Over the past year, it’s become such a massively hyped book that I even felt a little hesitant to read it at first; however, the unique setting and strong female protagonist made the reading experience extraordinarily fantastic, all in all! アメリカで出版され、英語圏で大ヒットとなった作品。人気すぎて読むのを躊躇ったほど。笑読みだしたらあっという間!ステキな主人公とユニークな舞台設定に魅せられ、ページを捲る手が止まりませんでした。 Abandoned by her family, the protagonist Kya grows up alone in a shack in the swampland. 主人公のカイアは幼い頃に家族に見捨てられ、たった一人で湿地で暮らしています。 Honestly speaking, it took me a while to get into the core plot; the first few chapters of the book in particular were slow going. It sounded like a very typical ‘poor kids from a disadvantaged background’ kind of story, but if you feel the same I did, please do persist beyond…
This book is about an ordinary woman in a small town in coastal Maine named Olive Kitteridge. What does it mean to live and get older? This book gave me ideas about the beauty and cruelty of aging and made me think a lot about how I want my life to be like. アメリカの小さな港町に住むごく普通の女性、オリーヴ・キタリッジの物語。生きるとか、老いとか、とてもシンプルで美しくて、でも残酷なテーマについて、じっくり考えさせられた一冊です。 All the characters in this book were somewhat unlikable because their personalities were depicted so realistically. No one is perfect, that is the truth of being human. Everyone has their negative aspects and everyone can be very self centred. Thus this very very unlikable main character Olive was so convincing and she turned out to be…
This book was ‘YES!!!! That’s exactly what I would say in that situation!!!’ kind of book that I really enjoyed reading while I commute. 「そうそれ!よく言った!!」と思うような瞬間ばかり。通勤途中に笑いながら読みました。 The main character was Frances a 20-ish woman in uni, her friend Bobbi (ex-girlfriend) and people around her. Frances gets involved with a married guy and starts cheating. 主人公は20代の学生Francesと、彼女の元カノBobbi、そしてその周りの大人たち。Francesは既婚者と関わり浮気をはじめます。 They are all such unlikable characters but I kept laughing about all the things they say, especially Frances says about herself. It is impossible to empathise with their situations but it captures the feeling of awkwardness and anxiety realistically. 好きになれないキャラクターばかり登場しますが、彼らの会話がとてもおもしろい。特にFrancesの回想シーンが最高です。決して共感できる内容ではありませんが、居心地の悪さや不安をとてもリアルに描いた作品です。 This book has a similar feeling to Convenience Store Women, but does not tackle social issues so…
It was a story of survival from the infamous Auschwitz. Although it was very easy to read, the writing was not on an amazing level. It sounded too much like a cheap love story while I was supposed to be reading about the horror and inhumanity of Auschwitz. アウシュビッツの生存者の物語。とっても読みやすい作品ですが、決してよく書けているわけではないという印象。強制収容所のおどろおどろしい空気や、恐怖…そういったものが全く伝わってこず、安っぽいラブストーリーを読んでいるような気分になりました。 The book is based on the real story, including the love drama part. It’s such a miracle that the couple survived and the story of them is passed down to the world through this book all around the world. I really wished if this book had more depth in the writing, it would have become another one of the masterpieces on…
This book was not really about ‘story’ but conversations with interesting people who the main character Faye met throughout her journey in Greece. 「物語」ではなく、主人公 Fayeがギリシャで出会う人々との「会話」を楽しむ一冊。 It had a lot of black humour in it that made me smirk. Almost like a guilty pleasure, I found it hard to put it down. So many conversations I almost wanted to underline, just because they sounded so perfectly written! ブラック・ユーモアたっぷりで、思わず何度も鼻で笑ってしまいました。ずるずると引き込まれ、読みだしたら止まらない、そんな魅力があります。マーカーでハイライトしておきたくなってしまうような、完璧!な文章をいくつも見つけました。 It reminded me of Flights / Olga Tokarczuk a lot. If Flights was a collage of beautiful pictures, Outline was like a very insightful Instagram feed, including proverbs from someone you just met, and observations of people you happened to meet. All the people appeared…
Because of its catchy title and the very interesting background of the author (she works for convenience store), this book was everywhere when she won the Akutagawa Prize in 2016. 2016年に芥川賞を受賞した「コンビニ人間」、キャッチ―なタイトルと、作者自身もコンビニで働いているという経歴から、すごく注目されていました。 Because I tend to pick the book which is more relatable to myself, this book Convenience Store Woman was something I have been avoiding to pick up. I decided to give it a try when I found out it is finally translated into English… 私はより共感できそうな主人公の本を選んでしまう傾向にあるので、この本はどちらかというと避けてきた一冊。でも今回、英訳が出版されると聞いて、なんとなく手に取ってみました。 Surprisingly, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was about the life of a woman who finds it hard to assimilate with the societal norm to behave ‘normally’ in Japan. The main character works…
Reading this book reminded me a lot about The Great Gatsby. It had a similar subtle flamboyant feel in the setting of the story. The personality of very noble and sophisticated gentleman made me so impressed by the elegance of his lifestyle and ways of thinking. どことなくグレート・ギャツビーを思い起こさせる一冊でした。華やかでキラキラした世界。そして主人公であるジェントルマンのエレガントなふるまいやライフスタイルが、なんだか読んでいて心地よかった。 It had a good essence of the historical background of Moscow around 1920s. Because the main character the gentleman is under the house arrest at the Metropol hotel, the story did not really mention anything about the world outside of the hotel. This seclusion from the outer society and how people react to this situation were well described in this book. 1920年代のロシア、モスクワが舞台ですが、主人公がホテルに自宅軟禁されているという設定のため、歴史背景描写は必要最低限。それなのに効果的に時代の空気を感じさせます。軟禁状態にあるという状況と、それをどのように感じ日々を過ごすのか、そういう心境を、とても丁寧に描いたストーリーです。 Although…
I wonder why this book isn’t as acknowledged as it should be? どうして誰も私に教えてくれなかったんだろう?って思うほど、大好きな1冊と出会いました。 This book felt like a masterpiece of historical literature!! 歴史文学作品の傑作!とでも呼びたくなるほど、素晴らしい一冊。 I spotted this cute polar bear cover at Foyles, not knowing the author is actually an Akutagawa prize winner! (* The Akutagawa prize is the most famous literary award in Japan.) この本、日本の芥川賞作家 多和田葉子さんの作品ですが、ロンドンのFoylesで翻訳版を発見し、初めて知りました。かわいいホッキョクグマの表紙が目立っていました。 Reading this book made me feel very intellectual, with it giving off a great atmosphere of pre-war and wartime Russia and Germany as well as an excellent analysis of humans from the polar bear’s point of view. とても知的な気分になります。戦前・戦中・戦後のソ連やドイツを、ホッキョクグマを主人公に疑似体験できるような作品。ホッキョクグマの視点から見る「人間」の姿がとても興味深い。 All these complex topics were introduced in just the right amount and at the right timing…
In a city far away, bombs and assassinations shatter lives everyday. Yet, even here, hope renews itself, welling up through the rubble. Somewhere in this city, two young people are smiling, hesitating, sharing cheap cigarettes, speaking softly then boldly, falling in love. どこか遠くのある街で、人々は日々、爆弾や暗殺で命を失っている。 しかし、こんなところでも希望は瓦礫の中から湧きあがるもの。 この街のどこかで、2人の若者は笑い、戸惑い、安タバコを共に吸い、柔らかく大胆に、恋に落ちます。 As the violence worsens and escape feels ever more necessary, they hear the rumour of mysterious black doors appearing all over the city, all around the world. To walk through a door is to find a new life – perhaps in Greece, in London, in California – and to lose the old one for ever. 暴力は激しさを増し、とうとう避難が必要になった時、彼らは世界中の街に現れる謎の黒いドアの噂を聞きつけます。 ドアを通り抜ければ、きっと、ギリシャ、ロンドン、カリフォルニアで、新しい生活を手に入れることができます。でも、前の生活は永遠に失うことになるのです。 What does it mean to leave your home…
かなり多くのリクエストを頂いた、私の英語の勉強法について書いてみようと思います。 As I have been requested to write about how I learned English, I am going to write some history of my English learning and tips I can share. 何度も申し上げている通り、私の英語はとても中途半端です。イギリスの大学院に正規学生として進学するには十分でしたが、ローカルたちのように、正確な英語を話したり、proof reader(英語の文法や校正ミスのチェックをする人のこと)無しで宿題の論文を書き上げることはできません。このブログで書いている英語も、意味こそ通じますが、読む人が読めば、ネイティブではないこと、決して素晴らしいレベルの英語力を持ち合わせているわけではないことがわかると思います。しかし、以前からバイリンガルとして英会話講師をしたり、翻訳の仕事の経験もあるので、「それなり」の英語力はあると自負しています。 My English is not so great. It was good enough to study masters in London, however, I was unable to finish my essay without help from proofreaders to correct my grammatical errors. I still face difficulty in speaking, I am unable to speak fluently as the other students would do. I am sure that I am making so many mistakes while I am writing this blog post. Although my ability to use English remains just in a ‘Fake Bilingual’…
Flights won this year’s Man Booker International Prize. I bought this book when I was just returned from a trip to Poland, even before it’s shortlisted. This chic blue Fitzcarraldo Edition’s cover took my attention at Foyles. Since I was deeply in love with the scenery of Poland, I decided to try something from a Polish author. 「Flights」、今年2018年のMan Booker International Prizeを受賞しました。私がこの本を手にしたのはノミネートされるずっと前、ちょうどポーランド旅行から帰った頃。Foylesで、この青いシックなFitzcarraldo Editionの特徴的な表紙につられて手に取りました。ポーランドの景色の虜になっていた私。ポーランド人作家の描く世界観に興味があり、この本を選びました。 This book was very unique. Although I found this book in the fiction section at Foyles, I was not sure if it was truly a ‘fiction’ novel. Most of the time, I was feeling like reading an academic nonfiction book. But it suddenly changed to a history description, fairy-tale,…
Very quiet yet powerful book. 静かで、でもとても力強い本です。 The story is set in a very dark time of the history when Nazism shadows all the brightness of the daily life. The book makes the reader experience this era with the main character Franz. It was very vivid as if I am actually there, feeling textures, smells and sounds. ナチスが勢力を増していく日々を描いたこの物語、読み手が、まるで主人公のフランツと共に街を歩いているかのような臨場感がある本です。手触りや匂い、音までもがリアルに感じられる読書体験でした。 Franz is a teenager who started working at the tobacconist in Vienna. I really liked the descriptions of the tobacconist and the relationships with the owner and the customers. ウィーンのキオスクで働き始めるティーンエイジャーの男の子、フランツが主人公です。キオスクの風景や、オーナーとお客さんの関係性の描写がとてもステキでした。 It was such a sad and beautiful book. It made me think of how your every day is precious and how gradually it…