Kyoko Nakajima 'When the Olives Ripen' (Daily Reading Memo (436))
I read Kyoko Nakajima's recent book, 'When the Olives Ripen' (Kodansha). Since I was so overwhelmed by the social issues raised in 'The Kind Cat', I had come to think of her as a writer of social movements, but this work, like 'Moonlight Inn' published before 'The Kind Cat', features six short stories that each unfold in a different way, focusing on people who have had overwhelming and mysterious experiences but live their lives calmly without showing it much.
All six stories were originally published in 'Shosetsu Gendai' between 2016 and 2021. The latter three, published in 2021, reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to some extent, but fundamentally, they express the mysterious human relationships experienced by someone with the surprise of, 'Oh, so that's how it is.'
[Spoilers below]
The six works are independent and have no connection.
'House Cat': A 'Rashomon'-style story where four people—a son, his mother, his ex-wife, and the woman he is currently living with—each tell the story of the central 'son's' life from their own perspective. It is incredibly horrific. It leaves me feeling gloomy, wondering if it is really this difficult for people to understand one another.
'Falling in Love in Rosenburg': A father who lost his wife and had a good relationship with his son heads to a town far from his home along the Seto Inland Sea, saying he is going to 'end his life's work.' Why did the father become so obsessed with supporting a single-mother candidate who emerged from a civic movement?
'The Day Yasunari Kawabata Died': The author is of the same generation as me. Yasunari Kawabata's suicide left a strong impression on me as a child, partly because it happened after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, but the author also incorporates memories of the era, such as a Muhammad Ali autograph session and the opening of the first Mos Burger in Narimasu, to tell the truth about the protagonist's mother's disappearance in the form of a novel. This is a story about a mother, and at the same time, a story about the year 1972.
'Garip': A story told by a wife about a mysterious situation that would be called an interspecies marriage tale if it were a folktale. The book's obi strip says in large letters, 'Was your love rival a swan??', and the cover features a painting of a swan marrying a human man. It has a mysterious groove. Also, a lesson learned from this novel is that tundra swans can live for over 30 years.
'When the Olives Ripen': An overwhelming wandering tale of Tsutomu, whom the narrator happened to meet at a Tokyo apartment. Hokkaido, Sendai, Hokkaido, Tokyo, and then Shodoshima. May beautiful fruit grow from the two olive trees planted in a small garden in Tokyo.
'Harunari, Saeko, and Fan-san': The polar opposite of the first story, 'House Cat,' this is a story about a couple about to get married, the man's father and mother, and the mother's girlfriend. Harunari-san, Saeko-san, and Fan-san teach me what it means to grow old while sticking to the hope of how one wants to be. Because I was taught this, I am sure the narrator, Hatsu, will be fine too.
People have histories, I thought, a rather trite observation.
If there is a place to tell it, one can tell it; many people die without ever telling the story of their own lives, but there were situations in this book where, triggered by a sudden event, people summarized their lives and told the story of their lives up to that point.
I close the book with a sigh, wondering what my own life is like.
There are worlds inside each of us that would be a waste to lose.
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