translated by Giles Murray
Many years ago I watched a film by Shōhei Imamura called Warm Water Under a Red Bridge and enjoyed it a lot. It turns out that the movie was based on the title novella, which was the reason I took this book from the library in the first place. I have to say that there are many differences between the film and the original story. That’s only natural but, imprinting and stuff, I prefer the film. Also, the first-person protagonist of Gush (all three novellas are narrated in the first person) is quite annoying.
Night Caravan is the shortest story of the three which would greatly benefit from being even shorter.
My favourite novella is the final one. Piano Wire portrays a family of slobs falling under the influence of a mysterious compulsive declutterrer*. I always suspected there was a sinister side to tidying up; still, the ending comes as a shock.
| * | All three novellas were first published in 1992. Imagine that by then Marie Kondo had been decluttering for three years already. 22 years later, she has “kind of given up” on it. Good for her. |
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