Thats the image I have of marriagethat both me and the other person, as we are now, will disappear before we can do anything about it. He pulled the strip of squid from his mouth, and said, Itsbecause youre a housewife, San. Then I felt skinslacken, and bodies start to yield, and then I could no longer tellwhose sensations I was feeling. Motoyas book beguiles with its reversals: the bodybuilders husband may be unobservant to the point of eeriness, but, as it turns out, she is the shape-shifter, the trickster. Her first story, ""Eriko to zettai,"" appeared in the literary magazine Gunzo in 2002. From The Lonesome Bodybuilder. When you did that, I knew youd probably eat up my poop with a smile too.. Its when Motoya is on the rocky terrain of collapsing relationships that her strangeness finds the friction it needs to stick." In the realms of Motoya, believable behavior is more destructive and upsetting than any surreal occurrence. In addition to the thrills of its unexpected turns, The Lonesome Bodybuilder offers both an incisive critique of many small, domestic patriarchies and occasional glimpses of what life could be without them. . Yukiko Motoya is a writer, playwright, and stage director. The narrator, reasoning that she must be lonely, what with her entire family having been killed by an evil gang, asks her out, only to find that his new girlfriend is psychotic and in love with her dad. Husbands and Wives Magically Morph in a Japanese Story Collection, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/21/books/review/lonesome-bodybuilder-yukiko-motoya.html. Instead of responding, I looked down and nibbled a slice of pear. Her books have been published or are forthcoming in French, Norwegian, Spanish, and Chinese, . In the collections longest and scariest story, An Exotic Marriage, Motoya, through her narrator, lands a flurry of punches against the oppressive domesticity of marriage. Any reader pursuing concrete examples of nimble writing and unconventional resolutions could do a hell of a lot worse than Yukiko Motoyas The Lonesome Bodybuilder, a collection of short stories that mangle and deform the familiar until it becomes something both wildly unexpected and deeply welcome. How History Claims Us: On Made to Explode by Sandra Beasley, Aumaine Rose Smith Every time I noticed myself acting as though that was who Id been all along, a chill went up my spine, she confesses. The executive who holds her tongue at the meeting also sees, or dreams that she sees, faces in inanimate objects; she suffers from a condition called pareidolia, in which the mind perceives illusory patterns in random stimuli. [31] Her first daughter was born in October 2015.[32]. . . The weird garbled messages?, No, but you can just tell these things sometimes., Huh. I wonder. What would you think if you saw his true form? [3][4] She founded her own theater company, called Gekidan Motoyo Yukiko (Motoya Yukiko Theater Company), in 2000, and began writing and staging her own plays. He says his ex-wifes been sending him strange garbled emails recently, I said. . What happens then?, Yeah. by Michael Heller and James Salzman, Zach Savich Didnt that explain why I didnt much mind whether it was a husbandI was living with or something only resembling a husband? 209 pages. This is abundantly illustrated in "An Exotic Marriage," a novella about a woman, San, who begins to fear that her husband's identity is blending with her own. [8], Motoya's novel Ikiteru dake de ai (Love at Least), about an unemployed and apparently depressed woman's relationship with her boyfriend, was published in 2006 by Shinchosha. The climate crisis demands a form of literary expression that lifts it out of the realm of intellectual knowing and lodges it deep in readers bodies. Motoya Yukiko, general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author. By the first few sentences, you know you're hearing the voice of a remarkable writer; by the end of [the story] "An Exotic Marriage", you're certain that Yukiko Motoya's shivery, murmuring voice will never completely leave you' Financial Times 'Delightful . By the first few sentences, you know you're hearing the voice of a remarkable writer; by the end of [the story] "An Exotic Marriage", you're certain that Yukiko Motoya's shivery, murmuring voice will never completely leave you' Financial Times 'Delightful . Motoya's stories tend to include a few odd details and features -- often contrasting with the seeming . "The Lonesome Bodybuilder", trans. Many highlight the intense and uncomfortable strangeness of having a body that can change so much and so often; most feature narrators that are terminally placid in the face of escalating terror; and almost every story includes at least one truly terrible man. The ride can be anxious but never dull. Or: What really would have happened if Id gotten on the roller coaster that day? Unlike the alienation other characters face within the context of relationships, she is literally all alone, but this only strengthens her sense of self. [5] She appears in the ending sequences of FLCL during credits, in which she's listed as model. Take whatever form you want to be! The distending body of my husband exploded with a loud pop. One of the collections most active narrators is the curmudgeonly craftswoman at the center of The Dogs, the penultimate story. The writing itself is to be admired. I think?. Youre accommodating, San, and before you know itshe breaks off, as Sans features rearrange themselves to mirror her partners. In 'Typhoon' people take flight with their umbrellas in a great storm -- so many that eventually the narrator finds: "as I scanned the sky, I spotted loads of tiny human figures floating among the dark clouds". She commits to it, lifting regularly and consuming protein powder, yet while others notice her transformation, her husband does not. On If by Song by Marcia Karp, Brian Chander Wiora The Grandfather of New Nature Writing Was a Bird-Loving Poet. April 2021 Micro-Reviews, Amanda Auerbach I took a mouthful of grilled eel seasoned with plenty of sansho pepper. Is that the problem? I asked. . The characters featured in them arent particularly good at intimacy, even if they live in close proximity to spouses, old friends, and co-workers. The zelkovas planted in a clump justbeyond the railing were overgrown with green leaves that lookedlike a neglected hairdo. By the first few sentences of The Lonesome Bodybuilder, you know you're hearing the voice of a remarkable writer; by the end of "An Exotic Marriage," you're certain that Yukiko Motoya's shivery, murmuring voice will never completely leave you." --Financial Times "Motoya [has a] gift for making the ordinary magical." --Jane Ciabattari, BBC Culture [21] Nilanjana Roy, in her review for the Financial Times, concluded that "Yukiko Motoyas shivery, murmuring voice will never completely leave you". The Aesthetics of Cosmic Feminism: A Review of Magda Crnecis FEM, Katherine M. Hedeen Margaryta Golovchenko. () Motoyas talent for voice informs her first-person narrators, both female and male, who have a genuine vulnerability and convincing matter-of-factness as they veer into the fantastic." In Fitting Room, a saleswoman attends day and night to a mysterious customer who refuses to leave a fitting room. She endures this at first but later partakes in it, finding herself pulled into her husbands orbithis daily consumption of variety shows and deep-fried food. I saw it on the local news the other day. Perhaps the most resonant stories are those about marriage; Motoya (a playwright as well as an author) excels in putting husband and wife through unusual trials. Yukiko Motoya's The Lonesome Bodybuilder is a refreshing reminder that fiction is an elastic medium, capable of stretching into new and surprising shapes. [17] The prize-winning work became the title story of a collection of four stories published later that year by Kodansha. You can still enjoy your subscription until the end of your current billing period. The Lonesome Bodybuilder is made up of 10 short stories, some barely three or four pages long, and a novella, "An Exotic Marriage". THE LONESOME BODYBUILDER By Yukiko Motoya Translated by Asa Yoneda 224 pp. Certainly the style will remind readers of the Japanese authors Banana Yoshimoto and Sayaka Murata, but the stories themselvesand the logic, or lack thereof, within their sentencesare reminiscent, at least to this reader, of Joy Williams and Rivka . . Meanwhile, the reader watches each transformation and stab at connection. MEDIA REVIEWS. My husband seemed anxious to make a snake ball with me. Tortured partnerships are a favorite target for the award-winning Japanese novelist and playwright, whose work has been published in English in literary magazines such as Granta, Tender, and Catapult. Unearthing Memory and Reclaiming the Feminine in Shanta Lee Ganders GHETTOCLAUSTROPHOBIA, Chris Via On Painting Time by Maylis de Kerangal, Lisa Hiton In the novella-length "An Exotic Marriage," San is concerned about her husband's increasing lassitude about work, and her perception that his facial . organisation Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Translated by Asa Yoneda. A draft blows through the talesloneliness, the most spectral emotion. But Motoya's unique vision is still worth experiencing, and Yoneda's translation provides a clear and beautiful . Motoyas collection is a bold broadcast: fiction should be wild and daring, and less beholden to the rigors of logic than to the power and potency of surprise. Go, Zoromi, go do it for her. He movedthe cat off the space beside him where shed been asleep, and beckoned to me. I thought perhaps the gamegot more interesting the longer you played, but whenever I lookedover my husbands shoulder, the screen always looked the same. Her only companionship comes from a pack of mysterious dogs that, unbeknownst to her, terrorize the nearby village until there is no one left. Wed found a table in the seating area of the department stores food hall. At first, The Lonesome Bodybuilder appears most interested in chills and moods; I needed time for its feminism and its political threads to catch the light. The pears?. Asa Yoneda, the books translator, has signal-boosted a story collection whose off-kilter style strenuously upholds Motoyas stated mission. Japanese novelist, playwright, and theatre director, "Yukiko Motoya takes a satirical look at the 'Super No-Flat', "Yusho Takiguchi, Yukiko Motoya share Akutagawa Prize while Bumpei Aoyama wins Naoki Prize", " ", "From violence to vulnerability, Yukiko Motaya enchants with 'The Lonesome Bodybuilder', "Yukiko Motoya's Surreal World of Alienated Characters", "Husbands and Wives Magically Morph in a Japanese Story Collection", "The Lonesome Bodybuilder: Stories by Yukiko Motoya tales of the unexpected", "Presenter Interview: The Playwright's Center of Minneapolis", "53rd Kishida Kunio Drama Award goes to Ryuta Horai and Yukiko Motoya in a double awarding", "Why I Can No Longer Look at a Picnic Blanket Without Laughing", "The Reason I Carry Biscuits to Offer to Young Boys", "Alexandra Kleeman recommends "The Lonesome Bodybuilder" by Yukiko Motoya", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yukiko_Motoya&oldid=1122580502, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using embedded infobox templates with the title parameter, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Articles with Japanese-language sources (ja), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 2006 10th Tsuruya Nanboku Drama Award, Best Play category. by The same goes for San, whose face melts into new patterns. The unpredictable narratives pair with curious and compelling imagery to create a palpable and inexplicable sense of wonder. [26], Nobuko Tanaka of The Japan Times has called Motoya "the darling of Japanese media" for her frequent contributions to Japanese magazines, television, and radio. Most of the central characters are female, with many of the stories strongly influenced by the relationships -- both intimate and more casual and distant -- they are involved in. "), and dedicates herself to it, with considerable success. Each time I looked at my husband lying on the couchshe thinks to herselfI had the strange impression I was living with a new kind of organism that would die if it exerted itself in any way. His laziness alarms her more than the migration of his features to new regions of his face. Yukiko Motoyas The Lonesome Bodybuilder is a refreshing reminder that fiction is an elastic medium, capable of stretching into new and surprising shapes. I fled from thetinkling of coins falling and the suckling sound of him chewingon dried squid. Her stories are about relationships between men and womenseemingly familiar territory, but made strange by the intrusion of surreal elements. Hakone hummed and said nothing. . Strangely, too, the men Id been with had all wanted me to grow in them. Motoyas is the perfect book for the reader whos seen it allwho is tired of predicting endings and hankers for a surprise. Uwano recommended this game, my husband said at last. In The Straw Husband, the narrators husband is just that, straw, but his composition is less concerning than his inordinate devotion to his car. [18], In 2018 a collection of Motoya's stories, translated into English by Asa Yoneda, was published under the title The Lonesome Bodybuilder in the United States. offers FT membership to read for free. Remember?. The 11 stories in the collection follow individuals who lift the curtains of their orderly homes and workplaces, are confronted with the bizarre, the grotesque, and the alien, and are ultimately led to liberation. Characters change; literally, their facial features move, morph, disappear. Tomokos animosity toward her straw husband is as brief as it is startling. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Motoyas protagonists feel quietly radical in a literary moment that seems particularly interested in unpacking various forms of narcissism. Translated by Asa Yoneda. Motoya was born in Hakusan, Ishikawa. On Midwest Gothic by Laura Donnelly. Then you collect those, so you can bank money again. Didnt you say his ex-wife wasreally good-looking?, Really good-looking. But I guess that cant be right. Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Hearing Hakonessnake-ball story, I finally felt that something that had beencloudy to me had become clear. Other women in the book pursue men who are made of straw or advise each other to marry bicycle saddles. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the Settings & Account section. All this time, I had been feedingmyself to those men. Motoya won the Noma Prize for New Writers for Warm Poison in 2011; the Kenzaburo Oe Prize for Picnic in the Storm in 2013 . 209 pages. "An Exotic Marriage," a Kafkaesque depiction that shows how even those closest to us can wind up completely alien in the end, a disturbing sentiment that is also reflected in the final story, "The Straw Husband." 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