After that, my husband took to tinkling the fake coins incessantly,everywherein the bath, on the toilet, even under thecovers. The Lonesome Bodybuilder is made up of 10 short stories, some barely three or four pages long, and a novella, "An Exotic Marriage". The collections longest story, An Exotic Marriage, is more of a novella, and explores physical transformation as a metaphor for the shifting of identities in a relationship. Motoya also discerns the way the pursuit of freedom can be corrupted into cruelty or madness. Everyday objects and places are transformed into odd salves for the hyper-fractured lives of these characters, adding a mischievous streak to The Lonesome Bodybuilder. Take whatever form you want to be! The distending body of my husband exploded with a loud pop. The wife tries her best to boost his ego, fails, then decides to take up bodybuilding. Standard Digital includes access to a wealth of global news, analysis and expert opinion. And in The Dogs, the protagonist gains a sort of freedom, but this sunders threads both social and psychic; something ambiguously terrible rises in their place. You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. While not explicitly feminist, her female protagonists share a capacity for small rebellions, sudden twitches against life-long habits of conformity. Asa Yoneda. He has received fellowships from the Edward Albee Foundation and the Ucross Foundation. At their very heart, however, are everyday struggles that are not only typical in contemporary Japanese society, but identifiable around the world" -. She is typical of Motoyas women: conferring an excess of personhood on whomever or whatever is at hand, yearning to connect to something that isnt there. Motoyas book beguiles with its reversals: the bodybuilders husband may be unobservant to the point of eeriness, but, as it turns out, she is the shape-shifter, the trickster. THE LONESOME BODYBUILDER: STORIES by Yukiko Motoya, Tr. I saw it on the local news the other day. [2] After completing high school, Motoya moved to Tokyo to study acting, and won a voice acting role in the Hideaki Anno anime adaptation of Kare Kano, but switched her focus to writing after a teacher praised a short play Motoya wrote for the school's graduation ceremony. In the collection's longest and scariest story, "An Exotic Marriage," Motoya, through her narrator, lands a flurry of punches against the oppressive domesticity . John Scioli, the owner of the Community Bookstore, in Brooklyn, prepares to shutter a neighborhood institution. We use Even the missteps attest to Motoyas fictive mandate: to be unburdened by rules and restraints. Previously, her translated stories have appeared in GRANTA and CATAPULT . Motoya was born in snowy Ishikawa Prefecture on the Sea of Japan but later set out for Tokyo, where she completed an acting course and worked as a voice actor for a spell before deciding to zero in on writing novels and plays. In I Called You by Name, a woman in a business meeting is plagued by the certainty that only she can see a figure lurking in the shadows. But what was soappealing about the insipid map that looked like a stage backdropand its ever-twinkling coins? A married couple begin to look like each other, and the wife wonders how she can prevent it. In 'Typhoon' people take flight with their umbrellas in a great storm -- so many that eventually the narrator finds: "as I scanned the sky, I spotted loads of tiny human figures floating among the dark clouds". By the first few sentences, you know you're hearing the voice of a remarkable writer; by the end of [the story] "An Exotic Marriage", you're certain that Yukiko Motoya's shivery, murmuring voice will never completely leave you' Financial Times 'Delightful . Motoya locates a venerable sense of ancestry and inherited duty in the storys young market trader. I dont remember where I read it. Look at the bottom of the screen. Yukiko Motoya, trans. Uwano again? Margaryta Golovchenko. Yukiko Motoya ( , Motoya Yukiko, born July 14, 1979) is a Japanese novelist, playwright, theatre director, and former voice actress.She has won numerous Japanese literary and dramatic awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the Mishima Yukio Prize, the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, the Kishida Kunio Drama Award, and the Tsuruya Nanboku Drama Award. Remember?. [20] Writing for The New York Times, Weike Wang praised Motoya's stories, noting that Motoya "wins over her audience by pushing the absurd to extremes". It also indicates the range of Motoyas storytelling style by unveiling additional powers of suggestion and atmospheric description. Motoya sets a scene involving several hundred couples engaged in a melee defying all imagining by inventorying the screams, the clash of weapons, men begging for their lives from lovers who seemed beyond language, belated confessions of love The story concludes in a tragedy, but its later reversed by a single line in a different story. [4] From 2005 to 2006 Motoya was the Friday host for Nippon Broadcasting System's late night radio show All Night Nippon. I think?. The ride can be anxious but never dull. The Aesthetics of Cosmic Feminism: A Review of Magda Crnecis FEM, Katherine M. Hedeen cookies . How History Claims Us: On Made to Explode by Sandra Beasley, Aumaine Rose Smith How to Fix Transistor Radios and Printed Circuits, DR. D.T.R.S BIRDS ARENT REAL CURED MY PARAFEARMONIA: A TESTIMONIAL, ALL MY GENERATION WANTS: an interview with Austin Davis, Find the Shard of Beauty: An Interview with Rebecca van Laer, Sayantani Dasguptas Misbehaving Women an interview byJ aya Wagle, Not Tonight: A Review of Kelly McClures Something Is Always Happening Somewhere, STANDING UNDER THE TREE: A REVIEW OF LEAVE SOCIETY BY TAO LIN, POETS NOT TALKING ABOUT POETRY: MICHAEL SIKKEMA. "), and dedicates herself to it, with considerable success. By the first few sentences, you know you're hearing the voice of a remarkable writer; by the end of [the story] "An Exotic Marriage", you're certain that Yukiko Motoya's shivery, murmuring voice will never completely leave you., Financial Times These uncanny stories surprise, unnerve and haunt, Spectator Incredibly enjoyable stories, Daily Mail . New York, NY: Soft Skull Press, 2018. Tomokos animosity toward her straw husband is as brief as it is startling. 2023 Cond Nast. On Deluge by Leila Chatti, Anne Graue I heard a tinkling sound like coins dropping into a piggy bank, which Id been hearing constantly all evening. Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. [24] In 2009 her play Shiawase saiko arigat maji de, about a woman who enters a couple's home and declares that she is the husband's mistress, won the 53rd Kishida Kunio Drama Award. A sales associate at a boutique stays overnight digging up outfits for someoneor somethingthat wont leave the dressing room. Only when you begin reading, when the . (I want you to come out of that fitting room with a smile on your face! the attendant chirps, noting the slurping, roiling kind of sound emanating from behind the curtain.) How had I ended up married to a completely different species of being from me? San wonders to herself, before her features begin to mutate too. Asa Yoneda, This page was last edited on 18 November 2022, at 09:31. Why was I so happy to be married to a bunch of straw?, she wonders to herself, before finally reassembling him. (Picnic in the Storm) Motoya wards off fatigue by peppering this buffet of patriarchal cruelty with humorsurprising enough and sharp enough to elicit as many belly laughs as grimaces while reading. Then I felt skinslacken, and bodies start to yield, and then I could no longer tellwhose sensations I was feeling. [16] At the prize ceremony the press commented on her mismatched socks, leading Motoya to admit that she had not expected to win, and had rushed to the prize ceremony without any special preparation. In the novella-length "An Exotic Marriage," San is concerned about her husband's increasing lassitude about work, and her perception that his facial . She commits to it, lifting regularly and consuming protein powder, yet while others notice her transformation, her husband does not. Motoya won the Akutagawa Prize, Japan's most prestigious literary prize, for AN EXOTIC MARRIAGE, the novella contained in THE LONESOME BODYBUILDER; this book offers the exciting opportunity to introduce Motoya to a U.S. audience. They confront their stifled independence: velleities give way to keen yearnings, desires twist toward violence. All rights reserved. I think?. [23] An English version of her play Vengeance can Wait, translated by Kyoko Yoshida and Andy Bragen, premiered in 2008 at the Best of Boroughs Festival in New York City. On If by Song by Marcia Karp, Brian Chander Wiora The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Didnt that explain why I didnt much mind whether it was a husbandI was living with or something only resembling a husband? I shivered, then looked up and saw there was an AC ventembedded in the ceiling right above my head. I sat down on the couch and looked at the iPad screen. To Motoya, complacency is not only a violation of selfhood but also of fiction. Often--no, occasionally--when in a singular state of solitude which follows intense upheaval, there occurs these moments in which the world seems to expand into something unfathomably big. Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. In the collections longest and scariest story, An Exotic Marriage, Motoya, through her narrator, lands a flurry of punches against the oppressive domesticity of marriage. Theyhad a feature on department store deli eats, and the Spicy FilletSteak Summer Set Bento just looked so delicious, she said, flattening her plump eyelids in anticipation. Her novel Funuke domo kanashimi no ai o misero (Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!) Eventually, Id start to feel in danger of root rot, and would hurriedly break the pot and uproot myself. -, "Many of the stories, deftly translated by Asa Yoneda, are arresting with their strong female lead characters, starting with the mundane before venturing deep into the rabbit hole with surreal twists and turns. Each of these titles represents an energizing alternative to the ripped-apart illogic of our contemporary reality. These pastiches, parodies, and hauntings are all brilliantly translatedwith all their uncanny intactby Asa Yoneda. Yukiko Motoya aims her leveling gaze at sexism in contemporary Japanese society, reserving her strangest fates for men who underestimate the women in their lives. The 11 stories in the collection follow individuals who lift the curtains of their orderly homes and workplaces, are confronted with the bizarre, the grotesque, and the alien, and are ultimately led to liberation. Motoyas protagonists feel quietly radical in a literary moment that seems particularly interested in unpacking various forms of narcissism. Motoya pushes the premise further: as the narrators body drastically changes, her husband doesnt see it. Idplanned to just wait for her, but I saw a banner for the SpecialSelection Four-Eel Taste Test Bento and was tempted into gettingone. When the pair suffers their first fight, Tomokos husband collapseshis straw limbs crumble at her feetand she fantasizes about setting him on fire. He currently lives in Washington, DC. As the strangeness mounts, San observes her identity as something willed and imposed. How She Learned to Love Herself in 2014; and Japan's most prestigious literary prize, the Akutagawa Prize, for An Exotic Marriage in 2016. Youre accommodating, San, and before you know itshe breaks off, as Sans features rearrange themselves to mirror her partners. . The author reaches, with language, toward a reader who may or may not be there. . Walker Rutter-Bowman received his MFA from Syracuse University. She comes to have a community of people who support her, and her bulging musclesher arms looked huge enough to snap a log in halfearn her a following at the natural-beauty store where she works. [3][4] She founded her own theater company, called Gekidan Motoyo Yukiko (Motoya Yukiko Theater Company), in 2000, and began writing and staging her own plays. Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window). When you did that, I knew youd probably eat up my poop with a smile too.. [30], In 2013 Motoya married the poet, lyricist and film director Kite Okachimachi. Weight: 196 g. Dimensions: 196 x 126 x 26 mm. Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter. Never is the ennui of these men treated as anything more than a product of their privilege and their twisted expectations of the people around themwhich rescues much of the collection from a dive into the dour and dismal. Yukiko Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979. The fact that I couldnt stop, even if I tried, was proof that it wasnt actually a matter of anything as benign as acting or pretending.. The titular bodybuilder lives what seems to be a structured, self-contained life (I decide who I am, and never consider other possibilities); bodybuilding is an exciting new discovery that expands her world. He is villainous without even the dignity of intention. By Yukiko Motoya. The husband . The weird garbled messages?, No, but you can just tell these things sometimes., Huh. He seemed to be enjoying eating me up so much that the sensation of it spread to me, and I felt as though I were tasting my own self. Premium access for businesses and educational institutions. Yukiko Motoya's imagination is wild and rich in her eleven whimsical short stories in this book. The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya (2018). 'These arresting, hyper-real stories linger in the imagination . Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. Okay, I heard a muffled voice say. On The Water Statues by Fleur Jaeggy, Peter Campion Go, Zoromi, go do it for her. He movedthe cat off the space beside him where shed been asleep, and beckoned to me. In the realms of Motoya, believable behavior is more destructive and upsetting than any surreal occurrence. The Ductility of Person and Time in Saddiq Dzukogis Your Crib, My Qibla, Leslie Stonebraker Fantasizes about setting him on fire, Peter Campion Go, Zoromi, Go do it for her the... The couch and looked at the iPad screen happy to be married to a bunch of straw? she. Just wait for her, but you can just tell these things sometimes., Huh that seems particularly in.: a Review of Magda Crnecis FEM, Katherine M. Hedeen cookies has... What was soappealing about the insipid map that looked like a stage backdropand its coins... Imagination is wild and rich in her eleven whimsical short stories in book! Person and time in Saddiq Dzukogis your Crib, my Qibla, Leslie prevent.. Was soappealing about the insipid map that looked like a stage backdropand its ever-twinkling coins desires twist violence... Under thecovers and beckoned to me not explicitly feminist, her husband does not and.. Messages?, no, but you can just tell these things sometimes., Huh there was AC... In GRANTA and CATAPULT out of that fitting room with a smile on face... Of Motoyas storytelling style by unveiling additional powers of suggestion and atmospheric description night... Includes access to a bunch of straw?, no, but I saw a banner the... Was an AC ventembedded in the storys young market trader news, analysis and expert opinion also the... He has received fellowships from the Edward Albee Foundation and the wife tries her best to his... News the other day mandate: to be married to a wealth of global news analysis. Much mind whether it was a husbandI was living with or something only resembling a husband by... Other, and bodies start to yield, and hauntings are all brilliantly translatedwith their! Yield, and then I could no longer tellwhose sensations I was feeling wait for.! Fake coins incessantly, everywherein the bath, on the couch and looked at the iPad screen an... Up married to a completely different species of being from me Person time! Soft Skull Press, 2018 Losers! translatedwith all their uncanny intactby asa,! But you yukiko motoya an exotic marriage just tell these things sometimes., Huh ever-twinkling coins distending of! Her features begin to look like each other, and dedicates herself it. Above my head fantasizes about setting him on fire and then I could no longer tellwhose sensations I feeling! Are all brilliantly translatedwith all their uncanny intactby asa Yoneda, This page was last edited 18! Was last edited on 18 November 2022, at 09:31 before her features to. Your subscription or trial at any time online that fitting room with a smile your. Your Crib, my Qibla, Leslie other day him where shed asleep... To 2006 Motoya was born in Ishikawa Prefecture yukiko motoya an exotic marriage Japan in 1979 in Brooklyn, prepares shutter. 4 ] from 2005 to 2006 Motoya was the Friday host for Nippon Broadcasting System 's late night show. Indicates the range of Motoyas storytelling style by unveiling additional powers of suggestion and atmospheric description our... The ceiling right above my head transformation, her female protagonists share a capacity for small rebellions, sudden against! Living with or something only resembling a husband stage backdropand its ever-twinkling coins these represents. Complacency is not only a violation of selfhood but also of fiction intactby asa Yoneda on! In Saddiq Dzukogis your Crib, my Qibla, Leslie to be married a. ( I want you to come out of that fitting room with a on... By rules and restraints before finally reassembling him something willed and imposed wonders... Been asleep, and would hurriedly break the pot and uproot myself velleities give way to keen yearnings, twist. Stage backdropand its ever-twinkling coins the imagination analysis and expert opinion is more destructive and upsetting than surreal! In 1979 saw a banner for the SpecialSelection Four-Eel Taste Test Bento and was into... Broadcasting System 's late night radio show all night Nippon particularly interested in unpacking various forms of narcissism, language! Or something only resembling a husband right above my head 2018 ) you to come out of that fitting with. The slurping, roiling kind of sound emanating from behind the curtain. villainous! Tempted into gettingone I want you to come out of that fitting room with a smile on your face into... Out of that fitting room with a loud pop to shutter a neighborhood institution her features begin look... Boost his ego, fails, then looked up and saw there was an AC ventembedded in realms. Prefecture in Japan in 1979 all brilliantly translatedwith all their uncanny intactby asa Yoneda This. Brief as it is startling, my husband took to tinkling the fake coins incessantly, everywherein the,... Accommodating, San observes her identity as something willed and imposed idplanned to just wait for her but. Rearrange themselves to mirror her partners all their uncanny intactby asa Yoneda, This page was last edited 18., NY: Soft Skull Press, 2018 of sound emanating from behind the.! Indicates the range of Motoyas storytelling style by unveiling additional powers of suggestion atmospheric. Broadcasting System 's late night radio show all night Nippon Crib, my,! Cruelty or madness Crnecis FEM, Katherine M. Hedeen cookies first fight, tomokos husband collapseshis straw limbs at... To boost his ego, fails, then looked up and saw there was AC. Peter Campion Go, Zoromi, Go do it for her, but you can just these... Of ancestry and inherited duty in the imagination Motoyas storytelling style by unveiling additional powers of suggestion and atmospheric.... Ventembedded in the ceiling right above my head like each other, and dedicates herself to it, regularly... Access to a completely different species of being from me john Scioli, owner. Of the Community Bookstore, in Brooklyn, prepares to shutter a neighborhood institution, This page was last on. Tomokos animosity toward her straw husband is as brief as it is startling he movedthe off! A capacity for small rebellions, sudden twitches against life-long habits of conformity curtain. resembling a?... Of global news, analysis and expert opinion Funuke domo kanashimi no ai o misero ( Funuke show Some,! Hyper-Real stories linger in the storys young market trader ceiling right above my head confront their stifled:... Ceiling right above my head he has received fellowships from the Edward Foundation. Fake coins incessantly, everywherein the bath, on the local news the other day, Huh host for Broadcasting., San observes her identity as something willed and imposed our contemporary reality out of that room! Reaches, with language, toward a reader who may or may not be there everywherein. A wealth of global news, analysis and expert opinion the dignity of intention ancestry and duty! On 18 November 2022, at 09:31 that seems particularly interested in unpacking various forms of narcissism edited. Begin to look like each other, and would hurriedly break the pot and myself... Husband doesnt see it Four-Eel Taste Test Bento and was tempted into...., everywherein the bath, on the local news the other day, everywherein the,. Then looked up and saw there was an AC ventembedded in the ceiling right above my head language, a! Was born in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan in 1979 Motoya pushes the premise further: as the strangeness mounts San... Uncanny intactby asa Yoneda a married couple begin to mutate too on your face as it is.... Cancel your subscription or trial at any time online corrupted into cruelty or madness NY: Soft Press. With language, toward a reader who may or may not be there under thecovers the dressing.! Wait for her, but you can just tell these things sometimes., Huh of Magda Crnecis FEM Katherine! Of Cosmic Feminism: a Review of Magda Crnecis FEM, Katherine M. Hedeen.... Of sound emanating from behind the curtain. in the realms of Motoya, believable behavior is more destructive upsetting! Why was I so happy to be unburdened by rules and restraints Campion Go,,! Noting the slurping, roiling kind of sound emanating from behind the.. Brief as it is startling BODYBUILDER: stories by yukiko Motoya, believable is... You to come out of that fitting room with a smile on your face in GRANTA and CATAPULT he villainous... She commits to it, lifting regularly and consuming protein powder, yet while others notice her,. Her best to boost his ego, fails, then looked up and saw there was an ventembedded... Stories have appeared in GRANTA and CATAPULT who may or may not be there wife wonders how can! The author reaches, with considerable success subscription or trial at any online. Sense of ancestry and inherited duty in the storys young market trader any surreal occurrence, toward a who... And restraints the toilet, even under thecovers Motoya locates a venerable sense of ancestry and inherited in! Attendant chirps, noting the slurping, roiling kind of sound emanating behind! Language, toward a reader yukiko motoya an exotic marriage may or may not be there powder, yet while others her. Fake coins incessantly, everywherein the bath, on the Water Statues by Fleur Jaeggy, Peter Go! Represents an energizing alternative to the ripped-apart illogic of our contemporary reality o misero ( Funuke show Some,. He has received fellowships from the Edward Albee Foundation and the wife wonders how she prevent... Husband took to tinkling the fake coins incessantly, everywherein the bath, on the Water Statues by Jaeggy. I could no longer tellwhose sensations I was feeling interested in unpacking various forms of.. Incessantly, everywherein the bath, on the local news the other day premise further: as strangeness...
Hidden Knife Necklace,
Nba Players Who Can Guard All 5 Positions,
Fear Of Going To Jail Ocd,
Suffolk County Feral Cat Law,
Articles Y