A new collection of tales by Murakami
Chef pens struggles, success
‘First Person Singular,’ (Alfred A. Knopf) Haruki Murakami has a new collection of stories told in the first person by an unnamed older man obsessed with baseball, music, and the porous borders between memory, reality and dreams.
He may describe himself as a “bland, run-of-themill guy,” as in the story “Cream” - about a young man’s encounter with an aging mystic - but Murakami Man is more like a walking encyclopedia who has a problem with women - mainly, that he can’t seem to get past their physical appearance.
Thus, in “On a Stone Pillow,” we have his memories of a melancholy poet and her “shapely round breasts”; in “With the Beatles,” a first girlfriend with “small yet full lips” and a wire bra. (Both, by the way, are suicidal.) In “Carnaval,” the one story where a woman has agency, we are told over and over how ugly she is.
The best story in the collection, translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel, is “Charlie Parker Plays Bossa Nova.” It is built around the counterfactual premise that the legendary inventor of bebop jazz didn’t die in 1955 at age 34 but lived into the 1960s, long enough to collaborate on a bossa nova album - a musical pairing as unlikely as that of the Carpenters and Cardi B.
At the end of the story, when Bird appears in a dream and performs “Corcovado” on his alto sax, the narrator is transported. It was music, he reflected, “that made you feel like something in the very structure of your body had been reconfigured, ever so slightly.”
In “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey,” an unnamed narrator with the same flat affect as all the others befriends the titular monkey at a rural inn. After a long night of drinking beer and eating snacks another favorite pastime of these loner men-the monkey tells him about the ruse he has used to satisfy his longing for female humans in a species-appropriate way.
At first, you are carried along in the slipstream of bizarre but plausible detail - a feat Murakami achieves through the use of banal, if not clichéd, language: “Honestly, it felt odd to be seated next to a monkey, sharing a beer, but I guess you get used to it.”
But if you’re not a fan of Murakami’s dreamy vibe and magical realism, if you think that life is confounding and interesting enough without needing to add fairy dust, then this probably isn’t the book for you. You might ask yourself, why a Shinagawa monkey and not a tiger or leopard? In Murakami World, the answer would seem to be, why not? by
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“Finding Freedom,” by (Celadon) Erin French is a rising culinary star known for intimate gourmet dinners crafted from hyperlocal ingredients. Her magical restaurant, The Lost Kitchen, is located in an abandoned 19th century mill in her tiny hometown of Freedom, Maine. There’s even a show about the restaurant on Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network.
Sounds like a classic American success story, right? But as is so often the case, success did not come easy. French chronicles her struggles, failures and triumphs in a lyrically written new memoir, “Finding Freedom.”
The book begins with her idyllic childhood in rural Maine. But climbing trees and chasing frogs soon gives way to working long hours in her father’s diner. He’s a callous man who grins as his dog tears a live rooster to bits, and he won’t stop his drunk buddies from making sexual remarks about French’s teenage body. Despite their fraught relationship, what French learns from her dad about cooking unlocks her destiny: “Feeding a complete stranger a plate of food that you had made with attention and care … brought me more joy than I had ever felt.”
Pregnancy derails her college plans and she ends up in a toxic marriage. She channels her energy into running a private supper club and eventually a restaurant until it all comes crashing down: She’s sidelined by a pill addiction, her husband closes the restaurant and she loses custody of her son.
Slowly she rebuilds. She gets divorced, gets her son back, and turns an old Airstream into a portable kitchen for pop-up suppers. Then she opens The Lost Kitchen. When thousands of reservation requests pour in for her 40-seat dinners, her redemption is complete.
The book ends before the pandemic begins. But this compelling, authentic tale of grit and determination leaves no doubt that French will find her way through this challenge, just like she did all the others.
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“A Million Reasons Why” by
(St. Martin’s Press)
Jessica Strawser’s “A Million Reasons Why” is a thrilling story of what happens when a long-held family secret comes to light.
After her family receives DNA testing kits for Christmas, Caroline, a wife and mother of three, is stunned to discover she has a half-sister who is almost exactly her age, the product of a scandalous affair by her father. While the rest of her family wants nothing to do with Sela, Caroline is desperate to meet her.
The pair quickly form a friendship and bond over their mutual love of motherhood, but Caroline doesn’t know that Sela is dying of kidney failure. And it turns out, Caroline may be her only hope for survival.
As Caroline and Sela continue to spend time together, they also begin to piece together the past. In doing so, even more family secrets are unveiled.
This is not your typical story of discovering a long-lost family member. The intricacies of the character’s lives are fascinating, their secrets unpredictable, and the challenges they face infinitely complex.
With this story, Strawser reveals just how complicated life can be. Through these dynamic characters, she shows that no one is ever truly a villain or a hero, but instead, we are all a beautiful and messy mix of both. (AP)