196 Books: Japan

 The Kagero Diary by Michitsuna no Haha, translated by Sonja Arntzen

I present, Japan:

I present, the (very long) summary:

Japan is the only country in the world where women writers laid the foundations of classical literature. The Kagerō Diary commands our attention as the first extant work of that rich and brilliant tradition. The author, known to posterity as Michitsuna’s Mother, a member of the middle-ranking aristocracy of the Heian period (794–1185), wrote an account of 20 years of her life (from 954–74), and this autobiographical text now gives readers access to a woman’s experience of a thousand years ago.

The diary centers on the author’s relationship with her husband, Fujiwara Kaneie, her kinsman from a more powerful and prestigious branch of the family than her own. Their marriage ended in divorce, and one of the author’s intentions seems to have been to write an anti-romance, one that could be subtitled, “I married the prince but we did not live happily ever after.” Yet, particularly in the first part of the diary, Michitsuna’s Mother is drawn to record those events and moments when the marriage did live up to a romantic ideal fostered by the Japanese tradition of love poetry. At the same time, she also seems to seek the freedom to live and write outside the romance myth and without a husband.

Since the author was by inclination and talent a poet and lived in a time when poetry was a part of everyday social intercourse, her account of her life is shaped by a lyrical consciousness. The poems she records are crystalline moments of awareness that vividly recall the past. This new translation of the Kagerō Diary conveys the long, fluid sentences, the complex polyphony of voices, and the floating temporality of the original. It also pays careful attention to the poems of the text, rendering as much as possible their complex imagery and open-ended quality. The translation is accompanied by running notes on facing pages and an introduction that places the work within the context of contemporary discussions regarding feminist literature and the genre of autobiography and provides detailed historical information and a description of the stylistic qualities of the text.

WARNING! THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD!

This one. WOW. I read the description and couldn't believe I would have the chance to read a book from 954. 954. And written by a woman! Who was an important part of society! 

I'll admit that I didn't appreciate the translation at first. But it became SUPER helpful. That's also why I added her up there with the author; she explained cultural references, festivals and traditions, geographical locations, and just details of the people and time that are different from our own. Literally half of the book was translation; on the right page was the actual book and the left page was notes. I can't remember if I bring up the translator in my musings...she deserved her own paragraph for the incredible work!

So, as it says in the translation, the book mostly covers her marriage. It starts out well, but doesn't take too long before he's cheating. Although I seem to remember a note that she was the second wife, so I'm slightly confused on that. Anyway they live in separate houses, and he starts to visit her less and less, but they do exchange poems. I'll start my thoughts with this one, cause it made me giggle: 

"Although I thought 
you no longer thought of me,
nor I of you? 
'Hey, return the arrow,' 
you said and I was startled"

The formality of the poems was fascinating. The paper they used was intentional, and it made a difference if the person wrote themselves or had a servant write for them. They also attached the poem to some sort of flower or branch. It was really intentional and intimate, and very beautiful. 

And back to the husband. Turns out assholes have pretty much been the same throughout history! He's pretty open about the cheating and doesn't see a problem with it. He's firmly in the "boys will be boys" camp. At one point she's mad at him about cheating, and he basically tells her she can complain to someone else. Later he writes to her "it's not that my heart has changed; it is you who keep seeing everything I do in a bad light." Is there a way to see cheating in a good light? 

Eventually, the author needs a purpose and takes in a young girl that her husband fathered. He'd all but disappeared, but suddenly he's interested again. Seems like putting lemon juice in a papercut. But, of course, he eventually fully loses interest again. 

She does not hold back her annoyance though! She talks about "that constantly upsetting person" ...and I just laughed so hard. Every wife understands being completely in love and also being SO FUCKING IRRITATED by him. But, uh, she maybe should have been more mad. (Okay, L, remember that multiple wives was common)

Then there's her depression. Heartbreaking. 

"Thus, the years and months have piled up. As I lament that this has not been the life I wanted, even the voices of well-wishers mingled with the birds signing anew brings no happiness; all the more I sense how fleeting everything is; the feeling arises-- Am I, is the world, here or not-- this could be called The diary of a mayfly or the shimmering heat on a summer's day." 

I could FEEL her pain. She was so open and honest with her thoughts and disappointments. She was so desolate at points. She would hear his entourage passing by her gate and hope he'd stop. She tried to tell him how she felt, she tried getting mad, she tried ignoring him. He never grasped, or maybe just didn't care, how he was treating her. 

She gets so depressed that she makes a pilgrimage to the mountains, and then just keeps staying there. He sends people to try and bring her back--the arguments are mostly that people will talk, and the husband will be offended. Finally he all but forces her to come back, and wants her to just snap out of it. Their son starts to be promoted in the government, so she focuses on that and (in my opinion) is able to bring herself back. 

Her descriptions of nature are nothing short of masterpieces. They truly painted a picture. "These days the sky has mended its complexion and the air feels soft and gently. A breeze that is neither warm nor cold wafts through the plums and invites the warbler. One hears the peaceful voices of the chickens in the garden. Gazing up to the roof, one sees the sparrows chirping as they go in and out from under the tiles building their nests. The garden grasses raise faces released from the ice." 

Absolutely gorgeous. 

So, if I haven't been clear, I loved this one. It's so REAL. It's from an entirely different reality, basically, and it was still relatable and relevant. I felt like I was watching her life, as if she was somewhat of a friend. And the translator helped immensely with that. Reading this book felt like a whole experience. One woman writes about her life, another woman put her work into translation and interpretation, and a third woman (me) had the privilege of following them on the ride. Read it. GO. Read it. 

196 Books: Jamaica

 The Late Emancipation of Jerry Stover by Andrew Salkey

Here's Jamaica!

Here's the summary!

Jerry Stover is a 21-year-old rebel without a cause living in 1960s Jamaica - a freshly independent nation. Stifled by his ‘respectable’ job and middle-class family, he seeks inspiration in political and literary dabbling, and a debauched social life, with limited success.

That is, until he meets the Rastafarians. They seem to offer Jerry emancipation from his apathy and a shot at the peace he craves. But will he take the opportunity? And if he does, will it finally make him a free man in free country?

First published in 1968, The Late Emancipation of Jerry Stover is an important book. It's a novel that captures a nation in transition and a generation struggling to build its identity in a post-colonial world. And it's a must-read for anyone interested in Caribbean literature and history.

You know, I never learn. I keep seeing these novels that sound interesting, but they never end up as good as the true stories. On the plus side, Salkey really set the tone of a young adult trying to figure out their place in the world. As a a bit of an older adult still trying to figure out my place in the world, it hit a little too close to home. 

But, let's get the nasty out of the way. It's a book written by a man in the 60s. Cue the sexism! "Jerry feared it would spoil his chances of making Vie, Lola's assistant. As soon as he had had her, Lola would be next, he promised himself." "Then, as if by second nature, he looked at her breasts, compared them with Vie's and found both sets equally splendidly over-developed and impressive." "the stout stems of her breasts, heaped in two bunches, were forcing their way through the V neck of her cotton blouse." Jerry also gets two different women pregnant, and there's one character that's only referred to as "Marcus's woman." 

It's boring and lazy; the continued idea that men have no control over their sex drive or actions. Women are a pair of tits and an ass and that's about it. Okay. If you read this blog, you know my thoughts on how male authors (generally) write their female characters. But there were some points that were slightly sexist but also just silly. "lisps attractively" "And Berto's the hog in Paul's cocoa." "I'll have you, you sweet eastern salad, you! he promised himself." I really liked that one hehehe. 

I did like a lot of the ideas on politics though. "'Every blasted action o' mankind is political, Jerry, son.' he told him" It drives me nuts lately how people complain about things being politics. That involve politicians. And political issues. SO YES, it IS all political! "Just a thought: when will we learn to take our petty sense of freedom for granted and start to think about the larger freedom of a properly planned society? Will we ever be able to contribute, in some way, to the bigger scheme of things outside ourselves, to the really important, universal issues?" "'I believe that domestic, national, international, worl' an' the res' got no difference. Politics is everywhere that people bunch up together under some plan or other.'"

So, this one's a toss up, I guess. You could kind of boil it down to a spoiled fuckboy with good intentions but bad planning. Sooo...typical young adult story I guess. 

196 Books: Italy

Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System by Robert Saviano

 Italy looks like a boot!

The summary looks like a summary!

A groundbreaking, unprecedented bestseller in Italy, Roberto Saviano's insider account traces the decline of the city of Naples under the rule of the Camorra, an organized crime network more powerful and violent than the Mafia. The Camorra is an elaborate, international system dealing in drugs, high fashion, construction, and toxic waste, and its influence has entirely transformed life in Campania, the province surrounding Naples.

Since seeing his first murder victim, at thirteen, Roberto Saviano has watched the changes in his home city. For Gomorrah, he disappeared into the Camorra and witnessed up close the drug cartel's audacious, sophisticated, and far-reaching corruption that has paralyzed his home city and introduced the world to a new breed of organized crime.

This one was a DOOZY. If you want to feel warm fuzzies about the future of the world, this book will not do it. I'm not going to do quotes on this one; there wasn't a lot of humor in it and it mostly just bummed me out. I'll just give you an overview of some fresh horrors happening in the world! YAY!

So we start off learning about counterfeit clothes. But they're not really counterfeit; they're like...fraudulent? They're ordered from the actual designers (haute couture level), they're made with the same materials and with the same quality. But they're made in this hellhole by people getting pennies for their work. And then after this artisan gets a FRACTION of what they deserve, their work is walking red carpets. Alright, a quote works here. "Chinese factories in China were competing with Chinese factories in Italy." So about those sweatshops...

Maybe it's naïve; probably it's naïve; but with the high-high end designers, I figured they had ethical practices and treated employees fairly. 

Next we moved on to drugs and general violence. That part was pretty much as I expected. Same story you hear about drug peddling and "gang wars" all over. Same with the construction stuff. The families get their claws into every aspect of business that they can, and construction is a pretty good bet. 

Last was waste disposal, and this was even worse than the clothes stuff. The amount of people and effort involved in dumping this shit irresponsibly was disgusting. So you've got toxic, hazardous chemicals mixed into fertilizer, hanging out at the bottom of the ocean, and chilling in buried barrels. Just hanging around poisoning the water, air, and earth. And it's really fucking depressing to know there are SO MANY people that don't give a single shit about the future or anyone other than themselves. And SO MANY of those people have immense power to fuck with everyone and everything else in the world. YAY. 

As awful as the content was, the book was very well written and engaging while still getting all the facts and statistics across. And there were actually a lot of good quotes. It's just that I couldn't go back and look into all of it again, for my own brainbox. It's important for this stuff to get out there, absolutely. But damn it, people suck.

So, HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY. How do we get some orcas stationed over by Naples?