Strangers

Rating:
Summary: A Thinking Man's Ghost Story
Review: Harada is a recently divorced TV scriptwriter whose parents were killed in an automobile accident when he was young. He lives in a large building in Tokyo that is filled with businesses during the day, but he is usually alone in the building at night. He is at a low point in his life and utterly lonely. He's estranged from his son and has just been told by his producer they can no longer work together as the producer is in love with his ex-wife.

One day he decides to take a sentimental journey back to his childhood neighborhood and, while there, he meets a man in a comedy club who bears an incredible resemblance to his father, a man who, if he were alive today, would be well over 70, but is only 40, the age he was when he died. Harada is invited to the man's home and goes, where he meets a woman who could be his mother, still in her 30s, the age at which she died. These ghostly parents of Harada's are now younger than he is.

After that he visits often. His parents are always there, always happy to see him. Together they do family things, have dinner, drink, play cards, and it slowly dawns on Harada that his parents know they are dead. It appears that Harada is somehow responsible for their afterlife and it appears that they are somehow breathing death into him.

But Harada can't resist the opportunity to recapture his childhood. He keeps coming back and he begins to lose track of himself. Each visit takes a toll on his physical body, he becomes gaunt and sallow, ghostly. He finds himself torn between the real world and the eerie pull of his dead parents. He questions his sanity and wonders if his soul is lost. Then during a sukiyaki party with his parents, they slowly disappear. They know they are going without ever knowing why they'd come back. Harada doesn't know why either, nor do we.

This is why this book is a thinking man's ghost story. It surrounds you with an eerie and haunting feeling as you read it. It subtly takes you into issues of isolation and loneliness, insanity and the supernatural, but it is also a truly touching story, a story that will be with you for weeks after you finish it.

Jeremiah McCain

Rating:
Summary: Great story/poor translation
Review: I just finished "Strangers" by Taichi Yamada. The narration is a bit sloppy and some of the translation seems stilted, with convoluted syntax, although that may reflect the original Japanese writing for all I know. It doesn't seem well-written especially considering the first person of the first-person narrative writes for Japanese television.

But the theme dominated and was both moving and curious. The story captures, for me, the psychological security from being my parents' child and the joys of reunion. The last sentence sums up why I like the book: gratitude for the time my parents gave me.

Rating:
Summary: Great story/poor translation
Review: I just finished "Strangers" by Taichi Yamada. The narration is a bit sloppy and some of the translation seems stilted, with convoluted syntax, although that may reflect the original Japanese writing for all I know. It doesn't seem well-written especially considering the first person of the first-person narrative writes for Japanese television.

But the theme dominated and was both moving and curious. The story captures, for me, the psychological security from being my parents' child and the joys of reunion. The last sentence sums up why I like the book: gratitude for the time my parents gave me.

Rating:
Summary: THE DISCARNATES
Review: Okay - gotta admit I haven't read the book yet (just ordered it on Amazon) but the film is absolutely amazing!

It's called "the Discarnates" or "Summer Among the Zombies" and it was made in 1988 by Nobuhiko Obayashi. I saw it once ten years ago and it's stuck in my mind ever since.

Finally I got it on DVD and I watched it again last night and it's just as beautiful as I remember! Highly recommended - hope the novel is just as good.

Rating:
Summary: THE DISCARNATES
Review: Okay - gotta admit I haven't read the book yet (just ordered it on Amazon) but the film is absolutely amazing!

It's called "the Discarnates" or "Summer Among the Zombies" and it was made in 1988 by Nobuhiko Obayashi. I saw it once ten years ago and it's stuck in my mind ever since.

Finally I got it on DVD and I watched it again last night and it's just as beautiful as I remember! Highly recommended - hope the novel is just as good.

Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly told, with a sublimely subtle undercurrent
Review: Succinctly translated into English by Wayne Lammers, Strangers is a Japanese novel by Taichi Yamada of a jaded TV scriptwriter who feels pangs of loneliness, and encounters an ordinary workingman that is, eerily, the very mirror image of the father he lost years ago in a tragic accident that orphaned him. Hauntingly told, with a sublimely subtle undercurrent to the tides of emotion, Strangers is an unforgettable journey through memories and the inner striving to reach out and contact others.

Rating:
Summary: Good Japanese ghost story
Review: The protagonist is a man with no family (parents dead) who has recently divorced. He has almost no routine ties with anyone, and discovers that only he and one other person live in his apartment building. There is a real sense of alienation -- aloneness -- in this book. Even when he is out in public, you feel that he might as well be in a universe of shadows. One day he goes back to visit his old neighborhood and discovers a nice, friendly couple who look like his parents did when they were alive. He is now 47, but this couple appear to be in their early 30's, just as he remembers his parents. He is very moved to find people that look so much like them, and begins to visit these people. The story goes from there. I had actually guessed the "surprise" denoument, but it was still well done. This book was not as "frightening" as it might have been, but succeeded very well in creating a sense of distance and coldness in this world. I recommend it for a cold evening by the fireplace, when the wind is blowing outside, and you want a story that is quite moody.

Rating:
Summary: psychological ghost story in the best japanese tradition
Review: yamada's strangers is a wodnerfulyl drawn out psychological story that makes one question our relationships, with our parents, our loved ones and who we deem as "strangers" in our life.

the story isnt the scariest around, and despite its surprise ending nor is it the most shocking. however, the evenly tense plot that keeps the reader thinking but still on edge reveals the craft of the author.

a thinking persons ghost story, but one that could have beena lot better with superior translation.