The Laws of Evening : Stories

Rating:
Summary: Stories that entrance
Review: "When you come first in someone's heart...when you feel the magnitude of another person's love for you...you become a different person. I mean something physically changes inside of you...I want you to have that feeling, because it will sustain you, all your life. Life...life can get so hard."
The sentiments above as spoken by a Mother to her daughter in the penultimate story, `The Way Love Works' in Mary Yukari Waters's "The Laws of Evening," pretty much sums up this short story collection as a whole.
Yukari has chosen to focus on the years in Japan surrounding the Second World War in this collection of stories and specifically, for the most part on the Japanese women's view of things.
Each story is well crafted, many are precious, snapshot views of the War and all have to do with relationships. Much of the writing is quite beautiful and a much of it is extremely revealing and psychologically true, as in this description of a son's relationship with his father: "Outsiders would not understand their exchange. They would not see that his father, far from begging for sympathy, would have considered it out of place. The truth was that there was an understanding; they had no need for embarrassing displays. Saburo thought of the railroad they were drafting at work, its parallel rails never touching, yet exquisitely synchronized, committed in their separateness as they curved though hill and valley. That he was comfortable with. That, he could do."
Mary Yukari Waters is a fresh, gentle voice whose writing, on the other hand, reveals a dagger like precision especially when applied to the mysteries and intricacies of Mother/Daughter and Father/Son relationships. I look forward to Yakari-Waters mixing it up a bit in her next book: maybe a novel about the Japanese Youth Culture or one about the Japanese American situation in America during WWII?

Rating:
Summary: A master of the short story collection 'with a theme'
Review: As a writer myself, I've been trying to figure out the short story medium for several years. I usually come up short at the end of one, flip the page looking for more, and go huh? Where's the rest of it?
With The Laws of Evening, such is not the case. It's a collection of stories around a central theme, the clash of cultures in post-World War II Japan. They have female protagonists and a very feminine point of view, tho the tales deal with strong and tough material: death, abandonment, fading of cultural values, war's aftermath, national guilt, individual shame...
There is a strain of wistful saddness that binds these tales, each of which can stand alone. But together they take us on an elegant journey that holds together artistically like a perfectly arranged bento box lunch.

Rating:
Summary: Hope she writes a novel
Review: Excellent group of short stories about life after WWII in Japan. It grasps the pain, suffering, and despair of the people of Japan. Some were all out for the war and still after the war but many were ashamed of be led astray by their leadership. If you love short stories then this is a very good collection. The way she descibes the scenary with vividness is extraordinary.

Rating:
Summary: Hope she writes a novel
Review: Excellent group of short stories about life after WWII in Japan. It grasps the pain, suffering, and despair of the people of Japan. Some were all out for the war and still after the war but many were ashamed of be led astray by their leadership. If you love short stories then this is a very good collection. The way she descibes the scenary with vividness is extraordinary.

Rating:
Summary: The unusual accomplishment
Review: It was such a delight to come across this collection of short stories by Waters. One remarkable thing about this author and her works that I discovered was that she has got this keen sense of 'balance'; I wonder how many readers recognized that her effortless and insightful writing was actually doing the rarest of rare justice to bridge East and West. Her stories represented Japan and people there without destorting them into 'understandable silliness, uncanniness and unintelligiblity for America' which we often find in Western media with tons of racial prejudice. But the phenomenon only reveals the extreme low level of American comprehension of other cultures. Waters' srories presented an incredibly valuable voice that we should be just grateful to be able to access finally.

The keys of success that Waters' works brought about were the authors' very neutral standing between two different cultures and languages; her handle and persepective did come from where she situated herself, free from 'white supremacy' and quite level to Asia, that kept her works from undermining new concepts and cultures of Japan eveb when she introduced in English. She never succumed to favoring Westerners just by serving their ancient exotism and narcissism. Since these are all I could observed in most English language writers including tons of lackluster Asian American writers, I was very pleased to find this author after long await and wanted to drop a line to inscribe the celebration for her unusually valueable accomplishment.

The only complain I have got was the cover design. The pink silhouette of a woman of kimono had nothing to do with the book's contents. I was ashamed to see this for it reminds me of regular and potential American audiences' ignorance; are we crazy enough to expect them (japanese people) to keep on issuing the same old stereotypical signifier like kimono, geisha samurai, forever? That is why Japanese people despise American as ignorant moron of three years old. This is not only pathetic but problematic. I demand that this cover should be changed when it comes out as a paperback version.

Rating:
Summary: Short Stories as Engaging as Novels
Review: Other reviewers understandably and accurately comment on the way the author informs the reader on cultural and historical issues, but I believe this most remarkable masterpiece works because of the depth of its sensitivity to private human experience and its rare literary style. Not a word should be added, not a word removed.
Most of the stories speak of women who have confronted loss, but this is in no way a "woman's book." I have purchased a half dozen copies to share with friends here and overseas, and several of those have subsequently purchased more copies to send to their friends. All have loved it, both men and women. My only complaint about the work is that it ended too soon.
(While I myself generally prefer novels, in contrast to another reviewer I am not certain this author should be encouraged to write novels: she has developed too well the capacity to carve small fine gems.)
You will be glad to have read this rarely engaging and uncommonly touching short book.

Rating:
Summary: Startlingly memorable
Review: The Laws of Evening is a memorable collection of poignant and moving stories. Set in Japan, they provide a compelling perspective on the experiences of different generations during World War II and its aftermath. Viewed through the eyes of grandparents, parents and children, the author explores themes of loss and separation, not only between generations, but also between those who fared differently in the war.

Out of a typically edgy landscape, rife with divisions and disconnections, both big and small, the author conjures recurring instances of the painful, hesitant acknowledgment of a changed reality ("The Laws of Evening are not the Laws of Afternoon"). From this acceptance ensues a transformation of the present and a renewed, broader connection to life.

My personal favorites in the collection are Seed, Shibusa and Rationing, each of which is associated with astonishing images of pain and growth that have a heart-breaking intensity to them.

The writing is careful, poised and conveys with precision the nuances of feeling of the protagonists. The author skillfully creates a backdrop to the stories that is cool and restrained (sometimes to the point of eerieness) prior to the reader being swept into the visceral resonance of experience that is profound and deeply moving. This, in my opinion, is writing at its best.