reading Katie Zhao's How We Fell Apart be like

me: who's the bad guy tormenting the narrator? Is it you, the nice guy?
me: YOU, the student teacher??
me: YOU, THE DEAD GIRL?????
side character: it was I!
me: WHO ARE YOU

90% into the book and here comes the society commentary

as a mystery thriller, it wasn't satisfying but I think the focus was never on that, but to show the awful effects on teens being stressed out of their minds by demanding+often abusive parents and a school that places its prestige over the welfare of its own students

characters were nuanced and solid, and I loved the frequent delving into the narrator's relationship with her mother and the scars and pain of being in a single-parent immigrant family

even the narrator's seemingly perfect friend/rival, she was initially painted as a Huge Alpha Bitch but we're given the opportunity to peel back the layers to see that she's not 100% rotten or even 100% perfect. And that she was also a victim of her own circumstances, though I loved that she is never excused or forgiven for it

bit of a weak start with rather repetitive writing initially, but the writing got better and tighter as we went on. So generally a good read

Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase now

Alfred Birnbaum's translated prose is heavenly. Packing so much dry wit

I understand now why I'm so taken with the translated prose. The tone reminds me a lot of the Narrator from Tatami Galaxy

I finished Wild Sheep Chase a while back and somehow it ended up being one of my faves from Murakami, up there with Kafka on The Shore

No doubt the translated prose played a big part in that - supposedly the translator is more liberal in his translations but it worked perfect here I think

The prose flows super smooth - there're some translated works that read kinda stilted - and the narrator's wryness drew me in

The title of the book by the way is perfect lmao. I might reread this again one day

Also read Kawakami Hiromi's The Briefcase and People from my Neighbourhood. Briefcase didn't really do much for me though I'm not sure if it's because I didn't approach it with the right attitude. The characters were fine (cute even), the setting is vaguely nostalgic but the story was somewhat tedious to get through..

People from my Neighbourhood is a collection of interlinked, easily digestable short stories. It's a total riot on a That Escalated Quickly scale haha. Quite enjoyable

Talking about her story makes me miss Nakano Thrift Shop. Should reread that too eventually