村上春樹 「苺」 「雨の中の噴水」

「苺」　


未熟な友江を未熟な白っぽい苺にたとえ、友江が龍次と関係を持ったことで成熟し、赤く熟れた一語になると言う着眼点が良い。最後のシーンで「あんまりいじくり廻したせいか」の表現に村上の卑猥な遊び心が出ている。


「雨の中の噴水」

オーヘンリーの味がある。明男の尊大な一人よがりが崩れる最後のシーンは痛快。ただ、話ができ過ぎ。どうして雅子は「何んとなく涙が出ちゃったの」か。また、噴水の描写がくどい。

St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

This is a story in the genre of magical realism. The protagonist (a girl raised by werewolves) is sent to St. Lucy’s School to acquire the skills to behave like a human being. The nuns at the institution teach how to speak human language, how to walk, how to eat, and how to associate with boys raised by werewolves at a ball. At the end of the story she returns home after successfully completing her job at the school. She says when she meets her parents “‘So,’ I said, telling my first human lie. ‘I’m home.’” In fact she has even acquired the ability to tell a lie.

The 30-year-old writer, Karren Russel, creates the world of magical realism. Although the reader knows that there exist no werewolves, nor St. Lucy’s Home, they are lulled into the illusion that the girl werewolves and the nuns are engaged in the school work somewhere in the world. You feel that if you visit the school, you can see the girls being trained to become human beings.

The story is successful because Russel knows how to balance the reality and the magical world. The girls sometimes behave with wolf’s instinct, like waggling their tails or smell the nuns or spray “exuberant yellow streams,” but on the other hand they want to get good grades from the nuns, dance as well as Janette, the best student. Although the protagonist loves Mirabella, the slowest learner, she despise Mirabella in front of the nuns. This is human two-facedness.

Probably Russel tried to criticize the white people’s domination over black people some dozens of years ago. The white people tried to get rid of the black people’s identity by denying their language, custom and manners, names, and religion.

Magical realism attracts the reader because every reader is fascinated by magic yet they do not want the magic too far away from real world. It should have something tangible and real so that they can identify themselves with the protagonist in the story.

I want to read more books in this genre and write my own magical realism story some day in the near future.

U.F.O in Kushiro by Haruki Murakami

　　Murao’s wife walks out on her husband, Komura, after the Kansai Earthquake because he is “a chunk of air.” Komura is described as a man who “has nothing inside him.” He brings a box to Hokkaido to hand it to his friend’s sister. Her friend, Shimao, says at the end of the story, “That box contains the something that was inside you. You didn’t know that you carried it here and gave it to Keiko.” Komura felt as if he were on the verge of committing an act of incredible violence.

　　I do not understand the theme of the story. What does Murakami want to say through the story? Did he try to describe an empty man like Komura? The story did not move me, nor inspired me. There is no story development, suspense, surprising ending, or any moving ending. I don’t know why New Yorker picked up this story.

　　What has become of his wife? What about the woman who is supposed to be kidnapped by the U.F.O? And what about the bell? I think the bell episode is a fake because you don’t have to keep shaking the bell all the while you are doing it. If you tie the bell to your leg or arm, that will do.