Entry #3: "The Diving Pool: Three Novellas"

"...I don't really understand couples at all. They seem like some sort of inexplicable gaseous body to me--a shapeless, coloress, unintelligible thing, trapped in a labratory beaker...And she seems quite peaceful, as if she's wandered off into a deep, cold swamp..."

--from "The Diving Pool"

Ogawa, Yoko. Translated by Stephen Snyder. The Diving Pool: Three Novellas. Picador: New York, 2008.

Genre: Psychological Suspense/Mystery/Japanese Fiction

For Further Info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Ogawa

http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/014_05/2073

Subjects & Themes: manipulation; mental torture; inexplicable rage; reality vs. dream; hallucination; secrets; confusion & control; discontent; instanity & emotional break-downs; nothingness; interior & exterior storms; nothingness & the notion of the great abyss; alienation & the elusiveness of memory; the complex dichotomy of our human appetite; and life's enigma.

Reading Reaction:

In a word: weirdo-rama. Beyond that, thoroughly creeped out, yet equally fascinated. The author's writing style is deceptively simple (makes one wonder how it reads in its native Japanese) and before you know it, you've become nsnared in one enticingly abysmal realm...But, don't be turned off, for I was impressed enough to convince my library's adult services head to add it to our collection.

Suggested Read-a-Likes (otherwise known as more seriously disturbing reads for the wanna-be seriously disturbed):

1. Blindness by Giovanni Pontiero (1997).
2. Ghostwritten: A Novel by David Mitchell (2000).
3. In the Cut: A Novel by Susanna Moore (1995).
4. The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman (2002).
5. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1946).
6. Misery by Stephen King (1987).

Suggested Related Reads (more murder, mayhem, & madness--in Japan):

1. All She Was Worth by Miyabe Miyuki (1996).
2. The Bride's Kimono by Sujata Massey (2001).
3. Ring by Koji Suzuki (2002).
4. The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi (1998).
5. Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami (1997).
6. The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe (1964).

Musical Accompaniment: Enya (the darker stuff). Or, if hankering for a heavy vibe, try So Many People by Neurosonic. It, too, takes some serious deciphering.