Life ceremony : stories

Title:

Seimeishiki. English

First-rate material.

Magnificent spread.

Summer night's kiss.

Two's family.

Time of the large star.

Poochie.

Body magic.

Lower on the breeze.

Puzzle.

Eating the city.

Hatchling.

Author:

Murata, Sayaka, 1979- author.

Publication Information:

New York : Grove Press, 2022.

Edition:

First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition.

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

244 pages ; 22 cm

General Note:

Translation of: Seimeishiki.

Contents:

A first-rate material -- A magnificent spread -- A summer night's kiss -- Two's family -- The time of the large star -- Poochie -- Life ceremony -- Body magic -- Lower on the breeze -- Puzzle -- Eating the city -- Hatchling.

Summary:

"With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata, whose Convenience Store Woman has now sold more than a million copies worldwide, returns with a brilliant and wonderfully unsettling collection, her most recent fiction to be published in Japan. In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror and turns the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. In "A First-Rate Material," Nana and Naoki are happily engaged, but Naoki can't stand the conventional use of deceased people's bodies for clothing, accessories, and furniture, and a disagreement around this threatens to derail their perfect wedding day. "Lovers on the Breeze" is told from the perspective of a curtain in a child's bedroom that jealously watches the young girl Naoko as she has her first kiss with a boy from her class and does its best to stop her. "Eating the City" explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while "Hatchling" closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in. In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks what it means to be a human in a world that often seems very strange, and offers answers that surprise and linger."-- Jacket flaps.

Subject Term:

Attitude (Psychology) -- Fiction.

Dogmatism -- Fiction.

Stereotypes (Social psychology) -- Fiction.

Rigidity (Psychology) -- Fiction.

Common sense -- Fiction.

Psychology, Pathological -- Fiction.

Genre:

Short stories.

Psychological fiction.

Added Author:

Takemori, Ginny Tapley,

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- First-rate material.

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- Magnificent spread.

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- Summer night's kiss.

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- Two's family.

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- Time of the large star.

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- Poochie.

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- Body magic.

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- Lower on the breeze.

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- Puzzle.

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- Eating the city.

Container of (work) : Murata, Sayaka, 1979- Hatchling.

ISBN:

9780802159588

Document ID:

SD_ILS:5021677

Availability:

Library	Call Number	Format	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Cohasset Paul Pratt Memorial Library	MURATA	BOOK	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable
Searching... Hingham Public Library	MUR	BOOK	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable
Searching... Plymouth Public Library	MUR	BOOK	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable
Searching... Quincy Thomas Crane Library	MURATA	BOOK	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable
Searching... Weymouth Tufts Library	MURATA	BOOK	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

The long-awaited first short story-collection by the author of the cult sensation Convenience Store Woman , tales of weird love, heartfelt friendships, and the unsettling nature of human existence

With Life Ceremony , the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness.

In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror to portray both the loners and outcasts as well as turning the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. Whether the stories take place in modern-day Japan, the future, or an alternate reality is left to the reader's interpretation, as the characters often seem strange in their normality in a frighteningly abnormal world. In "A First-Rate Material," Nana and Naoki are happily engaged, but Naoki can't stand the conventional use of deceased people's bodies for clothing, accessories, and furniture, and a disagreement around this threatens to derail their perfect wedding day. "Lovers on the Breeze" is told from the perspective of a curtain in a child's bedroom that jealously watches the young girl Naoko as she has her first kiss with a boy from her class and does its best to stop her. "Eating the City" explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while "Hatchling" closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in.

In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks above all what it means to be a human in our world and offers answers that surprise and linger.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this off-kilter collection, Murata (Convenience Store Woman) brings a grotesque whimsy to her fables of cultural norms. Eating habits are a recurring theme. In "A Magnificent Spread," a woman plans to serve strange dishes from her imaginary kingdom, "the magical city of Dundilas," at a gathering for her fiancé's parents, who have their own dietary preferences. The moral, it seems, is that one shouldn't impose one's culture on other people. The title story is set in an alternate Japan with an endangered human population, which has led to the macabre custom of eating deceased people at their funerals and then finding an "insemination partner." In "Eating the City," a forager prowls Tokyo for local greens--dandelions, mugwort, fleabane--in an effort to develop a closer connection to the urban jungle. Seeing a homeless person on one of her outings, she reflects: "I was probably more a feral human than he was." The final story, "Hatchling," presents a reductive take on the difference between one's social persona and one's authentic self. The wooden dialogue adds to the sense of comic defamiliarization, which produces the kind of laughs that catch in the throat. Like the author's novels, this brims with ideas though it's less enchanting. (July)

Booklist Review

Once more, internationally bestselling Murata confronts unspeakable topics with quotidian calm, shockingly convincing logic, and creepy humor in a dozen genre-defying stories, translated again by her chosen, Japanese-to-English enabler, Takemori. Death is no longer an ending, full stop, in "A First-Rate Material," in which all body parts of the departed are recycled into clothing, jewelry, and furniture, while in "Life Ceremony," the lifeless are consumed to nourish the living, who then are inspired to procreate immediately after. Sex is replaced by artificial insemination as the preferred method to produce children in "A Summer Night's Kiss" and "Two's Family." Food at a family gathering becomes highly individualized in "A Magnificent Spread": "The spread on the table now included the dishes from the magical city of Dundilas, the high-quality pouches of Happy Future Food, and the various insects." Fantastical impossibility becomes commonplace in "The Time of the Large Star" (sleep no more), "Poochie" (homeless humans as children's pets), "Lover on the Breeze" (a possessively anthropomorphized curtain), and "Puzzle" (a woman's body parts might involve an acrimoniously estranged couple). Then there's an urban forager in "Eating the City" and a woman with five personalities in "Hatchling." Murata groupies will appreciate a glimpse of characters from Earthlings (2020), while readers seeking the undefinable will enjoy these tales immensely.

Library Journal Review

Murata (Convenience Store Woman; Earthlings) delves once more into the deepest corners of our hearts and minds in her first short-story collection to be translated into English. The characters populating these 12 stories experience growth, fear, hope,and confusion through an off-balance lens that challenges listeners' perceptions of human behavior. If it's normal to wear clothing made from animal products, why not clothing made from human products? What makes a family average or separates a person from an object? Are our personalities truly our own, or are we a collection of the traits others assign to us? The narrators of these stories (Emily Woo Zeller, Eunice Wong, Natalie Naudus, Nancy Wu, Jeena Yi, and Pun Bandhu) create an audio landscape both intimate and otherworldly. Using precisely calculated tones and cadence, they evoke the cultural underpinnings of the characters while making them relatable to a world of listeners. Each main character stands alone in her story, but all are united by the narration into a chorus challenging the way we think about social conventions. VERDICT Recommended for listeners who enjoy the short stories of Karen Russell or Jeff VanderMeer's "Southern Reach" trilogy.--Natalie Marshall

Quincy Thomas Crane Library

Availability:

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review