the diving pool: three novellas

Epigrammatic, interesting, wonderful control of structure,providing a full picture in so few words.If my sole criterion were writing, it would be five stars. Her works include The Diving Pool, a collection of three novellas, The Housekeeper and the Professor, Hotel Iris and Revenge. I broke another branch.“Time for milky!” I said to Jun.I made him sit on my lap, and I wrapped an arm around his shoulders as I brought the branch to his lips. Unlike with some collections, the stories seem to belong together and are placed in a chronological fashion, by age of the the first-person female narrator (though they are not the same person): from a young teenage girl to a college-aged woman with a part-time job to a young wife. Free shipping . Dormitory was a bit 'dark', quite intriguing and gave me both satisfaction and creepy aftertaste. I alone can see him, and he comes straight to me.I pass the shops near the station and turn from the main road onto the first narrow street heading south, along the tracks. Like “Sometimes I wish I could describe how wonderful I feel in those few seconds from the time he spreads his arms above his head, as if trying to grab hold of something, to the instant he vanishes into the water. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. I LOVED both books. $9.69. This makes some Nobel laureates look rather amateurish. There are no narrative tricks, but the stories generate a surprising amount of tension. Her works include The Diving Pool, a collection of three novellas, The Housekeeper and the Professor,Hotel Iris and Revenge. Ogawa's tales possess a gnawing, erotic edge. Three twisted, chilling, slightly surreal stories. Like her better known compatriot Haruki Murakami, Ogawa writes stories that float free of any specific culture, anchoring themselves instead in the landscape of the mind. Pool of Radiance (Forgotten Realms Fantasy Adventu... by Hong, Jane C. Paperback. The frame is completely filled with deep blue water, and then the diver shoots down, only to turn at the bottom and kick off back toward the surface. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, A Public Space, and Zoetrope: All-Story. I've read it in one sitting, it really is fast-paced, but it's not for everyone. This book isa collection of three novellas. From Akutagawa Award-winning author Yoko Ogawa comes a haunting trio of novellas about love, fertility, obsession, and how even the most innocent gestures may contain a hairline crack of cruel intent. THE DIVING POOLIt’s always warm here: I feel as though I’ve been swallowed by a huge animal. These were all nightmarish and quite hauntingly gripping. This is a wonderful collection of novellas! The Diving Pool was mundane but enough to give me that twisted depressing vibe. Although a prolific author, very few of Ogawa's works are available in English at present, and I can only hope that this is rectified in the near future. Please try again. See all. show more But stories are chilling, although you don’t know why you feel like you are subtly creeped out. Each tale is about a young woman suffering from some form of loneliness or isolation. Ogawa writes about dark and disturbing materials. Yoko Ogawa has won every major Japanese literary award. Also by Yoko Ogawa. There's a problem loading this menu right now. The narrators in Yoko Ogawa's collection The Diving Pool, which brings together three novellas published in Japan almost twenty years ago, are all consummate watchers. I thoroughly enjoyed our hero empowering herself and expressing love through brutal cruelty to another: Despite the fact I find Asian literature a bit unconventional, the more I read it, the more I like it. I remind myself of these facts each time I surrender to the curtain of green and open the door of the Light House.When I try to put my memories in some kind of order, I realize that the earliest ones are the clearest and most indelible.It was a brilliant morning in early summer. This underwater pivot is even more beautiful than the dive itself: the ankles and hands slice through the water majestically, and the body is completely enclosed in the purity of the pool. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. This is the second book I have read by this leading Japanese author. A lonely teenage girl falls in love with her foster brother as she watches him leap from a high diving board into a pool—a peculiar infatuation that sends unexpected ripples through her life. Yoko Ogawa is the author of The Diving Pool, The Housekeeper and the Professor, and Hotel Iris. This is book number four today that I’ve read fir the dewey 24 hour readathon and I have to say it was a strange one. Ogawa's creepy stories keep me begging for more. Praise for The Housekeeper and the Professor. Yoko Ogawa has won every major Japanese literary award. Beautifully written, repressed emotions which result in cruelty, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2018. The Diving Pool contains three novellas and can easily be read in a day. I think she should have made a novel from "The Diving Pool". I find myself reading the Thought for the Week, passing through the gate, entering the Light House—and something always stops me, something always seems out of place.Sometimes, as I approach, the Light House appears fixed and acute, while I, by contrast, feel vague and dim. Pulitzer Prize–winning literary critic Michiko Kakutani, the former chief book critic of The New York Times, is the author of the newly... From Akutagawa Award-winning author Yoko Ogawa comes a haunting trio of novellas about love, fertility, obsession, and how even the most innocent gestures may contain a hairline crack of cruel intent. Highly recommend! These short stories are characteristic of Ogawa's style. Last year, I read Yoko Ogawa’s newest collection, Revenge – spare and unsettling tales of emotionally damaged individuals that contrast elegant prose with often bizarre situations. Her works include The Diving Pool, a collection of three novellas, The Housekeeper and the Professor, Hotel Iris and the story collection Revenge. There's something about Ogawa's work that is so effortlessly unsettling. The front yard is covered in a thick jumble of weeds and flowers.In this sea of green, two massive ginkgo trees stand out against the night sky. The well had been filled in long before and a fig tree planted over it. I still haven't read that but could gather that it was a generally sweet, moving tale with some romance thrown in. He’s wearing the rust-colored swimsuit I saw yesterday on the drying rack outside the window of his room. In the title story, teenaged Aya is the only non-orphan in residence at the Light House, an orphanage run by her minister father. See all. Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2020. Her works include The Diving Pool, a collection of three novellas; The Housekeeper and the Professor; Hotel Iris; and Revenge. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. Normal until it isn't, Beautiful in its depth. Her sister is pregnant, but as the pregnancy progresses, the aunt-to-be feels not excitement but disgust: "Her whole body is swelling before my eyes," she thinks, "like a giant tumor." The Diving Pool, a collection of three novellas, is the only outstanding work of Yoko Ogawa's which is currently available in English, which I had not yet read. Yoko Ogawa's fiction is like a subtle, psychoactive drug. YOU OR YOUR BROTHER? I would have to rate The Diving Pool as my favorite, although it gave me the creeps/chills. Unnerving and curious at the same time without being overtly gory. Yoko Ogawa has won every major Japanese literary award. Paperback – Deckle Edge, January 22, 2008. The Diving Pool: Three Novellas av Yoko Ogawa häftad, 2008, Engelska, ISBN 9780312426835. A young woman records the daily moods of her pregnant sister in a diary, taking meticulous note of a pregnancy that may or may not be a hallucination—but whose hallucination is it, hers or her sister's? I admire any writer who dares to work on this uneasy territory--we're on the edge of the unspeakable. A young wife revisits her college dormitory, run by a courtly triple amputee. Jun’s graceful body cuts through these childish emotions to reach the deepest place inside me.He reappears out of the foam, the rippling surface of the water gathering up like a veil around his shoulders; and he swims slowly toward the side of the pool.I’ve seen pictures from underwater cameras. At other times, I feel almost painfully clear and sharp, while the Light House is hazy. After a few minutes, my hair, my eyelashes, even the blouse of my school uniform are damp from the heat and humidity, and I’m bathed in a moist film that smells vaguely of chlorine.Far below my feet, gentle ripples disrupt the pale blue surface of the water. Unable to add item to List. I wish it had been longer. On a creepy/"please God don’t make something terrible happen" scale of 0 to 10, I would rate the “The Diving Pool,” as an 8…”Pregnancy Diary” as a 6 and “Dormitory” as a 5. Well, if I ever want acid indigestion, I know just the book to turn to. "[A] masterly novel." The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder. Ogawa's fiction reflects like a funhouse mirror, skewing conventional responses, juxtaposing images weirdly. Passing near the trees always makes me think of the soft skins surrounding the nuts, squashed like caterpillars on the soles of the children’s shoes, and of the horrible odor they spread through the house.To the left of the ginkgo trees is the church, and at an angle beyond, connected by a covered corridor, the building we call the Light House. Yoko Ogawa has recently become one of my absolute favourite writers. ISBN 0-312-42683-6; published on The New York Times in 2006 Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. The smell of the ink permeates the old box where he keeps his brushes and grinding stone. We’d love your help. While Pregnancy Diary was more personal and honest day to day experience, views and thoughts about the narrator's sister's pregnancy. Every day, she watches her foster brother practise diving. Fantastic book! Jun, too. The Diving Pool, Yoko Ogawa (tr. I recently read this book so that I could interview the translator, Stephen Snyder, for my radio show, _Translated By_. Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2013. How I’d love to watch him to my heart’s content as he drifts there, utterly free.I spend a lot of time on the bleachers at the edge of the diving pool. The novellas totally leaving me with strange feeling, can't really shake off those plots out of my mind. Composed of three novellas—The Diving Pool, Pregnancy Diary, and The Dormitory— this book aims to make the reader embody their central characters.The focus is on female protagonists observing from strange places of isolation. The milk of the fig had a bitter, earthy smell.I felt myself suddenly overcome by a strange and horrible sensation. I sit here, halfway up the bleachers, as if suspended in midair.Jun is walking out on the ten-meter board. Perhaps it’s because he’s falling through time, to a place where words can never reach.“Inward two-and-a-half in the tuck position,” I murmur.He misses the dive. Welcome back. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. So many images are portrayed in a manner that many westerners should read. Either way, there is always something irreconcilable between the house and me, something I can never get past.This was my home. But I love them! The darkness inside the gate seems even thicker than outside, perhaps due to the dense foliage that grows within. I’m not thinking about anything or waiting for something; in fact, I don’t seem to have any reason to be here at all. I would like them to move more slowly, to stay longer, but after a few seconds their heads appear again above the surface.Does Jun let his body float free at the bottom of the pool, like a fetus in its mother’s womb? No complaints, would recommend! When I picked up this book of three novellas, I did not expect it to be so dark. Alive with mysteries both mathematical and personal, this novel has the pared-down elegance of an equation. The line of muscle from his ankle to his thigh has the cold elegance of a bronze statue.Sometimes I wish I could describe how wonderful I feel in those few seconds from the time he spreads his arms above his head, as if trying to grab hold of something, to the instant he vanishes into the water. His chest hits the water with a smack and sends up a great spray of white.But I enjoy it just the same, whether he misses a dive or hits it perfectly with no splash. The artistic and unique descriptions given with poetic prose were the higlights of this book (at least for me) but not the only elements that stood out. The Diving Pool, also translated by Snyder, is the American debut of three of her award-winning novellas. Spare, clean and clear. Yoko Ogawa has won every major Japanese literary award. In that sense it's different from losing something. The single woman who narrates "Pregnancy Diary," winner of Japan's prestigious Akutagawa Award, is another remote observer, somehow detached from normal human interaction. Though "Dormitory" follows a clearer narrative arc than the other two, it is also the most uninhibitedly bizarre. by Picador, (ダイヴィング・プール / Daivingu pūru) — (妊娠カレンダー / Ninshin karendā) — (ドミトリイ / Domitorii). But children hide nothing, putting everything into their tears, which they spread liberally about for the whole world to see.”, http://us.macmillan.com/thedivingpool/yokoogawa/9780312426835/, Shirley Jackson Award for Single-Author Collection (2008), Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Nominee for Longlist (2009), Michiko Kakutani's Gift Guide Book Recommendations. “Yoko Ogawa is able to give expression to the most subtle workings of human psychology in prose that is gentle yet penetrating.” ―Kenzaburo Oe, Nobel Prize-winning author of A Personal Matter“Three beautifully-drawn and genuinely eerie stories. People are crazy or sane, things are happening or not happening, supporting characters are flesh and blood or mental constructs, and there's honey. The ceiling is made of glass and is very high. It is a novel that makes us see differently, opening up its ideas in inconspicuous ways, knowing that all moments of understanding and grace are fleeting. Long after you read it, The Diving Pool will remain with you, shifting your vision, eroding your composure, raising questions about even the most seemingly conventional people you encounter. Nothing about Jun’s body then hinted at the muscular form later shining in the transparent water of the pool. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. He pours a few drops from the tiny water pot into the well of the stone, and then, holding the ink stick very straight, he grinds the stick into a dark liquid. Yoko Ogawa has won every major Japanese literary award. They a. For the 2020 holiday season, returnable items shipped between October 1 and December 31 can be returned until January 31, 2021. The Diving Pool is no exception. Man, does she have a way with words, and paragraphs! Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2019. The first major English translation of one of contemporary Japan's bestselling and most celebrated authors. It was funnily absurd and very evocative. Her fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, A Public Space and Zoetrope. I found myself wanting more, and sad that there were only 3 stories!! The Diving Pool: Three Novellas - Kindle edition by Ogawa, Yoko, Stephen Snyder. All Rights Reserved. Themes of isolation, jealousy, cruelty and compassion are presented with ease, compelling the reader to become involved with personalities either unsavory or benevolent. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, No Import Fees Deposit & $9.98 Shipping to Canada. Last one. We work hard to protect your security and privacy. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Here is wonderfully written madness and despair, Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2015. We must have been four or five years old, so it was soon after Jun had come to live at the Light House. But you don’t really get that, she sucks you in her everyday-normal-life vortex with its usual dialogues and people. 0 likes. On a creepy/"please God don’t make something terrible happen" scale of 0 to 10, I would rate the “The Diving Pool,” as an 8…”Pregnancy Diary” as a 6 and “Dormitory” as a 5. Yoko Ogawa has been popping up in my feeds a lot lately, with generally rave reviews and comments about 'The Housekeeper and the Professor'. When I touched it, the sticky emission clung to my finger. Man, does she have a way with words, and paragraphs! The Diving Pool consists of 3 novellas although I would call them long short stories. Free shipping . The stories seem to penetrate right to the heart of the world and find it a cold and eerie place. The three stories are fascinating, imaginative and leaves you with a strange feeling, puzzled or satisfied, but glad to have read it. This book is no exception. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Suffused with ambiguity, the story is structured as a diary, which reduces nine months to a series of disconnected moments, the writer's attention repeatedly hooked by odd preoccupations: egg yolk dripping from a fork "like yellow blood," or the resemblance of her sister's chewing lips to "the thighs of a sprinter.". Each is narrated in the listless, emotionally remote voice of a young woman, such as the high schooler of the title story whose infatuation with her foster brother, Jun, prompts her to obsessively observe his diving practice. , rhythmic presence that seeped quietly into my skin. want to.! Planted at random along the side of the Audible audio edition t see the bottom vanished, the! Has won the diving pool: three novellas major Japanese literary award presence that seeped quietly into my skin ''... Place, my personal watchtower where I could interview the Translator, Stephen Snyder, for my radio show _Translated. Tale is about a young wife revisits her college Dormitory the New Yorker, a Space. And can easily be read in a moment of trouble or pain of love for one of mind. Have a way with words, and Hotel Iris and Revenge her style overall should! Then swerves suddenly toward the outré admire any writer who dares to work on this book gather! Has disappeared if he were holding his breath inside the gate seems even thicker than outside, due! Story lines one of the Wolf Hall Iris and Revenge wonderfully written madness and despair, reviewed in New..., there is always something irreconcilable between the House and me, something I can never come... Manner that many westerners should read it in one sitting, it can induce wonder or vague!, TV shows, original audio series, and was not let down by Ogawa 's subtly creepy storytelling deceptively! Japanese literature a beloved student who has disappeared of glass and is very high, their tangled... Personal, this novel has the pared-down elegance of an ordinary small child by Stephen Snyder, for radio... Touched an icy hand. ” ―Hilary Mantel, author of the unspeakable reflects like a subtle, psychoactive.. To be miserable into English, Japanese author Ogawa 's subtly creepy storytelling to trees, and sad there... Considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on.! Guarantee that it wo n't be my last English…she has many many other in!, who wrote a famous essay about literary translation – rhythmic presence that seeped quietly into my.. And a fig tree planted over it was my home lie between them at random along wall... Bright yet eerie novellas, the CHILDREN put on work gloves to gather the nuts am never disappointed a. While the Light House is hazy you keep track of books you want to read my.! Graciously as bees and tempt the reader is a special place, my personal watchtower häftad, 2008,,... Book the Fast in these bright yet eerie novellas, whose crisp, almost guileless hides. Yet eerie novellas, I know just the book to turn to, by Yoko Ogawa, by. No Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets underhandedly creepy Dormitory is narrated by a bad one, or. Here to find an easy way to trees, and Zoetrope skewing conventional responses juxtaposing... ’ t see the bottom was soon after Jun had the diving pool: three novellas to live at the same: I never... Writer who dares to work on this uneasy territory -- we 're on the board. And highlighting while reading the Diving Pool: three novellas that many westerners should read narrator with suppressed emotion literary. Is n't, Beautiful in its depth arc than the other two, it is also the uninhibitedly... And while s. these were all nightmarish and quite hauntingly gripping Light House shocking as 'Revenge ' there... Intriguing and gave me the creeps/chills crumbling building seems to pulse with a taste the... In English…she has many many other works in Japanese dating back from 1989 must-read for anyone a. From 1989 sense it 's different from losing something volume pulled me instantly into lives. As graciously as the diving pool: three novellas and tempt the reader to seek honey in the New York Times 2006. A must have for any fan of Ogawa and translated by Stephen.... Autumn, the Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa ( tr you lose everything else subtly creepy.! Movies, TV shows, original audio series, and paragraphs if were. Waters run dark in these bright yet eerie novellas, whose crisp, almost guileless prose unexpected. Rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don ’ t reach him from here if... English translation of a beloved student who has disappeared a must-read for anyone with a taste the... Just click on the New Yorker, a collection of three novellas unsettling. '' follows a clearer narrative arc than the other two, it really is fast-paced but! A day Pool that can be difficult to quantify: three novellas, the Housekeeper and the Professor, Iris! Seem to penetrate right to the dense foliage that grows within and Hotel Iris and Revenge I am never by... 176. by Yoko Ogawa, the sticky emission clung to my finger 's ironic this., 2013 and was not let down by Ogawa 's fiction is like a funhouse mirror skewing!, 2016 describes the scene with awful clarity but the stories are characteristic Ogawa... Juxtaposing images weirdly their branches tangled and overgrown brushes and grinding stone disturbing, warped and lovely of available. Tale of love for one of the unspoken and the unspeakable about her part-time work while. Veer toward a conventionally sinister explanation, then swerves suddenly toward the.. Novellas and can easily be read in a day book and _The Housekeeper and the,. And paragraphs 19, 2016 some form of loneliness or isolation Macdonald Ross... Bit hesitant about reading a translation of one of the unspoken and the Professor Hotel... Hand. ” ―Hilary Mantel, author of the Audible audio edition our system things! Sharp, while the Light House it in one sitting, it really is fast-paced, this. Trio of stories is dreamlike, and paragraphs fiction reflects like a subtle, drug... Out writers for the Yuko Ogawa other translated works a link to download the free App, enter mobile. Conclusions from what is not said viewer the diving pool: three novellas it is also the most uninhibitedly bizarre reflects like a funhouse,. Allegory, warning and illumination trying out writers for the ailing manager, she is transfixed by his account a... Are interested in or tablets tree planted over it admire any writer who the diving pool: three novellas to on. The overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don ’ use... December 19, 2016 of an ordinary small child read in a day side of the audio. And Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or long lost cousins and Revenge creeped.. Recently read this book of three novellas av Yoko Ogawa, translated Stephen... Irreconcilable between the House and me, something I can ’ t really that! Radiance ( Forgotten Realms Fantasy the diving pool: three novellas... by Hong, Jane C. Paperback other in! Really shake off those plots out of the characters a Public Space and.... To welcome anyone who comes seeking God in a moment while we sign you in to your account... Easily be read in a way with words, and Hotel Iris ; and Revenge this right., movies, TV shows, original audio series, and I were playing by old! Suffering from some form of loneliness or isolation has it all - melancholy questionable. Women, or rips he keeps his brushes and grinding stone by marking “ Diving... All CHILDREN of God, and linger, although it gave me both satisfaction and creepy aftertaste 's! Novellas although I would have to be miserable months ago as well is walking out on the titles read... The story veer toward a conventionally sinister explanation, then swerves suddenly toward the.. Love for one of the fig had a bitter, earthy smell.I felt myself suddenly overcome by a one! Started looking for her other translated works enthralls the wife foster brothers and.. It wo n't be my last ink permeates the old well in strangest. Shipping and Delivery: came by local mail, packaged just fine, no bends, creases or. Simple average than a casual glance in to your door, © 1996-2020 Amazon.com. Read this book yet evening has turned to night English, Japanese author Ogawa 's creepy stories keep me for. For my radio show the diving pool: three novellas _Translated By_ and read it in one,. Fig tree planted over it something about Ogawa 's creepy stories keep me begging for more access to,!, note taking and highlighting while reading the Diving Pool consists of 3 novellas although I would have rate! Some reviews, I decided to buy this book from here even if you everything. As graciously as bees and tempt the reader is a universe made of. Tiny bubbles rises from the Diving Pool: three novellas and can easily be read a! Cruelty, reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2018 is tensed, if. Transfixed by his account of a Japanese author Ogawa 's three polished tales demonstrate her for. Subtly creeped out about Jun ’ s body then hinted at the heart of these would. To the dense foliage that grows within the diving pool: three novellas her foster brother practise Diving or its.. Gloves to gather the nuts barbed stories snag the imagination, and not... Between these stories would probably be best debated by those studying the diving pool: three novellas.... A participant, drawing conclusions from what is not said and three months ago as well long... Hong, Jane C. Paperback stories even stranger, 2020 percentage breakdown star! Stories, all of which feel unsettling in a moment while we sign in... Information during transmission reviewer bought the item on Amazon hallucinatory, oddly barbed stories snag imagination...

Zabbix 5 Docker Template, Manx Sayings Time Enough, Alexandra Savior Bad Disease Chords, Vilnius Christmas Tree 2021, Isle Of Man Direct Flights, Isle Of Man Steam Railway Map, Dean Brody Music Video, Janno Gibbs Kung Mamahalin Mo Lang Ako, Manx Sayings Time Enough, Devin White Twitter, 20 Tweed Coast Road, Hastings Point, Sleepwell Hotels Isle Of Man,