Aloha,
So, I've found out some great news: I've been selected by the UH Manoa ALA Student Chapter for the Student-to-Staff program!
What's that, you wonder?
It's a program that sponsors library science students by paying the conference registration and housing fees at the American Library Association Annual Conference. This year it takes place in Washington, DC. As I've never been to DC, I'm equally delighted with the opportunity to explore a new city and attend ALA National. And while I've been selected by the regional student chapter, I still need to be confirmed by the Student-to-Staff Coordinator. So my fingers remained crossed!
Next item on the agenda: I received a contract from Salem Press to complete two essays on African-American figures of historical importance! My subjects are Pam Grier, a film star, and Octavia Butler, a well-regarded science fiction novelist who passed away in 2006. I'm very excited about the opportunity, since I have nothing but the highest respect for both women. I'm just... so thrilled!
And finally -- I've had a busy, busy week so far -- I met, wait for it, SARAH VOWELL. That's right, Assassination Vacation-NPR-Wordy Shipmates Sarah Vowell. She visited a local museum in Honolulu, conducting research for her next book. I have to admit, I wasn't as suave as I would have pictured myself: I just shook her hand, claimed to be a huge fan, and said in a scattered voice "Uh, I'll find the librarian."
I was very articulate. ;-)
So, that's been my week. And it's not even Friday...
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The New York Times has spoken...
Here it is: The New York Times 10 Best books of 2009! Just in time for the holidays, and I have to say that I'm most excited for the Raymond Carver memoir (Stephen King wrote an excellent review) and the Kat Carr memoir, entitled Lit.
If anyone has read one of these, let me know what you think!
Check it out: http://www.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2009/10-best-gift-guide-sub/list.html?ref=books
If anyone has read one of these, let me know what you think!
Check it out: http://www.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2009/10-best-gift-guide-sub/list.html?ref=books
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Real World Noir
KIRINO, Natsuo. Real World. New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday Publishing, 2009. 224p. ISBN 0307387488(pa), $14.00. Trade.
Narrated by five Japanese high school students, the novel Real World introduces a cast of characters connected by the murder of a neighborhood housewife. Of the five high school students, four of them are young women who cope with the crowded suburban society of Tokyo. Their friendships are tested when the fifth narrator, a young man who attends a prestigious high school, commits matricide. Instead of turning the boy – called “Worm” – into the police, the four young women assist him with his escape, providing cell phones and a bike. As the girls get further involved, the stakes get even higher – culminating in a wave of destruction and violence.
Natsuo Kirino, the pseudonym for the Japanese author Mariko Hashioka, is from Ishikawa Prefecture. Her style best described as “feminist noir,” she contributes heavily to Japanese detective fiction. Though few of her novels have been translated into English, her 1997 novel Out won the Grand Prix for Crime Fiction – Japan’s award for the top mystery of the year. Kirino’s other works include 18 novels, four short story collections, and an anthology of essays.
Real World is a postmodern tsunami of a novel that introduces the reader to characters who seem inhuman, or perhaps altogether too human. How could anyone aid and abet a matricidal young man, you wonder? However, Kirino delves into the young women’s personal lives, and shares the pivotal experiences (and often, the accompanying traumas) that have shaped the girls into who they are. While empathy for the murderer, Worm, is reduced by his own self-aggrandizement, the reader realizes that these four girls are driven to assist the narcissistic killer as a strike against a society that doesn’t work for them – a sociopolitical statement about a world that doesn’t provide for their emotional needs as human beings.
Kirino’s novel incorporates issues of gender and lesbian identities, and the urban anomie so essential to noir. While the list of Japanese noir novelists who focus their work on feminist and gender motifs may be somewhat small, similar authors do exist. Shibata Yoshiki is famous for her 'Riko' series, which feature a character that examines female sexuality against a backdrop of detective fiction in novels such as Diana’s Daydream (Publisher: Shinchosha). In addition, Matsuo Yumi examines many of the same motifs in her short story "Murder in Balloon Town" (Dalkey Archive Press).
Given the inherent themes, this novel would be a great addition to any undergraduate Women and/or Gender studies course. The themes are racy enough to prevent their entry into most K-12 educational systems, to the students’ considerable loss. In addition, the urban backdrop would make the novel a strong contributor to an Urban Studies course, as a sociological component to the interdisciplinary field. And of course, the high literary merit of the novel lends itself well to many literature courses.
Narrated by five Japanese high school students, the novel Real World introduces a cast of characters connected by the murder of a neighborhood housewife. Of the five high school students, four of them are young women who cope with the crowded suburban society of Tokyo. Their friendships are tested when the fifth narrator, a young man who attends a prestigious high school, commits matricide. Instead of turning the boy – called “Worm” – into the police, the four young women assist him with his escape, providing cell phones and a bike. As the girls get further involved, the stakes get even higher – culminating in a wave of destruction and violence.
Natsuo Kirino, the pseudonym for the Japanese author Mariko Hashioka, is from Ishikawa Prefecture. Her style best described as “feminist noir,” she contributes heavily to Japanese detective fiction. Though few of her novels have been translated into English, her 1997 novel Out won the Grand Prix for Crime Fiction – Japan’s award for the top mystery of the year. Kirino’s other works include 18 novels, four short story collections, and an anthology of essays.
Real World is a postmodern tsunami of a novel that introduces the reader to characters who seem inhuman, or perhaps altogether too human. How could anyone aid and abet a matricidal young man, you wonder? However, Kirino delves into the young women’s personal lives, and shares the pivotal experiences (and often, the accompanying traumas) that have shaped the girls into who they are. While empathy for the murderer, Worm, is reduced by his own self-aggrandizement, the reader realizes that these four girls are driven to assist the narcissistic killer as a strike against a society that doesn’t work for them – a sociopolitical statement about a world that doesn’t provide for their emotional needs as human beings.
Kirino’s novel incorporates issues of gender and lesbian identities, and the urban anomie so essential to noir. While the list of Japanese noir novelists who focus their work on feminist and gender motifs may be somewhat small, similar authors do exist. Shibata Yoshiki is famous for her 'Riko' series, which feature a character that examines female sexuality against a backdrop of detective fiction in novels such as Diana’s Daydream (Publisher: Shinchosha). In addition, Matsuo Yumi examines many of the same motifs in her short story "Murder in Balloon Town" (Dalkey Archive Press).
Given the inherent themes, this novel would be a great addition to any undergraduate Women and/or Gender studies course. The themes are racy enough to prevent their entry into most K-12 educational systems, to the students’ considerable loss. In addition, the urban backdrop would make the novel a strong contributor to an Urban Studies course, as a sociological component to the interdisciplinary field. And of course, the high literary merit of the novel lends itself well to many literature courses.
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