Today the Japanese Literature Challenge 9 draws to a close. Thank you Dolce Bellezza for hosting!
I planned to read eight books this year but only read seven. I did start and abandon an eigth – Mari Asakasa’s Vibrator. It was only short but I found the narrator’s world to be too disaffected and alienated for my liking. However, I can see why it won prizes in Japan.
My favourite reads this year were:
Audition by Ryu Murakami – absolutely fantastic! Hilarious and oh-so-wrong at the same time! Read it!
Last Winter We Parted by Fuminori Nakamura – Very dark but also surprising.
Now You’re One of Us by Asa Nonami – Oh so very odd. Highly memorable.
To see the whole list click here.
I really enjoy this challenge and this year I got sidetracked from my reading list by stumbling over a few titles I hadn’t heard of before. Next year I hope to follow my original plan and work through the back catalogues of authors I have previously discovered in this challenge – Ryu Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Yoko Ogawa and Keigo Higashino.
Orange Pekoe Reviews 
Are we supposed to write a wrap-up post? Hahaha, I only read 3 books so it hardly matters.
I saw Last Winter, We Parted at my local bookshop but wasn’t quite interested. You speak quite highly of it though. I’ll look at your full-length review.
No, I think I did the first ever wrap up post! It’s part of my recent resolution to ‘just do it and write blog posts’ rather than think on it too much. If I over think things and aim for too much precision with ideas I can go weeks without posting!
Yoko Ogawa and Ryu Murakami are the 2 authors that are long overdue for me to read. I even have all 4 Ogawa’s books. I might wait til June for the next round of JLC to get on with Japanese lit again though. Congrats for reading so many! 🙂
I know how it is! I KNOW I am allowed to read JLit all year but I do save it for the challenge 🙂