SAYAKA MURATA is the author of many books, including Earthlings and Convenience Store Woman, winner of the Akutagawa Prize. Murata has been named a Freeman's "Future of New Writing" author and a Vogue Japan Woman of the Year.
Praise for Life Ceremony:
An Indie Next Selection
"Murata's prose is deadpan, as clear as cellophane . . . Chilly and
transgressive at the same time . . . Murata is interested in how
disgust drives ethics, in why some things repel us but not others .
. . Murata's prose, in this translation from the Japanese by Ginny
Tapley Takemori, is generally so cool you could chill a bottle of
wine in it."--Dwight Garner, New York Times
"Twelve engrossing entries that probe intimacy and individuality
while turning norms upside down . . . Strange and bold."--Time,
"New Books You Need to Read This Summer"
"Picking up on themes in her novel Earthlings, most of these
stories are about alienation, exploring what it means to be
'normal' through a close focus on characters, nearly always women,
who do not conform to social expectations . . . The author's plain,
clear, observational style makes the stories strangely believable,
easy to read and hard to forget."--Lisa Tuttle, Guardian "Life
Ceremony uncovers Murata's preoccupation with our species' norms
writ large, beyond gender, sex, and reproduction. Several stories
imagine near-future worlds in which bodies find new uses after
death . . . In offering such exaggerated scenarios, Murata exposes
the lunacy of the norms we so blithely follow . . . Murata's
lifelong feeling of being a stranger has given her a perspective
from which to create her worlds."--WIRED "Sayaka Murata writes
about the life more ordinary . . . But ordinary is a shape-shifting
concept . . . Murata's prose, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori,
is both spare and dreamlike . . . Murata's skill is in turning
round the world so that the abnormal, uncivil or even savage paths
appear--if momentarily--to make sense."--Louise Lucas, Financial
Times "Life Ceremony is not a book for the squeamish or easily
shocked . . . Much of the humor in these stories comes from the
incongruity of grotesque elements in quotidian settings, such as
when the characters in Life Ceremony discuss with perfect
earnestness how they'll have to carefully prepare a deceased
co-worker's flesh for a stir-fry with cashew nuts . . . At their
best, these macabre stories are suffused with a tender compassion
for the foibles of their characters."--Florentyna Leow, Japan Times
"In Life Ceremony, Murata's first collection of short stories to
appear in English, her narratives are conspicuously weirder, weird
in the sense of weird tales--dark and macabre, surprising and
strange. The twelve stories blend humor and horror to examine
societal norms, and to expose how bizarre and oppressive certain
social standards and traditions can be, especially for women . . .
Murata's signature matter-of-fact tone makes this off-kilter
reality both viscerally and intellectually provocative . . .
Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Murata's style is deceptively
blunt and direct, making for a lightning-quick read. And yet, the
stories' haunting premises linger in the mind."--Kathleen Rooney,
Liber "Mixes her signature blend of the humorous, the awkward, and
the terrifying to tell stories of loners and outcasts who buck
traditions and societal expectations. Murata's stories will have
you questioning what it means to be human in this world and what is
sacrificed when we try too hard to fit in."--Book Riot "A strange,
inventive, and disconcerting collection of dystopian fiction . . .
Marvel at Murata's brash imagination and bravery, but be warned:
Life Ceremony is not for the squeamish."--New Statesman "The
short-story format serves up a buffet of settings for Murata to
work her magic. Whether they're about eating one's colleagues, or a
sexless marriage, the stories are snapshots of rational, believable
worlds on which are projected normal madnesses--and things we might
not want to admit we think about--in all their funny, disgusting,
innocent human glory."--Russell Thomas, South China Morning Post
"[Life Ceremony is] strange. Like, brilliantly, properly
strange--there's nothing you've read before that you can compare to
this. Want to read about a girl who falls in love with her bedroom
curtain? You can do that here. How about people who honour their
dead by eating them and then procreating? You came to the right
place. It's a wild ride to the edges of your imagination and
comprehension--and well worth the trip."--Harper's Bazaar
(Australia) "Once more, internationally bestselling Murata
confronts unspeakable topics with quotidian calm, shockingly
convincing logic, and creepy humor in a dozen genre-defying stories
. . . Murata groupies will appreciate a glimpse of characters from
Earthlings, while readers seeking the undefinable will enjoy these
tales immensely."--Terry Hong, Booklist (starred review) "A
singular collection . . . [Murata] investigates the validity of our
most basic rituals--how humans eat, marry, procreate, and die--and
incisively explores the rich, messy stuff left behind once they're
violated . . . Murata's stories are tightly woven and endlessly
surprising, with far more going on beneath the surface than is
initially evident and surprising moments of unexpected beauty . . .
Murata's writing remains essential and captivating, expertly
capturing the fragility of social norms and calling into question
what remains of human nature once they're stripped away. Beautiful,
disturbing, and thought-provoking."--Kirkus Reviews (starred
review) "With Life Ceremony, Sayaka Murata has created a series of
funhouse mirrors, each story in the collection pushing readers to
reconsider what is true, distorting the image so completely as to
open the viewer to new and unexpected perspectives . . . Each story
displays a fine-boned architecture, a careful curation of details
and paring away of the extraneous. The result is remarkable, the
lean force of Murata's imagination rippling through each
piece."--Shelf Awareness "In this off-kilter collection, Murata
brings a grotesque whimsy to her fables of cultural norms . . .
Like the author's novels, this brims with ideas."--Publishers
Weekly "Murata's premises are always eye-opening, and the result
will intrigue and satisfy readers of literary and speculative
fiction alike."--Library Journal Praise for Sayaka Murata: "To
Sayaka Murata, nonconformity is a slippery slope . . . Reminiscent
of certain excellent folk tales, expressionless prose is Murata's
trademark . . . The strength of [Murata's] voice lies in the
faux-naïf lens through which she filters her dark view of
humankind: We earthlings are sad, truncated bots, shuffling through
the world in a dream of confusion."--New York Times Book Review
"Murata takes a childlike idea and holds onto it with imaginative
fervor, brilliantly exposing the callousness and arbitrariness of
convention."--New Yorker "Murata manages what her characters
cannot: She transcends society's core values, to dizzying effect .
. . Her matter-of-fact rendering of wild events is as disorienting
as it is intriguing."--Atlantic "If you're in the mood for weird,
Sayaka Murata is always a reliable place to turn."--Seattle Times
"The imagination of this writer grows and grows like outer
space."--Literary Hub "Murata celebrate[s] the quiet heroism of
women who accept the cost of being themselves."--NPR's Fresh Air
"Murata's sparkly writing and knack for odd, beautiful details are
totally her own."--Vogue "Murata's novels are a valuable,
heightened exploration of the intense discomfort that people,
autistic or not, who are just a little outside of society can feel
when they try to force themselves to fit in. Murata's message is:
stop trying."--i-D
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
