Book Review: People From My Neighborhood: Stories by Hiromi Kawakami (translated by Ted Goossen)

My Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Immensely imaginative with scenarios ranging from lightly humorous and satirical to surreal and downright bizarre, People From My Neighborhood: Stories by Hiromi Kawakami is a wonderful collection of thirty-six interlinked short stories/vignettes. The stories feature a cast of interesting characters, some recurring and some new, from the narrator’s neighborhood -her childhood friend Kanae and Kanae’s sister and others such as the neighborhood Grandma, a dog school principal, Uncle Red Shoes who opens a dancing school, the lady who owns Love, “the tiny drinking place”, the Kawamata family and many others.

Some of my favorites:

Grandpa Shadows is about a neighbor who got his name from having two shadows- one “shadow was docile and submissive, the other rebellious”. Sports Day describes an annual school sports day sponsored by a bank in which the competitions are also banking themed-“competitions for best loan evaluation, best anti-fraud strategy for direct deposits, best marketing of financial products, best check-clearance procedure, and best cartoon character for their bank ads”. In Weightlessness, a no-gravity alert sent out by the no-gravity alert has everyone hugging trees and hanging on while everything is turned upside down. Pigeonitis describes the community being infected by a contagious illness that makes those infected walk, talk, think and behave like a pigeon in addition to certain physical changes. Falsification revolves around the memories and perceptions of the people in the neighborhood being manipulated and falsified, which leads to a change in how they visualize the neighborhood and its people. The Hachiro Lottery is about Hachiro, the youngest of the Shikishima family's 15 children. As the family is unable to take care of so many children, the neighborhood draws a lottery to decide which family among them would take care of the child every three months. The Shacks describes a cluster of four shacks just outside the town, each of which respectively absorbs the four human emotions- sadness, anger, hate or joy and turns them into energy for its own growth. The shacks expand, crack or grow depending on the strength of the emotion being absorbed, the only catch is that the emotion in question needs to be pure and not diluted by other emotions.

Overall, People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami(translated by Ted Goossen) is a fun and entertaining read that combines elements of humor, satire, fantasy and magical realism. The writing is crisp and straightforward and the stories are varied in tone and theme, which makes this an interesting and enjoyable read. This would be a great choice is great if you want a change of pace and/or a unique reading experience.