From
the beginning to the end, the structure repeats
one sentence, like a subtitle and followed by some text.
This structure, the selection of the words, the representations and the story's view of the world give us the feeing of poetry and the main character had experiences of the world and he became healed
and recovered, which made my
idea that this is a fantasy literature.
About
"Water babies" below,
All these books are in fantasy literature, so "Water Family"
should have elements of fantasy literature. (This might be because I tend to read fantasy literature.)
However, I would class this as 'illusion literature' rather than 'fantasy literature'.
(I am not sure even 'illusion literature' is.)
Some
people think they are the same, although for me, they are different.
I
would not write here about how they are different and I might not be able to write clearly about the differences.
It
might not matter which category it is placed in,
anyway I feel the unique world of the novelist.
The novel
is written in the first‐person who is the main character, however,
he passed away in the beginning of the story, his spirit was floating, after then the novel is narrated by the floating spirit.
Thereafter the story carries on from the view point which are mixture of the
first‐person with the omniscience about each person in the family.
I
had read a book, "Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse" (only
in Japanese, 1996 / JUMP
j-BOOKS of Shueisha→2000
/ Shueishabunko) by Otsuichi (1978
- ) which is narrated by a dead person and when I read it I
felt the shocking style and the idea was new.
However,
the style had already been done in the book, "Water Family"
(1989), hadn't it?
In
the "Water Family", I do like the part of
the beginning (P.26~32) when his spirt moved out from
his body, I felt comfortable with the spirt which unites the natural
world and water after the floating.
However,
unfortunately the feeling didn't last until the end.
While
I read, I picked up that the world was stagnating.
The
spirit inly floated in 'Kusaba Town' ('草葉町')
and 'Gaki-mountain'('餓鬼岳' ).
For me 'Kusaba
Town' is associated with graves and the afterlife.
The
word : 'Kusaba' (草葉)
often expresses something figuratively in Japanese.
I
feel that 'Gaki-mountain' ('餓鬼岳')
suggests to the readers that the main character has the sin of fornication with
his younger sister.
The narrater only tells us the sister's name 'Yaeko', other family members are described, his
grandfather, father, mother, elder brother, a elder sister in law,
younger brother, even the narrater does not show his name, so I
understand for main character the younger sister was a woman rather
than his sister.
In
the book, it makes a strict selection of proper noun,
a characteristic structure, repeats three times similar
sentences or the same number then I feel the novelist's beauty
of form.
The
main character views about his grandfather and his father included respect and admiration, although about his mother and sister in law he narrates through cold eyes and he looked down on them.
I do most like the depiction of his grandfather.
I love a dragon, so I have a good feeling about a 'dragon kite ' which agrees with the grandfather's inside.
The depiction of the family made me disquieting, so I felt at ease with the grandfather who lives at quite a distance from the family.
And also I like his personality in that he tried to solve his brutality with a calm approach by his effort.
Yaeko could depend on him with her baby and I think she distinguished instinctively that she could depend most on this person in her family.
Yaeko seems to be a little an intellectually weak, of course the writing is not to outspoken, the representations about her are warm although the reader
could understand.
For
the main character, she is childlike , sweet, sexy and vigorous and
I feel she is an ideal woman for the novelist.
I
feel like this, so I can guess the novelist's thoughts about women
are prejudiced so
I cannot stop my feeling of dislike about part of him.
The
floating spirit found out that the aspects of his family are quite
human, he confirms his own negative parts which are not bad and for him or
for the aim of the novelist, the main character is purified or healed
and then he attains Buddhahood.
He
was purified by his feeling so I do not feel inconsistency,
though I feel he is still immature and self-absorbed.
Yeako's baby, who was not with not her brother, represents a symbol of life, on the other hand the story surrounds the death of the main character.
Moreover, living things in the natural world, even tiny things like a pollen, are depicted vigorously.
Overall, the shadow of death in the story is weak, the life force is much stronger.
At least I feel like that.
In my view the novelist does not like humans so much, however, he loves nature!
Formerly I wrote 'I picked up the world which was stagnating', I think this came from the novelist being a misanthrope.
The
skill of the novelist makes the sentences for the
five senses as well as his inspiration and his sense in selection of the words are wonderful!
I
think he is a great novelist.
However,
some parts of the novelist and me do not match, so I often felt aversion while I read the book.
Therefore
I would not read so much of his work, although I am still interested.
