On the Books on Asia Podcast episode 12: The Art of the Short Story, podcast host Amy Chavez talks with Tina deBellegarde about what makes a good short story, and why certain short story writers are so appealing. Tina has been nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, has a short story published in the Mystery Writers of America anthology called “When a Stranger Comes to Town” and, most recently won the USA Prize in the Writers in Kyoto annual story competition.
They discuss Japanese short story writers such as Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto, Hiromi Kawakami, Aoko Matsuda, Kyoko Nakajima and foreign writers, including Lafcadio Hearn and, more recently, Rebecca Otowa. Amy also mentions two short story collection from China, one by the well-known author Xu Xu called Bird Talk and Other Stories, and an anthology of flash fiction called The Pearl Jacket and Other Stories: Flash Fiction from Contemporary China which prompts a discussion on flash fiction, which Tina defines for us and elaborates upon, including the works of Mieko Kawakami. (Click below to see Show Notes). Go to Issue 8 to see all the books discussed in the Short Story Podcast.
Show Notes
Amy congratulates Tina on her contest winning entry called “Sound Travels” in the WiK writing competition and Tina mentions that it can be read on the Writers in Kyoto website. Tina tells how the inspiration for the entry came from the current corona virus situation, which has prevented her (living in the US) from seeing her son, (living in Kyoto), for over a year and a half. Her piece was constructed from telephone conversations with her son amidst the background sounds of Kyoto City as he went about his daily activities.
They start the topic of the podcast by highlighting Japanese short story writers such as Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto, Hiromi Kawakami, Aoko Matsuda, and Kyoko Nakajima and foreign writers, including Lafcadio Hearn and, more recently, Rebecca Otowa. Amy also mentions two short story collection from China, one by the well-known author Xu Xu called Bird Talk and Other Stories, and an anthology of flash fiction called The Pearl Jacket and Other Stories: Flash Fiction from Contemporary China which prompts a discussion on flash fiction, which Tina defines for us and elaborates upon, including the works of Mieko Kawakami.
Amy asks Tina who her favorite short story authors are and Tina identifies Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto as definite favorites. Amy decides to give listeners a bit of a taste of Yoshimoto’s minimalist prose and how she smoothly transitions into “another world” by reading from the introduction of the story “Newlywed” from the short story collection Lizard. Tina notes in this example that some of the best short stories start from such an encounter, or moment, after which, the world is never the same for the protagonist. Trains are often the scene of stories in Japan, since most people in Japan ride trains all throughout their lives and these moveable settings involve a revolving door of different kinds of people who visit familiar places at which events can occur. Murakami does this too, especially as seen in the stories in his latest collection First Person Singular. Tina notes that in this sampling of works many of Murakami’s moments are merely moments, without morphing into other worlds (the way many of his novels do).
Tina admires Murakami for his adeptness in focusing on “small moments” and how he expands them into stories. She talks about his short story “The Second Bakery Attack,” (from The Elephant Vanishes) then moves into Carnaval (from First Person Singular) and how Murakami contrasts beautiful and “ugly” women in this story (the latter of whom he envies for their skills in communicating and drawing people into their worlds). Amy mentions Books on Asia’s Murakmi Podcast and Issue, that lists all his books, including his short story collections and fun, Murakami trivia.
Tina reflects on the BOA Podcast 7: Richard Lloyd Parry and Ghosts of the Tsunami and how Parry said there were so many stories to tell, that he focused on a few that would stand in for all stories, which Tina identifies, is what a good short story should do: allow the reader to connect to the universality of a story. That’s what Murakami does when he takes the reader into the every day life of his characters, and immerses you, so you can connect to all the parts of their story.
The discussion turns to some examples of Murakami encounters such as “With the Beatles,” and “Carnaval” (from First Person Singular), “On seeing the 100 percent Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning,” (from The Elephant Vanishes). Tina also mentions Naoya Shiga’s story “All the Way to Abashiri” from The Paper Door collection that takes place on a train while the character considers the woman sitting across from him with her 2 small children, and wonders what her life is like, what her husband does for a living, etc.
Amy notes that Japanese short stories don’t always offer hard and fast conclusions and how the reader is expected to linger over endings and think about the possible endings themselves, given different clues from the author. Tina says Japanese literature is often slice-of-life vignettes, where the story starts in the middle and ends in the middle, with the ending left open.
Amy observes that in addition to trains, another place that pops up a lot in Japanese literature as a backdrop is the thrift store. Many have read The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami, but there is also a thrift store in Kyoko Nakajima’s just released collection Things Remembered and Things Forgotten in a piece called “The Life Story of a Sewing Machine.” Amy elaborates on the elements that make this story so satisfying to readers such as herself.
Another big topic of Japanese short stories is yōkai, or ghosts. They talk about Aoko Matsuda’s recent release Where the Wild Ladies Are and how she re-invents traditional Japanese folktales into modern stories with strong women. Amy is hoping this a trend since the upcoming June release of Yamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch also re-imagines the Yamamba as a strong woman rather than the scary old crone she is classically portrayed as. Tina and Amy discover they have two different versions of Where the Wild Ladies Are and they compare the U.K. version against the American edition, the latter of which gives much more background information on the origins of the original stories the works are based on.
Amy also sites another hopeful trend: that of foreign writers penning short-stories on Japan since they give different insights into Japanese culture than Japanese writers do. Lafcadio Hearn is known for his stories on explaining Japanese culture and ghosts, but writers like Rebecca Ottowa, who write stories from the point of view of living and experiencing contemporary Japanese culture from a woman’s point of view, as well as that of an outsider is also important. Tina agrees and says that she read Otowa’s At Home in Japan before her visit to Japan, and that Otowa was a clearer conduit for her to learn about Japanese customs. We talk about one story “The Turtle Stone” (from Otowa’s The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper) as an example of cultural cues we can glean from reading such stories.
Lastly, Tina reveals what her favorite books on Japan are:
Kyoto: Seven Paths to the Heart of the City, by Diane Durston
Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki
Untangling My Chopsticks By Victoria Abbot Riccardi
The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press, publisher of fine books on Asia for over 30 years.
Go to Issue 8 to see all the books discussed in the Short Story Podcast.