to be cherished and acknowledged, even if, they were a pair of chopsticks that deems almost unusable to anyone.
In Name, Who Wanted to Get Hit (and eventually succeeded),is the story that got me on a roller coaster of emotions at most. Its a depiction of expectations from women in society and when its all torn down, the helplessness that happens after, where the emotional damage occurs after. The first half of the story is repetitive at the very best but the second half had gotten me so so sad. The instincts of motherhood and the fight to live as a human.
And A Night to Remember is one of those stories where you will really feel that the stories that you are reading feels like a dream. The societal expectations of a woman and where you will deem as a whole and normal once you fulfil it.
These stories sets a tone to the peculiars who didn't find a place in the world. Stories like this reminded me that you are never truly entirely alone. Some things will border through the lines of reality but its one that found me through an episode in my life in which it soothes the darkness through the stories of these imperfect characters. And at the end, like what Murata said in her afterword about this book :
"The power of words from which these stories have been spun...
- at how, seen from other angles, the words linger in this book sometimes bewitchingly, and at other times bizarrely. It is as though the miracle of reading has itself become a living creature within this book, and this is its charm."
This book is not for everyone, but its one for those who felt alienated and alone from the world. This book won't entirely satiate you from that fact but it gives a kind of satisfaction that is unlike any other. And that, lies the strength in Imamura's writing.
4.5🌟 for this!
Thank you to Times Reads for this copy!