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Latest Review: "Remote Control" by Kotaro Isaka

The latest addition to our Reviews Section is a piece by Will Eells on Kotaro Isaka’s Remote Control, translated from the Japanese and published by Kodansha International. (Quick side-note: the closing of Kodansha International sucks. That’s all I have to say about that. I’m out of witty attacks for ...

Remote Control

I’m just going to fess up right now: I’m a bit of a culture snob. I can’t help it. I don’t know what happened in my upbringing that led me to be this way – that I can’t check out a summer blockbuster without reading the reviews first, that I prefer listening to the local college or independent radio station to ...

Latest Review: "Popular Hits of the Showa Era" by Ryu Murakami

The latest addition to our Reviews Section is a piece by Will Eells on Ryu Murakami’s Popular Hits of the Showa Era, which is forthcoming from Norton in Ralph McCarthy’s translation. As Will points out, in America, Ryu is the “other Murakami,” but he’s quite popular in Japan, and a good number ...

Popular Hits of the Showa Era

Ryu Murakami is sometimes referred to as the “other” Murakami, the yang to the more internationally popular Haruki Murakami’s yin. But in Japan, the so-called “other” Murakami is just a strong a force in the contemporary literary scene. Ryu Murakami has won almost all the big literary prizes in Japan, ...

2011-2012 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize

Some of you might be interested in this announcement regarding the 2011-2012 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature, which is sponsored by the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture and carries with it $6,000 in prize money. Last year’s winners were Michael Emmerich for ...

Latest Review: "The Apprenticeship of Big Toe P." by Rieko Matsuura

The latest addition to our Reviews Section is a piece by Monica Carter on Rieko Matsuura’s The Apprenticeship of Big Toe P., which was translated from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich and published by Kodansha International. We’ve already mentioned this book on Three Percent several times, including in this ...

The Apprenticeship of Big Toe P

In fiction, there are dangers—dangers for the writer and dangers for the reader. In Rieko Matsuura’s The Apprenticeship of Big Toe P., we have an unhealthy combination of both. When the writer takes a risk, the reader is either going to take that risk with the writer without question or stay with the idea of the risk long ...