Summer, Fireworks and the Corpse- Book Review
I have gone down a Japanese narrative rabbit hole on my Kindle app, picking up a few novels on the cheap. I prefer the feel and biblichor of actual books but many of these are highly prized and expensive as it is a niche market in the West and the print runs were often small. So digital it is for Summer, Fireworks and the Corpse which features the title story as well as Yuko, a gothic short story. Both are the works of renown author Otsuichi.
The first story Summer, Fireworks and the Corpse concerns the untimely death of Satsuki, a 9 year old girl who dies after being pushed from a tree by her friend Yayoi. Alongside her brother Ken, Yayoi conceals the body and they become adept at lying to conceal the facts of this tragedy.
The story is intriguingly set up as we get a ghost narrator in Satsuki who tells the story from beyond the veil as she oversees what is happening. Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones borrowed this style 5 years later but I can see why- it's an effective tool to tell a narrative in an unusual and interesting way. Not only do we get the narrative told in an engaging way we get the emotions of the victim at the centre of the tragic tale.
As the two children hide the body and try to avoid being caught, it turns into a game of cat and mouse- much like one of my favourite shows Colombo. You can't help but root for the kids as they are clever and inventive in covering their trail. Ken particularly is very astute but can come across as a bit sociopathic as he seems to enjoy the 'game' whilst younger sister Yayoi is all weepy eyed and ready to fall apart at any moment.
There are also moments of real pathos though as Satsuki says upon seeing her friends set off for their first day of school, ''Upon everything but me, morning came, and everyone but me was alive''. It is really understated yet incredibly powerful as it brings home that fact that Satsuki was incredibly young upon her death and will never experience all that life has to offer.
Also, the character of Midori, who interacts with the children a lot, is an intriguing one as there are hidden depths that reveal themselves.
Overall, Otsuichi's story is short but leaves a mark as it is filled with observations on life, death and everything between which are lyrical and moving.
The second and shorter story, Yuko, is set after World War II and concerns Kiyone, a young lady who works as a servant for a reclusive writer and his never seen, bedridden wife. Over time, Kiyone slowly starts to go crazy with curiosity and seeks to look at the mysterious wife... but will it end well?
Yuko is a intriguing short story with a Japanese twist on the gothic tale; an isolated location, an unusual house owner, a mysterious hidden figure, unknown deaths and wary local towns people. The put-upon housekeeper tries to get to the truth and in the end we have diverging viewpoints on what has happened. It's a solid premise but I think there is a simple flaw in knowing what happened, look at the physical evidence in the aftermath of the finale.
I really enjoyed my time with these stories as they were short and breezy, only taking a couple of hours in total to read. From reading a few biographies online, I know that Otsuichi wrote the book when he was just 17 years old so I look forward to reading some of his later works to see how he developed his craft over time.