Overall though I liked aspects of the stories more than the stories as a whole. I quite liked The Lonesome Bodybuilder though the ending was a bit of a flop. Broken umbrellas make people fly in typhoons, small musical instruments fall out of straw husbands and women duel with their male partners in the night - this is Yukiko Motoya’s short story collection, Picnic in the Storm! A shop assistant tries to find the perfect outfit for a customer she never sees who’s locked in the fitting room. Not the best ending for the collection.Ī lonely housewife takes up bodybuilding. The Straw Husband 2/5 - This story wasn’t nearly as good as the rest. The Dogs 4/5 - An uncanny story involving a woman who lives in a secluded cabin with her dogs. Now I know how I feel about the ending of the previous story. Q&A 5/5 - This story is a Q&A from an aging supermodel that helped me unpack the gender and social meanings from the previous story, The Women. I’m not sure how I felt about the ending. Women become an extreme gender stereotype of themselves and challenge their male partners to a duel. The Women 5/5 - A story with a lot to unpack. She turns out to be a Freudian nightmare. How to Burden the Girl 4/5 - A man meets a woman who is seemingly a superhero. Paprika Jiro 2/5 - Interesting, but I didn’t fully understand what was happening in this story. My only issue was it felt like the beginning of a novel that was reworked into a short story. There is a lot to think about with this one and I will be thinking about it for awhile. I Called You by Name 5/5 - This story made me consider how loneliness manifests.Īn Exotic Marriage 4/5 - This story of marriage reminds me of traditional Japanese fairy tales. Typhoon 5/5 - A little bit of everyday umbrella magic. She decides to become a bodybuilder.įitting Room 5/5 - A mysterious customer is in the dressing room at a retail shop. The Lonesome Bodybuilder5/5 -Excellent story about a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. The translator did a lovely job with this one, and it included modern slang terms which a less talented translator might have gotten slightly wrong. The author used magical realism to create modern fairytales around the complex feelings of womenhood. I decided to rate each individual story in this collection.
0 kommentar(er)
