Word Book

By Mieko Kanai

Like the surfaces of a jagged crystal, each story in the collection shows us an entirely different, distorted facet of a whole. Playing games with the basic units of both life and fiction--the solid certainties of the self, the world around us, and the words we use to describe these things--Mieko Kanai creates a reality where nothing is certain, where a little boy going out to run errands for his mother might find that he's an adult, and his mother long dead, at the end of a single train ride. Using precise language to describe dreamlike plots owing as much to Kafka and Barthelme as to Kenzaburō Ōe and the long tradition of the Japanese folktale of the macabre, The Word Book is an unforgettable voyage to absurd, hilarious, and terrifying locales, and is the English-language debut of one of the most original Japanese writers working today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564785661
• ISBN13: 9781564785664
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.6"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An excellent addition to any international fiction collection

A short story is all that's needed to reflect the simplicity of the human experience. "The Word Book" is a collection of short stories from acclaimed Japanese writer Mieko Kanai, deftly translated by Paul McCarthy as to keep the soul of her writings intact through the cultural divide - which isn't as vast a gulf as one might think. "The Word Book" is an intriguing insight into humanity through fiction, and an excellent addition to any international fiction collection.