Life Ceremony

Title: Life Ceremony
Author: Sayaka Murata
Translator: Ginny Tapley Takemori
First Published: July 5, 2022
Publisher: Grove Press
Pages: 256
Genre: Absurdist Fiction, Horror, Short Stories
Format: eARC, Paperback
Source: NetGalley, Purchased
Rating:


Synopsis:

With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness.

In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror to portray both the loners and outcasts as well as turning the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. Whether the stories take place in modern-day Japan, the future, or an alternate reality is left to the reader’s interpretation, as the characters often seem strange in their normality in a frighteningly abnormal world. In “A First-Rate Material,” Nana and Naoki are happily engaged, but Naoki can’t stand the conventional use of deceased people’s bodies for clothing, accessories, and furniture, and a disagreement around this threatens to derail their perfect wedding day. “Lovers on the Breeze” is told from the perspective of a curtain in a child’s bedroom that jealously watches the young girl Naoko as she has her first kiss with a boy from her class and does its best to stop her. “Eating the City” explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while “Hatchling” closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in.

In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks above all what it means to be a human in our world and offers answers that surprise and linger.

Review

When I read Convenience Store Woman a few years ago I couldn’t get enough of Murata’s writing. I’m a big fan of short stories, so I was excited to read this book. This is only my second book by Murata and I learned very quickly that I had no idea what I was in for and it was marvelous. Murata does an incredible job of exploring themes of individuality and alienation in the modern world. Life Ceremony turns the world on its head, presenting bizarre people, situations, and societies that are both familiar and utterly foreign. The themes in every story both analyze and challenge commonly accepted traditions and social conventions.

Of the collection, it is honestly hard to pick my favorite, because I could appreciate almost all of them. Short story collections can be difficult to rate because the stories are either too samey or they are so different that there isn’t a nice flow. The collection is raucous and hard to define, transcending most genres. I know that not everyone that enjoyed Convenience Store Woman will necessarily like this book, as it very often veered into the grotesque and it will definitely be an uncomfy read. I ended up loving it though and even bumped my overall reading up because I simply enjoyed having a story that felt fresh and new each time I finished and moved to the next one. This was a smash hit for me and I couldn’t be happier.

Individual Story Notes:

♥ A First-Rate Material: This story starts the collection off with a heavy ethical question regarding humanity’s ceremonies surrounding death. Life-saving organ transplants are commonly accepted in the West but in countries like Japan, it is seen as sacrilegious. Murata skillfully takes this debate a step further in this story while highlighting the borderline terrifying ways that things are increasingly commodified in capitalist societies.

♥ A Magnificent Spread: This was much lighter in tone and it made me smile. The story dissects the ceremony of food and the cultural significance of what we eat. Food is a great equalizer and a wonderful way to interact with other cultures. The story could be repetitive and spends a little too long explaining certain characters’ food choices, but the payoff at the end was well worth it, the ending scenes honestly made me laugh out loud.

♥ A Summer Night’s Kiss: A short and sweet story about two aging friends that take an evening stroll. One a virgin, the other a nymphomaniac. I fell in love with Yoshiko and Kikue’s friendship in just a few pages.

♥ Two’s Family: Features the same little ladies from the previous story but remixed a little. I loved the unconventional family, it was absolutely beautiful.

♥ The Time of the Large Star: A tiny story about one of my favorite things – sleep, or the lack thereof. A strangely dreamy little short.

♥ Poochie: The story follows two school girls that take care of an unusual pet. It was so absurd and I honestly couldn’t stop laughing.

♥ Life Ceremony: This was a long one but honestly one of the best, it makes sense why it ended up being the titular story for the collection. The story centers on a career woman uncomfortable with the shift in cultural views on sex, family dynamics, funerals, and the consumption of human flesh after a severe drop in the human population. I know that sentence sounds absolutely bonkers and it is, but it is a surprisingly meditative story about the birth and life cycle. There is a lot to unpack with this story honestly, and it is certainly a more extreme version of the current birth and family crisis happening in Japan.

♥ Body Magic: A thoughtful piece about teenage sexuality. I appreciated that the story distinguishes between sex and sensuality.

♥ Lover on the Breeze: This story was quirky but charming, about a teenage girl’s first boyfriend and her jealous childhood curtain.

♥ Puzzle: Sanae is a well-liked office worker that suffers from a form of extreme body alienation. The contrast between her inner and outer worlds is frankly disturbing and disorienting to read. This was a much darker story that borders on body horror, it was an intense and uncomfortable read, but I was captivated.

♥ Eating the City: An office worker that hates vegetables finds herself homesick for the fresh produce and foragables she grew up with in the countryside. This story brought up some interesting points about the types of foods deemed acceptable by society and particularly the practice of foraging. Like some of the other stories in this collection, the main character’s radical shift in worldview borders on insanity.

♥ Hatchling: This was such the perfect story to end the collection on. It was both relatable and utterly silly and feels like the plot of an anime or comedy drama. A woman adjusts her personality to fit in with the people around her, gradually developing “characters” throughout her life. She finds herself in a bit of a pickle once she becomes engaged to be married, and doesn’t know “who” to be. This was honestly a spectacular story about the different ways that people can perceive you as a person, and the natural desire to mold ourselves to the people around us.

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