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Book Review

Review of Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki

July 24, 2023

art, book, Japan, literature, review, science fiction, short story, society, symbolism

Terminal Boredom, by Izumi Suzuki, is a collection of science fiction short stories. It includes seven stories in total, and should be possible to finish in one afternoon, should the reader wish to do that. The stories are entirely independent plot-wise, and there is no specific affect-based benefit in reading them all at once.

In other words, the reader doesn’t need to enter any specific reading mood to get the best out of these short stories, which means, whether you read all seven in quick succession or take your time, the result will be basically the same.

You might already be tempted to decipher what I may imply by all this, so let me make it explicit: The stories in Terminal Boredom are an interesting example of a narrative that basically somewhat relies on plot, while at the same time it somewhat presents some intriguing symbolism.

I think the best description I can offer for Terminal Boredom is that it includes plenty of allusions and meanings, but the reader must work hard for them.

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Review of Popular Hits of the Showa Era by Ryū Murakami

November 28, 2022

Book Review, Criticism

art, book, Japan, literature, review, society, symbolism

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I want to start this review of Popular Hits of the Showa Era, by Ryū Murakami, by saying that it surprised me with its audacity. The fact that I was surprised is… surprising itself, because I’ve read plenty of Ryū Murakami’s novels – parenthetically, no relation to Haruki Murakami – and they’re all as audacious.

And yet, there was something about Popular Hits of the Showa Era that made it profoundly daring and disturbing in abstract, symbolic ways. As you can perhaps tell by this comment, I really liked the book.

But I must warn you: It’s a book that is very difficult to like; the average reader will probably be disgusted by it. Reading Popular Hits of the Showa Era is an experience similar to reading American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis: a misunderstood masterpiece that hides a riot of meaning under the deceptive surface.

All this makes this review of Popular Hits of the Showa Era all the more important. There are lessons to learn about writing, reading, and art in general.

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Review of Boredom by Alberto Moravia

October 24, 2022

Book Review, Criticism

book, experiencing, fiction, literature, love, relationship, review, society

4 comments

The original title of Alberto Moravia’s novel is La Noia, which means “Boredom”. For some unfathomable reason, there are many English translations referring to the book as The Empty Canvas. In this review of Boredom, self-evidently, I stick to the more direct translation of the title.

Alberto Moravia was an Italian author who produced plenty of interesting texts in the decades right after World War II. He did write (and publish) earlier, too, but his most intriguing texts came after the war. Boredom is certainly one of them.

If I had to pick just one word to describe it, it would be… No, not “boredom”. In Moravia’s novel, as his protagonist explicitly clarifies, boredom isn’t what you think it is. Perhaps the word I’d pick, the one arguably coming closer to the protagonist’s predicament, is absurdity.

review of boredom — This review of Boredom, by Alberto Moravia, focuses on the way the Italian author portrays aspects of existentialist self-delusion.

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