最果てアーケード

by Yōko Ogawa, 小川 洋子

ここは、世界でいちばん小さなアーケード――。
愛するものを失った人々が、想い出を買いにくる。
小川洋子が贈る、切なくも美しい記憶のかけらの物語

天井は低く、奥行きは限られ、ショーウインドーは箱庭ほどのスペースしかない。そのささやかさに相応しい品々が、ここでは取り扱われている。使用済みの絵葉書、義眼、徽章、発条(バネ)、玩具の楽器、人形専用の帽子、ドアノブ、化石……。どれもこれも窪みにはまったまま身動きが取れなくなり、じっと息を殺しているような品物たちばかりだ。――<本文より>

221 pages, 単行本

Published June 20, 2012

About the author

Yōko Ogawa (小川 洋子) was born in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, graduated from Waseda University, and lives in Ashiya. Since 1988, she has published more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction. Her novel The Professor and his Beloved Equation has been made into a movie. In 2006 she co-authored „An Introduction to the World's Most Elegant Mathematics“ with Masahiko Fujiwara, a mathematician, as a dialogue on the extraordinary beauty of numbers.

A film in French, "L'Annulaire“ (The Ringfinger), directed by Diane Bertrand, starring Olga Kurylenko and Marc Barbé, was released in France in June 2005 and subsequently made the rounds of the international film festivals; the film, some of which is filmed in the Hamburg docks, is based in part on Ogawa's "Kusuriyubi no hyōhon“ (薬指の標本), translated into French as "L'Annulaire“ (by Rose-Marie Makino-Fayolle who has translated numerous works by Ogawa, as well as works by Akira Yoshimura and by Ranpo Edogawa, into French).

Kenzaburō Ōe has said, 'Yōko Ogawa is able to give expression to the most subtle workings of human psychology in prose that is gentle yet penetrating.' The subtlety in part lies in the fact that Ogawa's characters often seem not to know why they are doing what they are doing. She works by accumulation of detail, a technique that is perhaps more successful in her shorter works; the slow pace of development in the longer works requires something of a deus ex machina to end them. The reader is presented with an acute description of what the protagonists, mostly but not always female, observe and feel and their somewhat alienated self-observations, some of which is a reflection of Japanese society and especially women's roles within in it. The tone of her works varies, across the works and sometimes within the longer works, from the surreal, through the grotesque and the--sometimes grotesquely--humorous, to the psychologically ambiguous and even disturbing.

Reviews

[Poiron · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Saihate Arcade," a Japanese novel by Yoko Ogawa, was the first book I read this year. The title means “an arcade in the middle of nowhere.” The story took place in a small, old arcade that was hidden from view. Strange shops cluster together, offering oddities like secondhand lace, doorknobs, and artificial eyes. These items are linked to sentiments of death.
The book includes ten short stories about a girl who grew up in this arcade, as well as store owners and customers.

The wonderful language and expressions in Yoko Ogawa's works are what I admire the most. In a silent environment, I can almost hear the sound and see each particle of sunlight. I savoured this mysterious and exquisite literature.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

いつが舞台なのか分からない、そして、もしかしたら日本が舞台でさえないかもしれない、物悲しいけれど懐かしい物語たちのオムニバス。
全く知らないアーケードだし、私の全く知らない生活のはずなのに、誰かの使ったレースや、誰かの書いた手紙、幼い頃の読書の思い出や、老いていく忠犬とう、懐かしい題材ばかりで、どの短編を読んでいても、「私これ知ってる」と魂レベルで感じられる物語たちだった。
そして、愛する肉親を亡くした事に対する、すこし鈍感な痛みと喪失感。最後の最後の短編では、やはり火事に言及していて、その強い炎の熱を感じる気がした。

けれど、正直、冬の夕暮れ時（私が一番気分が落ち込みやすい時間帯）に読むものではなかった。
小川洋子の作品は全てそうだけど、読んでいて何かを感じるんだけど、「もう一回読みたい！」とは思えないし、自分を作品の中に入れ込み過ぎて（というか、気づいたら入り込んでる）、読後は疲労困憊する。
凄い作家だ、という事だろうけど。

追記：帯に「小川洋子が贈る、切なくも美しい記憶のかけらの物語」とある。言いえて妙だ。

（友人(メアリ)が何故か「今度はこれ読むつもり」と言ってきたので、一緒に感想を言い合いたくて借りてきた。この感想をもっとシンプルにまとめて、葉書を書かねば。
それと、マンガ版もあるらしいので、借りてくる（「初の漫画原作書き下ろし！」と帯にあるけど、どゆこと？漫画が先なの？だとしたら、マンガを読んだあとに本読んだら、蛇足が多いと感じそう。））