About book The Counterfeiter And Other Stories (2000)
This was my first Yasushi Inoue title but it will definitely not be my last. Life of a Counterfeiter is a collection of three short stories including the titular story, “Reeds,” and “Mr. Goodall’s Gloves.” All three stories are excellent and go a long way in establishing the kind of storyteller Mr. Inoue is. There is a certain stream of consciousness-esque element to these stories that I really liked. In Life of a Counterfeiter the main character is supposed to be a biographer of a famous painter Onuki Keigaku but while researching Keigaku, the narrator comes across Keigaku’s former friend Hara Hosen who he discovers is a counterfeiter of Keigaku’s works. The narrator is unwillingly fascinated by this counterfeiter and exerts considerable effort to find out more about him, driven perhaps by more than just curiousity about this counterfeiter. He feels an empathy for Hosen, the counterfeiter, inferring that Hosen’s brush with Keigaku’s genius may be what propelled the man down such a dark lane and then to his tragic end. The story is told in anecdotal bursts and the narrator relays his findings while he goes around living his life and surviving the war that Japan is in the middle of losing at the time. I could well imagine myself seated in a cafe or some such place listening to the story. The tone is welcoming, a bit self-deprecatory, and entirely wonderful. The other two stories continue much in the same vein.In “Reeds” the same narrator talks about fragments of memories a person has that is usually matched with the fragment of memory someone else has and illustrates his point by elaborating in some detail his memories about his grandmother, and a couple he remembers from when he was very young but whom he can’t identify. “Mr. Goodall’s Gloves” concerns the same narrator’s grandmother, who was a mistress of his grandfather and not his true wife, and her interaction with a foreigner, Mr. Goodall, who gave her his gloves when she was left outside in the cold to wait for his grandfather. The stories concern the human condition and are characterized by the gentleness that I have come to associate with Japanese literature. Michael Emmerich’s translation is superlative and there is never an instance where I felt that anything was lost in translation.If you enjoy Murakami, you will enjoy Yasushi Inoue. Though Inoue’s work does not have elements of magical realism that Murakami’s is famous for, it has the same vibrancy and earnestness that make Murakami’s work so fantastic. Strongly recommended.
nemu buku ini entah di PBJ entah di IBF 2009ada Periplus yang ngeluarin dua kotak full buku obralanakhirnya nyamber Final Martyrs, Decay of an Angel, sama buku iniagak bingung sama judulnya yang bilang "and other stories" soalnya ini buku isinya cuma cerita counterfeiter doank..apa karena itu harganya jadi 5000 ya?karena mustinya ada cerita-cerita lain yang ga kecetak di buku ini?whueheheheheheceritanya kerententang seorang penulis yang diminta membuat biografi dari seorang pelukis terkenal tapi malah terjebak dan penasaran akan seorang sahabat pelukis tersebutgreat story
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Ada 3 cerita pendek di dalam kompilasi karya penulis legendaris Jepang ini; The Counterfeiter, Obasute, dan Full Moon. Boleh dikatakan bahwa gaya bercerita Yasushi Inoue sangat detil, deskriptif habis, dan melibatkan emosi yang mendalam terhadap segala unsur yang terkait dengan cerita. Gaya serupa ini dapat ditemukan pada karya-karya penulis kaliber, seperti Ernest Hemingway dan O'Henry. Bedanya, karya Yasushi Inoue lebih mudah dibaca daripada punya Ernest Hemingway (tolong! Susah bgt). Pengalaman pribadi Yasushi sebagai anak yang terbuang dari keluarga inti begitu berpengaruh pada cita-rasa yang diciptakannya di ketiga esai ini.Cerita favorit saya adalah Obasute, sebuah legenda Jepang tentang sebuah gunung dimana orang-orang lanjut usia dicampakkan. Emosi ceritanya begitu lekat, mengiris perasaan. Yasushi berhasil memodifikasi dan mengemas sebuah legenda sarat nilai menjadi kisah apik tentang bagaimana nilai dan prinsip masyarakat Jepang pasca PD II bergeser menuju ke pemikiran moderat-progresif..
—Cippi
Three minarets - the most memorable from each: an old man attempts to create a firework which mimics the color of a bell flower, the thought of which disturbs the narrator's wife; A man imagines the discussion he'd have with his mother if he were to abandon her on the top of a mountain in her old age, in the scene he imagines carrying her on his back, a little old, but spicey woman; and a man suceeds his boss triumphantly but slowly finds his life mimicking his, the position overpowering the personality. Either the writing or the translation were clunky (probably the later), so the reader trips on snags and the stoicism felt too brittle and dry at times, but a short little interesting read.
—Erica
