This is a very well-conceived and structured book; it kept my attention throughout. Flo Dunthorpe living in Japan decides to translate an obscure though modern Japanese novel titled Sound of Water by Hibiki and pitches her material to a US publisher before she has completed the translation and before she tries to contact author and publisher for permission. The novel comprises her completed translation divided into sections each representing one of the four seasons. Sandwiched between and within sections are third person accounts of Flo’s troubled life, parts of which parallel the troubled lives of the main characters of the Japanese novel. A late section narrates the search to identify and find the reclusive author.
As I began
reading I felt that the prose had been constructed deliberately to suggest a
first draft (literal) translation of the novel; the prose was rather stilted
and didn’t flow or transition easily - things which a re-draft would correct. But
maybe it was meant to suggest something about Japanese formality and if so I
think it succeeded. However, I
encountered prose choices which caused me unease
Flo Dunthorpe
signs off in “Tokyo 2023” and the Hibiki novel appears to be set sometime after
1990 since the characters have smartphones; the Japanese LINE messaging app
they are using dates from 2011. But the register of the novel often suggests an
earlier period and even then some of the exclamations and idioms which
characters use feel awkward. Some examples relating just to one of the three or four main characters, Ayako, the elderly and strict grandmother:.
“Put that
blasted thing away …” said Ayako in reaction to her grandson consulting a Weather
App. (p 118)
“Usually she
[Ayako] would’ve made a cup of coffee for herself and sat down next to Sato for
a decent chinwag” (p 125)
“Those were
the kinds of stories Ayako used to like to overhear and snicker about …. Telling
her the juicy news she so desperately wanted to hear” (p 223)
“Oh wow”
said Ayako, in surprise (p 255)
“I kept
going. I never gave up…. I was discovered by some Mountain Rescue guys who
whisked me off to hospital” (p 267)
It suggests
an author who is a non-native speaker who is looking online for idioms (a
mixture of American and English ones) and not quite getting it right either for
time or place.
I have other
minor niggles; Nick Bradley uses “must’ve” and “would’ve” in authorial prose –
see the example from page 125 above. I can’t remember the last time I saw ‘em
used. They stick out.