Name: Of Dogs and Walls
ISBN: 9780241339787

Yuko Tsushima

Though their house was new, the wall had been there a long time.' In these two stories, which have never before been translated into English, Tsushima shows how memories, dreams and fleeting images describe the borders of our lives.

Of Dogs and Walls

'Though their house was new, the wall had been there a long time.' In these two stories, which have never before been translated into English, Tsushima shows how memories, dreams and fleeting images describe the borders of our lives. Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

Although she is an important voice in Japanese literature, focusing on a single perspective, too much is going on there. 

Marek Hnatiak

A very short novel with only 57 pages. It's a light read perfect for a casual day of wanting to relax but also be in a state of thought. The author may have minimal lyricism but the emotional weight is still felt, through the precise explorations of isolation, motherhood, and societal marginalization. This book tackles on the mother’s exhaustion and quiet despair clash with societal ideals of self-sacrificing womanhood. Claustrophobia being used as a metaphor for the constraints of poverty while the dog’s incessant barking becomes a symbol of inescapable anxiety, blurring the line between real and imagined threats.

Inkwell

Loved 'The Watery Realm' best, while the other one felt unremarkable.

fairuza hanun

charisa

these stories really only make sense with tsushima's familial history as a backdrop. i wouldn't even quite categorize them as "stories" since they're nonlinear and undeniably autobiographical. as with territory of light, this little impressionistic collection probes issues of single motherhood, shame, tenderness, and guilt with a featherlight, almost absentminded touch. tsushima is still obsessed with light/reflections and the porousness of relationships. i can't help but wonder how it must feel to live and write while so overshadowed by the past.

donna 

this little book consist of two interlocking stories that seem strongly connected to tsushima’s personal life experiences — life as a single mother and the death of her father (the novelist osamu dazi) in the first story, the death of her elder brother in the second. 

the first story is a stunningly imaginative evocation story of the haunting impact of a chosen death by a writer on the lives of their three children, ingenuously narrated from the shifting perspectives of both his widow and the youngest daughter. 

another theme is the difficult mother-daughter relationship and the different views both mother and daughter have on the childhood days. while the mother recalls a blissful state, the daughter remembers her mother’s despair and rage. this story is elusive and stuffed with lyrical, poetic imagery. 

also the second, titular story “of dogs and walls” draws on autobiographical elements and is permeated with loss and death and absence, focusing on tsushima’s relationship with her three year old brother, who had a developmental disability and died when she was thirteen. 

the story is non-linear and is mostly composed out of memories. it is the blending of dreams, symbols, memories, and realities shifting from one dimension into another. the variety of the walls featuring in the story and the distinctions with regard to their porousness seem to be metaphorical observations on the way japanese society deals with issues like isolation, exclusion, single-parent households, and the inability to safeguard or to change one’s life. emotions of tenderness, love, grief, and survivors guilt are gracefully weaved into the story.

Of Dogs and Walls

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