My interests kinda come in waves - I'll end up playing a lot of games for some time, then watch a lot of movies, etc. - and recently I've been into reading again. Here's some quick thoughts on the four books I read so far this month. I try to avoid spoilers, so don't worry about that.
Översättarens anmärkningar ("Translator's Notes") by Erik Andersson
This is translator Erik Andersson's diary from when he was working on the Swedish 2000s re-translation of The Lord of the Rings (if you're unfamiliar, the first Swedish and Dutch translations were what prompted Tolkien to write a guide for future translators). I'm not a huge fan of TLotR (I've seen the films and read The Fellowship of the Ring), but I find language and localization fascinating, and have re-read and enjoyed this book several times.
The book covers both large-picture stuff like Andersson's general work process and interesting details like how translating certain names and phrases worked (the recurring bit about the struggle with translating "Rivendell" into something that retains both form and function is really interesting), but also a bit about the publishing/business aspects and some anecdotes from his personal life at the time.
I do wish Andersson went further in depth - he will for example at times mention seemingly interesting conversations he's had with the team of Tolkien-expert proofreaders/advisors, but not get into details - but I guess that's inevitable given that it's published as an edited diary with a target audience beyond just localization nerds.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Turns out this one is an Akutagawa Prize winner, but I had no idea when I randomly picked it up at the library. Very glad that I did! Great character-driven novel about Keiko, a neurodivergent, asexual woman in her 30s, who struggles with the expectations of conformist society, but finds purpose and comfort in the structure that her part-time job at a convenience store gives her.
Keiko and I aren't the same flavor of ND, and I do have an easier time with social stuff than she does, but she's still relatable in a lot of ways, and her optimism and humor makes this a fun and brisk read despite the oftentimes heavy themes. Absolutely love this one.
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
I tend to read books in their original language when it's one I speak, but oops! Didn't realize this was originally written in English until I was home from the library, so I ended up reading it in Swedish. The rhythmic writing style was really appealing to me, and I liked a lot of what I read, but... I still had some problems with the book.
I understand that it's about the sense of inner peace that comes from habits and routine, and the unrest from the disruption thereof... and I understand that the idea is to illustrate that by putting the reader in a certain space to get them into that same feeling of habit and disruption, but even so, I thought the beginning part about the swimming pool regulars went on for far too long - there came a time when I thought "yeah, okay, I get it".
Similarly, I get how the change from focusing on the swimmers as a group in part 1 to zooming in on a former swimmer with dementia in part 2 also shows that disruption from breaking a routine, but... while the idea is interesting, in practice I felt like I read one unfinished book, before moving on to a different one.
In the end, I didn't regret reading this - the first-person plural writing style is really neat, and the part 2 story was emotionally affecting - but the structure didn't work for me. Would still be willing to give one of Otsuka's other two books a try.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Note: While the two previous books I mentioned have some dark themes, I really feel the need to list CWs for this one. There isn't a spoiler tag on Cohost at the moment, so I will simply hide them behind a ROT13 cipher: Gur obbx vapyhqrf tencuvp qrcvpgvbaf bs puvyq nohfr (vapyhqvat PFN), vaprfg, zheqre, naq pnaavonyvfz (vapyhqvat zhghny pnaavonyvfz).
After reading and loving Convenience Store Woman, I was eager to check out Murata's other works, of which two are available in languages I speak. I saw people calling Earthlings "a little bit darker" than CSW, and hoo boy, what an understatement that was.
It has similar themes of conformism and not fitting in, and similarly follows a neurodivergent, asexual woman, but... While CSW has a tone of quirkiness and positivity, Earthlings goes in the other direction. Its protagonist, Satsuki, is the victim of child abuse, and copes by creating a fantasy where she is a magical girl/alien from planet Popinpobopia, and only goes further into the alien fantasy as she grows up, taking her husband and cousin with her.
I can't think about Earthlings without thinking about the ending, but I'll discuss it vaguely enough to avoid spoilers. I think it makes sense, thematically, for the story to have this as its end point, and was starting to suspect we were heading there for a while before we arrived. It's still shockingly dark and extreme in a way I did not enjoy reading, but that's one thing - I don't think a book needs to be "fun" to be good.
What's actually a problem to me is that while the first 3/4 or so of the book was horrific in its groundedness and believability, there was not enough groundwork laid for the ending to feel believable, and it ended up really losing me. I could believe that the characters' trajectories could lead them there, maybe - but there was too much skipped over for me to really accept how they got to a situation and mindset that extreme.
Overall, do I like it? I "like" a lot of the first portion of the book, as painful as it is to read about the horrible things Satsuki goes through as a child. Would I recommend it? Well... That would be very difficult considering the extreme places it goes. It's not for everyone, or even for most.
...These last two paragraphs are kind of tagged on at the end, but I do have to talk a bit about the translation, as well. I read Earthlings in Swedish, and this version feels sloppy, with missing punctuation, seemingly incorrect romanization of some Japanese names (at least Satsuki's husband's), and inconsistency in what the reader is expected to know about Japan (as a few examples, the reader is expected to be familiar with Japanese honorifics and Obon festivals, while shoujo manga is treated as something unfamiliar that needs to be explained).
I've read other books by the same translator, so I don't think it's their fault. Maybe they had an unreasonable deadline, maybe the editing was not prioritized by the publisher, I don't know. Regardless, a shame - I will probably read future Murata books in English.
Originally posted on Cohost.