I can see the appeal of this collection of short stories, but they were simply not for me. I've seen other reviewers describe their reading experience like a fever dream, and I agree, but while the other reviewer meant it in a positive way, I didn't particularly like it. The stories are weird in a way that didn't really appeal to me. However, I'm still giving three stars, because I'm sure this will be exactly some people's cup of tea :) The writing is very good, and the stories certainly are interesting and unique.

If I’m being completely honest, I can’t say I enjoyed these short stories nor did I hate them. They just were. They existed in a time and space of my life (which is thankfully in the past) and they were weird. They all had some kind of themes involving animals, gods, age disparity, love, and sex.

I’ve only read Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami, so when I saw this collection of short stories, I was intrigued. It definitely wasn’t what I expected and I can’t say I’d pick it up again or recommend it.

This collection includes 8 short stories:
🐙Hokusai: This story about the origin of Hokusai’s erotic painting, The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, and how that influenced an octopus to become a man is told in a piecemeal manner while bar-hopping. This was probably my favorite story.
📿Dragon Palace: Great-grandmother Ito meets Buddha at a young age, is worshipped, and learns about and uses sex to her advantage…
🦊Fox’s Den: An unlikely love story between a lecherous, old fox-like man and his caretaker.
⏲️The Kitchen God: When the woman eats stucco from the walls, she sees a 3-faced kitchen god. Oh, and she has an affair...
🦫Mole: A mole shrinks and collects humans who have no energy to live…
👦🏻The Roar: A brother goes from sister to sister to satisfy the needs of his particular life stages…
👴🏻Shimazaki: I’m not sure what the point of this story was… a person loves their way-older ancestor and wants that love to be reciprocated…? Idk. Beats me.
🌊Sea Horse: A woman is passed around from husband to husband, while she longs to return to the ocean.

I appreciate that there was some semblance of a theme in this collection of short stories, but ultimately this book was not for me. Nevertheless, I’m grateful I had the opportunity to read it just so I can become more familiar with Kawakami’s writing. I’ll still check out her other works since I enjoyed Strange Weather.

As a whole, this book was delightfully weird. Each story had its distinctive characteristics, but all of them fit together nicely. I’ve read Kawakami’s books before, but I struggled with this one in the beginning because I didn’t expect some of the non-human and mystical elements. So I would recommend this for readers with a very open mind to the weird and fantastical. Once I got used to the writing, reading the stories became more fun and effortless. With various themes across each of the stories, the book left me thinking. Overall, I would rate this book 3.75/5. I would enjoy reading this again!

Hokusai (3.5/5)
In Japan, octopi are symbols of flexibility and adaptability. While wondering where his life is going, we see the narrator spend the day with an octopus-turned-human. As the narrator follows this octopus man throughout the day, he becomes less rigid with his emotions. In the end, he becomes “soft and squishy,” a possible metaphor for his newfound sense of self that’s more susceptible to change. A nice and easy introduction to the collections.

Dragon Palace (⅖)
This story was pretty strange. I was confused since the story alternated between the great-grandmother’s recount of her younger years talking with her great-granddaughter, and her actual time there. The ending was a bit confusing, but I think the story was meant to showcase the absurdity of worship and love. Similar to Hokusai which had an animal within the symbolism of the story, so does this one. In Japan, dragons are symbols of good omens, immortality, and also adaptability. I feel like the animals shown in the stories correlate with the theme.

Fox’s Den (3.5/5)
The third story talked about a caregiver falling in love with the old man she was meant to take care of. With themes of mortality and love, it was an interesting read that was easy to follow of a woman falling in love with someone that turns out to be a 400-year-old fox. Similar to the other stories, there is an animal that makes up the theme of the story. The characters in this story compared to the first two were easier to like, however, the dialogue without the quotation marks was hard to follow sometimes.

The Kitchen God (5/5)
Here we follow an unnamed woman. She eats stucco off the walls and prays to the kitchen god she has been seeing since she was a child while living in a weasel-infested apartment complex. This was a very interesting story with a disheartening ending. The theme of this story seemed to portray the anxiety and unhappiness of young women. Not only does the narrator eat stucco and pray 3 times a day to her kitchen god, but she also surrounds herself with plants and is having an affair with a man who ends up obsessed with her. In Japan, there is a yokai called a kamaitachi that takes on the form of a weasel. They’re meant to represent wounds that aren’t visible but cut deep. We see that with the narrator as she’s not in pain physically, but is suffering mentally. This is my favorite story so far, and the one which resonates with me the most.

Mole (4/5)
A mole creature plucks and shrinks unhappy people, taking them to his underground home where they either die or become well enough to go back up to the surface to live with the regular people. The interactions with almost everyone in the story are uncomfortable. Considering that moles are meant to symbolize positivity, insight, and seeing the bright side of things, there’s a juxtaposition with the tone of the story. While in the other stories, the magical realism is understood as normal, here the mole creature is seen as abnormal to the humans around him. It’s very interesting to imagine the scenarios shown in the story, though.

Roar (2/5)
Within this story, we follow the youngest brother of 7 sisters. Within each of his developmental phases, he moves from the eldest sister to the youngest. It’s set in a seemingly mystical land where all the sisters are connected but separate from each other. Unlike the other stories, there isn’t one animal that sets the theme for the story since we focus on the brother’s time with each of the sisters. While there was a lot of immersive imagery, it was hard to follow sometimes and uncomfortable at many points of the story.

Shimazaki (4/5)
This is a thought-provoking story, making the reader ask questions such as: what is age if people can grow up to be 400 years old? What is old at that point? The ancestor of the narrator works as a life coach, answering life questions that people send him. We see that no matter what age someone is, they ask similar questions about life’s meaning and the wonder of relationships. Since most of the story is filled with dialogue with no quotation marks, it’s hard to follow in some moments.

Sea Horse (5/5)
In Japan, alongside others, seahorses can represent perseverance. In this story, we see a seahorse-turned-human get passed around by various men in her lifetime. With each of these men, we see the pain she had to endure while being away from the ocean. Her longing for the ocean, while not having the mental strength to get away from the men who have trapped her on land was such a sad tale, but reminiscent of many stories from women in abusive relationships. However, she persevered, even after the abuse she endured from the men in her life. This and “The Kitchen God” were some of my favorite stories within the collection.

A NetGalley ARC review

Thank you Netgalley and Stone bridge for an ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.
I'm no stranger to Japanese literature. This collection of short stories felt like a fever dream. The quirky, nuanced, surreal way the author brought real life issues to life was amazing.

I have read and loved several of Kawakami Hiromi's other works, but I struggled a little with Dragon Palace. A few of the stories were interesting and appealing, but with several others I really couldn't make out what was supposed to be happening or how to interpret them. I am not sure if this was a cultural issue, with ideas simply not translating well into another language with different cultural precepts, or if the stories were just bizarre and unfathomable to begin with. As such, I am giving it three stars. If you are already a fan of Kawakami Hiromi, it would be worth checking out this book for interest; however, if you are knew to her writing, I definitely recommend starting with one or more of her other books before giving this book a try.

(As a note to the publisher, it took me a while to read this because I had to read it on my PC. The text was fine on Adobe Digital Editions on my PC, but when I transferred the book to my e-reader all the pages were showing as blank.)

I absolutely loved these stories. A great collection that I plan on adding to my own books when it comes out. Magical Realism, surreal, strange, unique. Loved every story.

<b><i>”If you turn where the guardrail breaks off and walk down the stone steps from the highway, you'll come upon a rotting fishing boat lying on its side in the sand. On windy days, you can hear its net flapping.” — HOKUSAI; DRAGON PALACE</b></i>

I will be rating and reviewing each short story separately, but as a whole I really enjoyed this collection. Each story was different enough that it never felt repetitive or boring, yet they were similar enough that the collection still made sense.

I had forgotten how much I loved Kawakami’s writing until now, and it felt like a welcome return to her world as I settled into this collection. Throughout the book her use of imagery painted so many gorgeous pictures in my mind, and I could really appreciate the hard work that the translator put in as well. The original writing is of course in Japanese, but I think that this was a fairly well-done translation. It never felt stilted or awkward, and managed to keep the sentimentality of the original language it was written in.

<b>HOKUSAI</b>

This was a definite four out of five stars. Perhaps I’m a little biased because this was the first story and I still felt really excited over being able to read an ARC of Kawakami’s, but this had the most hype and made me feel the most. Especially when it came to the imagery, I could really appreciate the artistry of this story.

There was a lot of symbolism and allegory here but I don’t think I fully understood it. If I had understood the reasoning behind the writing, I definitely would have given this short story a rare five out of five stars. Otherwise, I can appreciate what Kawakami did here even if I don’t fully understand it.

<b>DRAGON PALACE</b>

This was a solid three stars. I feel really conflicted about this short story, namesake of the entire collection. I may have had slightly higher expectations for this story because of that, but it fell short honestly. It made me feel really uncomfortable when Ito’s physical descriptions were discussed. Even if this was not the intention, it came off as pedophilic. The way that her attractive traits were constantly paired with her youthful personality and literal young age (fourteen!) made me uncomfortable.

I did, however, understand more of the symbolism here. The “message” of this story resonated more with me than the previous one did.

Because of my mixed feelings, I of course am keeping it at a steady three stars. It would feel wrong to bump it to two or four stars.

<b>FOX’S DEN</b>

Just like Dragon Palace, I had mixed feelings about this one as soon as I finished it. On one hand, I didn’t really like all the shit references and I was just so confused as to what the hell was happening. After skimming the story back over again though, I understood more of the hidden messages in the writing and stopped taking everything so literally.

The rawness of the characters’ actions and how they spoke to each other was really different and even though the circumstances were a bit odd, I found myself liking both main characters.

I think that after re-reading it, I would bump this up to four stars rather than three. Though I initially thought three, there was enough of a difference between the first and second read that made me like it a lot more.

<b>THE KITCHEN GOD</b>

To me, this character had the strongest narration and she stood out to me the most. This is a definite five out of five stars and perhaps my favorite story from this whole collection. There was something about it that set it aside from the other stories, and I could tell that I was going to like this one as soon as I read the first sentence.

This felt very much like a tragic coming of age story, about a young woman blooming into adulthood and learning how to act like an adult and function without the comfort of her childhood home and her parents. The Kitchen God symbolizes that pain of growing up, and its location in the kitchen has all the more meaning when you think about how Izumi must have felt the most love from her mother when they were in the kitchen cooking together.

<b>MOLE</b>

The title of this story being “Mole” when it refers to a grave digger (I think) was incredibly morbid but genius at the same time. The magical realism is also really interesting; it’s really fleshed out in this story compared to the past four. Though it had been mentioned in a few of the past stories, it was never fully discussed until this story.

The narration of the mole’s day to day life was also a clever set-up, trying to disguise the work he’s doing as mundane and unimportant. I can’t help but feel like the prejudice and exclusion that the mole gets from his fully human coworkers is representative of prejudice in the workplace in real life, whether that’s due to racism, homophobia, or any other sort of discrimination. It’s even more interesting when you realize that the humans are the ones invading the mole people’s space; they have to stay underground for an unidentified reason.

I would sit this at a 4.5, because it isn’t completely perfect but it deserves more than a simple four, which I dole out quite liberally.

<b>THE ROAR</b>

This is one star. I have no idea what’s happening here but seeing as to how the story started with a boy breastfeeding from his sister and sexualizing it, I really just couldn’t like it at all. I don’t even care if there’s hidden symbolism here, it’s just way too uncomfortable no matter what the reasoning behind it is.

From the beginning to the end, I disliked this one.

<b>SHIMAZAKI</b>

This is probably three stars as well, because I was quite confused about what was happening most of the time in this story as well. I’m not sure of the case between the woman and her “ancestor” (is he really her ancestor and this is more incest or is that just a weird nickname?). Anyways, three stars and that’s that. Not my favorite by far.

<b>SEA HORSE</b>

This is definitely one of my favorites from the collection, alongside The Kitchen God. It’s hard to put my adoration for this short story into words for some reason, but I really loved this entire story. The descriptions of the ocean and her longing for it, her pain from her husbands and her children. It was all so incredibly beautiful.

Thank you to Netgalley, Stone Bridge Press, and Hiromi Kawakami and Ted Goossen for the ARC!

An eclectic and interesting selection of stories, some were hits and some were misses for me. Some I can't stop thinking about, the whimsicality of the kitchen god and the strange relationship between the ancestors. Some I felt I was skimming and some were a bit unnerving. Overall, as per usual, I enjoy this authors writing style and look forward to more in teh future.

I enjoyed this Japansese translated short story collection. The octopus on the cover enticed me because I like oceanography in stories, and this book delivered that.

The selected stories fit together well. A cohesive collection that explores themes of transformation and how people impact us. The stories have a strong sense of place, and I appreciated the bizarre elements like the non-human characters and the almost fantastical occurrences.

I would have liked consistency with the use of quotation marks. In some stories, quotation marks are only used for one character. In some they aren't used at all. It jarred me each time, but I did adjust. The prose was solid, barring the occasional redundancy: instances where words could be cut and it wouldn't compromise the meaning. Otherwise, the writing was transportive and imaginative.

Here are my reviews for each story and a rating out of 10:

Hokusai 8/10:
l love octopuses so I enjoyed this. Strong atmosphere for the beach and alleyways. The unnamed main POV felt less developed than the side character, the octopus man, because the story was heavy on his dialogue. The main character should not be less interesting and take the back seat in their own story.


Dragon Palace 6/10:
The story was told in an interesting way. It alternates between an unnamed first person POV and and a third person POV named great-grandmother Ito. This allowed for good character analysis because we saw Ito through both a subjective and objective lens. This was maybe a bit too bizarre for my liking and I was confused at points. I liked the seaside vibes.


Fox's Den 8/10:
Much better character work. Unlike the other two stories, the main character was balanced well with the side characters. In the other stories, the main character almost felt like a side character, or an observer. Not the case here. A much better balance. I loved the exploration of this dynamic between an elderly person and their carer. The main character had qualities that made them feel like they exist outside of the story: they had other clients and a backstory about divorced husbands. Quotation marks were not used for one the characters which was a struggle but I did adjust.


The Kitchen God 8/10:
Good character work here too. The beginning of this story was awesome and it had potential to be ten out of ten, but the ending was pretty lacklustre. Nothing ties up, there is only a revelation, which is fine, but the revelation wasn't all that earned or interesting. However, there were so many interesting elements in the story: the kitchen god, the mother, the shop lifting, eating the wall plaster, the weasel infestation, the complicated relationship with the salesman. Entertaining for sure.


Mole 7/10:
Really liked the concept of these human-moles that take depressed people into their burrows, but the execution was not that interesting. The character felt developed and I loved the bizarreness of a mole in an office job, or in a restaurant.


The Roar 8/10:
Some of the bizarreness was genius, some of it was questionable. I am mind-blown by how much was covered in such a short story. We see the main character's whole life, moving from sister to sister, of which there are seven, and we see one of his friendships. It could have easily been too much and been underdeveloped, but it wasn't. Immersive imagery. I could see everything.


Shimazaki 7/10:
I struggled to tell when characters were speaking and who. There were no quotation marks, but what made it worse was there was no indentation. I think the voice was really strong here and I got a good sense of the characters. I thought it was funny how she kept referring to him as "the ancestor".


Sea Horse 10/10:
Perfect. Everything I liked about the previous stories were all present and done well here. Themes sprinkled through all the stories came to a crux in this one. The main character's relationships were so interesting. The story was the perfect amount of cryptic and bizarre.