What do you think?
Rate this book
أحد الرجال
«تحتوي «أحد الرجال» على كل مظاهر القصة البوليسية الآسرة: زوجة ثكلى، ورجل ميت ينتمي اسمه إلى شخص آخر، ورسائل مشفرة غامضة، ومحامٍ عازم على كشف الحقيقة. ومع ذلك، تكمن رواية مدروسة بعمق، تُفسح فرضيتها المشوقة الطريقَ لفحص أعمق الأسئلة المتعلقة بالهوية والإبداع الفني، في عمل متجذر في التاريخ الثقافي الياباني» - أرتس دسك
«رواية مثيرة» - وردز ويذاوت بوردرز
«هيرانو مستمر في الاشتباك مع موضوعات جديدة منذ ظهوره لأول مرة. وفي هذا العمل، وصل إلى السؤال الأساسي حول ما الذي يثبت الوجود الإنساني» - يوكو أوغاوا، مؤلفة رواية «شرطة الذاكرة»
تعريف
كيدو محامي طلاق يشارف زواجه على الانهيار بسبب الانفصال العاطفي. إضافةً إلى أزمة منتصف العمر التي تلوح في الأفق، تنقلب حياة كيدو رأسًا على عقب بسبب عودة موكِّلة سابقة تريد منه أن يحقق مع رجل ميت - زوجها المُتوفى مؤخرًا. فبعد وفاته اكتشفت أنه كان يعيش كذبة كبيرة: اسمه، وماضيه، وهويته، تنتمي إلى شخص آخر. يجذب التحقيق كيدو إلى لغزين مثيرين: معرفة هوية الزوج الحقيقية، واكتشاف المزيد عن الرجل الذي تظاهر بأنه هو. ومع كل اكتشاف جديد يزداد لدى كيدو هوسه والإغراء بمحو حياة شخص ما لخلق حياة جديدة.
حازت هذه الرواية اليابانية الفلسفية المثيرة جائزة يوميوري المرموقة للأدب في اليابان. يبحث فيها كيئتشيرو هيرانو، أحد أهم أدباء اليابان حاليًّا، عن الهوية، وغموض الذاكرة، والحكايات التي نحيا ونموت بها، والتصالح بين مَن كنت تأمل أن تكونه ومَن أصبحته في الواقع.
تُرجمت هذه الرواية إلى عدة لغات، وتحولت إلى فيلم سينمائي ناجح نال عددًا من الجوائز.
عن المؤلف
كيئتشيرو هيرانو روائي ياباني وُلد عام 1975. حاز عمله الأول «الكسوف» جائزة أكوتاغاوا؛ أعرق الجوائز الأدبية في اليابان، في حين كان طالبًا في جامعة كيوتو، وكان أصغر مَن يحصل على تلك الجائزة المرموقة وقتها. ثم توالت الأعمال والجوائز، فحصل عام 2009 على جائزة وزير التعليم والثقافة عن رواية «انهيار السد»، وعلى جائزة بونكامورا دوغوما عن رواية «الفجر»، ثم نال وسام الفنون والآداب الفرنسي في عام 2014، ثم حصل على جائزة جونئتشي واتانابه عن رواية «ما بعد الماتنيه».
حازت روايته «أحد الرجال» جائزة يوميوري العريقة في الأدب عام 2018، وحصلت على المركز الثاني في جوائز المكتبات الكبرى، كما حُوِّلت إلى فيلم سينمائي من إخراج كيه إيشيكاوا، فحصد الفيلم جوائز دولية عديدة، وفاز بأغلب جوائز الأكاديمية اليابانية للسينما عام 2023، وشارك الفيلم في مهرجان القاهرة السينمائي الدولي عام 2022، وحاز جائزة أفضل سيناريو.
عن المترجم
ميسرة عفيفي مترجم مصري، وُلد في القاهرة ويعيش في اليابان منذ عام 1996. ترجم وكتب عددًا من الدراسات والمحاضرات والأبحاث والقصص القصيرة والمقالات. نُشرت له ترجمات لعدد من الروايات اليابانية منها: «مقتل الكومنداتور» لهاروكي موراكامي، و«علت الرياح» لتاتسو هوري، و«شمس غاربة» و«صندوق باندورا» لأوسامو دازاي، و«الكسوف» و«حكاية قمر» لكيئتشيرو هيرانو، وصدرت له عن دار الكرمة رائعة أوجاي موري: «الإوزة البرية» وتحفة ياسوشي إينويه الخالدة «بندقية صيد».
«رواية مثيرة» - وردز ويذاوت بوردرز
«هيرانو مستمر في الاشتباك مع موضوعات جديدة منذ ظهوره لأول مرة. وفي هذا العمل، وصل إلى السؤال الأساسي حول ما الذي يثبت الوجود الإنساني» - يوكو أوغاوا، مؤلفة رواية «شرطة الذاكرة»
تعريف
كيدو محامي طلاق يشارف زواجه على الانهيار بسبب الانفصال العاطفي. إضافةً إلى أزمة منتصف العمر التي تلوح في الأفق، تنقلب حياة كيدو رأسًا على عقب بسبب عودة موكِّلة سابقة تريد منه أن يحقق مع رجل ميت - زوجها المُتوفى مؤخرًا. فبعد وفاته اكتشفت أنه كان يعيش كذبة كبيرة: اسمه، وماضيه، وهويته، تنتمي إلى شخص آخر. يجذب التحقيق كيدو إلى لغزين مثيرين: معرفة هوية الزوج الحقيقية، واكتشاف المزيد عن الرجل الذي تظاهر بأنه هو. ومع كل اكتشاف جديد يزداد لدى كيدو هوسه والإغراء بمحو حياة شخص ما لخلق حياة جديدة.
حازت هذه الرواية اليابانية الفلسفية المثيرة جائزة يوميوري المرموقة للأدب في اليابان. يبحث فيها كيئتشيرو هيرانو، أحد أهم أدباء اليابان حاليًّا، عن الهوية، وغموض الذاكرة، والحكايات التي نحيا ونموت بها، والتصالح بين مَن كنت تأمل أن تكونه ومَن أصبحته في الواقع.
تُرجمت هذه الرواية إلى عدة لغات، وتحولت إلى فيلم سينمائي ناجح نال عددًا من الجوائز.
عن المؤلف
كيئتشيرو هيرانو روائي ياباني وُلد عام 1975. حاز عمله الأول «الكسوف» جائزة أكوتاغاوا؛ أعرق الجوائز الأدبية في اليابان، في حين كان طالبًا في جامعة كيوتو، وكان أصغر مَن يحصل على تلك الجائزة المرموقة وقتها. ثم توالت الأعمال والجوائز، فحصل عام 2009 على جائزة وزير التعليم والثقافة عن رواية «انهيار السد»، وعلى جائزة بونكامورا دوغوما عن رواية «الفجر»، ثم نال وسام الفنون والآداب الفرنسي في عام 2014، ثم حصل على جائزة جونئتشي واتانابه عن رواية «ما بعد الماتنيه».
حازت روايته «أحد الرجال» جائزة يوميوري العريقة في الأدب عام 2018، وحصلت على المركز الثاني في جوائز المكتبات الكبرى، كما حُوِّلت إلى فيلم سينمائي من إخراج كيه إيشيكاوا، فحصد الفيلم جوائز دولية عديدة، وفاز بأغلب جوائز الأكاديمية اليابانية للسينما عام 2023، وشارك الفيلم في مهرجان القاهرة السينمائي الدولي عام 2022، وحاز جائزة أفضل سيناريو.
عن المترجم
ميسرة عفيفي مترجم مصري، وُلد في القاهرة ويعيش في اليابان منذ عام 1996. ترجم وكتب عددًا من الدراسات والمحاضرات والأبحاث والقصص القصيرة والمقالات. نُشرت له ترجمات لعدد من الروايات اليابانية منها: «مقتل الكومنداتور» لهاروكي موراكامي، و«علت الرياح» لتاتسو هوري، و«شمس غاربة» و«صندوق باندورا» لأوسامو دازاي، و«الكسوف» و«حكاية قمر» لكيئتشيرو هيرانو، وصدرت له عن دار الكرمة رائعة أوجاي موري: «الإوزة البرية» وتحفة ياسوشي إينويه الخالدة «بندقية صيد».
328 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 2018
About the author
Keiichirō Hirano
43 books276 followersKeiichirō Hirano (平野 啓一郎 Hirano Keiichirō, born June 22, 1975) is a Japanese novelist.
Hirano was born in Gamagori, Aichi prefecture, Japan. He published his first novel (Nisshoku, 日蝕) in 1998 and won the Akutagawa Prize the next year as one of the youngest winners ever (at 23 years of age). He graduated from the Law Department of Kyoto University in 1999. In 2005 he was nominated as a cultural ambassador and spent a year in France.
Hirano was born in Gamagori, Aichi prefecture, Japan. He published his first novel (Nisshoku, 日蝕) in 1998 and won the Akutagawa Prize the next year as one of the youngest winners ever (at 23 years of age). He graduated from the Law Department of Kyoto University in 1999. In 2005 he was nominated as a cultural ambassador and spent a year in France.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 757 reviews
May 8, 2020
A low birth rate coupled with an aging population contributed to the depopulation of Town S, a small rustic community in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. Rie Takemoto had returned to her hometown reeling from several tragic events including the death of her two year old son, a resultant divorce and the death of her father. Rie was now 'badly marked', considered to be most unfortunate. Although many businesses were "permanently shuttered", Rie's family business, Seibundo Stationery was still afloat.
He was a migrant, arriving in the depressed area, a new employee of Ito Lumber. A quiet, unassuming, steadfast man."...he poured himself quietly into his work, without complaint...there had never been another employee like him." Rie welcomed this new customer to her stationery shop. Monthly, it seemed, he purchased painting supplies and sketchbooks. One day he asked, "If it's not too much trouble, will you be my friend?" A budding friendship led to the discovery of each other's past. Rie explained that she moved back to Town S with her older son, Yuto. She confessed that sometimes she was "...beset by a feeling of emptiness so powerful, she worried for her own well-being". Daisuke Taniguchi said he was the second son of inn owners in a hot spring town in Gunma Prefecture. His lazy, older brother Kyoichi, was slated to inherit the family business despite lack of interest in running it. "Something inside me was broken beyond repair, so I cut off all contact with my family and left town...".
Three years of marital bliss as husband and wife and the addition of a baby daughter ensued. They were now a family of four. However, Daisuke despaired, "If I die due to my hazardous forestry work-under no condition are you to contact my family". Rie promised...but...one year after Daisuke's accidental death, crushed by a fallen tree, Rie reneged contacting Daisuke's brother, Kyoichi. Having arrived in Miyazaki, Kyoichi was shown Daisuke's memorial photo. "...that isn't Daisuke...this guy went around using my brother's name...somebody was impersonating Daisuke".
Akira Kido, an incredibly kind, sensitive lawyer had handled Rie Takemoto's divorce from her first husband. Rie reached out to Kido enlisting his help. DNA testing had conclusively proved that "...someone had masqueraded as 'Daisuke Taniguchi', lived in matrimony with Rie and even fathered a child with her...[Daisuke was] not a made-up name but a person, according to census information listed on his family register...Cases of identity concealment through a false name were common enough...what perplexed [Kido]...Every public record attested to the deceased man being Daisuke Taniguchi...". Kido became obsessed with the case. "To throw away everything and become some one else-imagining doing this undeniably aroused in Kido a certain beguiling excitation".
"A Man" by Keiichiro Hirano is a fascinating psychological literary novel. "...one is able to love someone in the present thanks to the past that made them the way they are...". Who was the man using Daisuke's identity and where was the real Daisuke Taniguchi? A highly recommended tome!
Thank you Amazon First Reads for this offering from Amazon Crossings in exchange for an honest review.
He was a migrant, arriving in the depressed area, a new employee of Ito Lumber. A quiet, unassuming, steadfast man."...he poured himself quietly into his work, without complaint...there had never been another employee like him." Rie welcomed this new customer to her stationery shop. Monthly, it seemed, he purchased painting supplies and sketchbooks. One day he asked, "If it's not too much trouble, will you be my friend?" A budding friendship led to the discovery of each other's past. Rie explained that she moved back to Town S with her older son, Yuto. She confessed that sometimes she was "...beset by a feeling of emptiness so powerful, she worried for her own well-being". Daisuke Taniguchi said he was the second son of inn owners in a hot spring town in Gunma Prefecture. His lazy, older brother Kyoichi, was slated to inherit the family business despite lack of interest in running it. "Something inside me was broken beyond repair, so I cut off all contact with my family and left town...".
Three years of marital bliss as husband and wife and the addition of a baby daughter ensued. They were now a family of four. However, Daisuke despaired, "If I die due to my hazardous forestry work-under no condition are you to contact my family". Rie promised...but...one year after Daisuke's accidental death, crushed by a fallen tree, Rie reneged contacting Daisuke's brother, Kyoichi. Having arrived in Miyazaki, Kyoichi was shown Daisuke's memorial photo. "...that isn't Daisuke...this guy went around using my brother's name...somebody was impersonating Daisuke".
Akira Kido, an incredibly kind, sensitive lawyer had handled Rie Takemoto's divorce from her first husband. Rie reached out to Kido enlisting his help. DNA testing had conclusively proved that "...someone had masqueraded as 'Daisuke Taniguchi', lived in matrimony with Rie and even fathered a child with her...[Daisuke was] not a made-up name but a person, according to census information listed on his family register...Cases of identity concealment through a false name were common enough...what perplexed [Kido]...Every public record attested to the deceased man being Daisuke Taniguchi...". Kido became obsessed with the case. "To throw away everything and become some one else-imagining doing this undeniably aroused in Kido a certain beguiling excitation".
"A Man" by Keiichiro Hirano is a fascinating psychological literary novel. "...one is able to love someone in the present thanks to the past that made them the way they are...". Who was the man using Daisuke's identity and where was the real Daisuke Taniguchi? A highly recommended tome!
Thank you Amazon First Reads for this offering from Amazon Crossings in exchange for an honest review.
August 7, 2020
I read this book after it was referred to me, and it was a great read. There is this unique style of storytelling which each culture has. In the case of Japanese books, what has stood out for me is the strength of the story.
Rie has had a hard life – she lost her son Ryo tragically and is divorced. She must also care for her young son – Yuto. She works in a stationery store and meets Daisuke Taniguchi who becomes a regular customer. He is a little reserved and but always gentlemanly. They get married after some time and have a daughter – Hana. Daisuke has told Rie about his family but is not in touch with them.
Daisuke dies in a tragic accident. Rie is heart-broken and informs his brother Kyoichi. Kyoichi visits Rie, and shockingly informs her after seeing her husband’s pictures that he is not his brother Daisuke. Rie struggles to understand what this means – who was her husband? And was he hiding away after committing any crimes? But that seems to not jell with the person she knew. Rie contacts Akira Kido, a lawyer who had helped her with her divorce. Kido is married to Kaori and has a son Sota, and he is going through some personal issues as well. Though the fees would be small, Kido is keen to get to the truth of Rie’s diseased husband’s identity.
The book intersperses a great story with very good philosophical discussions – around how the past inevitably influences the future. The middle sections seem to meander here and there a little before the story regains momentum.
A strongly recommended read!
My rating: 4.25.
Rie has had a hard life – she lost her son Ryo tragically and is divorced. She must also care for her young son – Yuto. She works in a stationery store and meets Daisuke Taniguchi who becomes a regular customer. He is a little reserved and but always gentlemanly. They get married after some time and have a daughter – Hana. Daisuke has told Rie about his family but is not in touch with them.
Daisuke dies in a tragic accident. Rie is heart-broken and informs his brother Kyoichi. Kyoichi visits Rie, and shockingly informs her after seeing her husband’s pictures that he is not his brother Daisuke. Rie struggles to understand what this means – who was her husband? And was he hiding away after committing any crimes? But that seems to not jell with the person she knew. Rie contacts Akira Kido, a lawyer who had helped her with her divorce. Kido is married to Kaori and has a son Sota, and he is going through some personal issues as well. Though the fees would be small, Kido is keen to get to the truth of Rie’s diseased husband’s identity.
The book intersperses a great story with very good philosophical discussions – around how the past inevitably influences the future. The middle sections seem to meander here and there a little before the story regains momentum.
A strongly recommended read!
My rating: 4.25.
July 16, 2021
Lawyer in the role of sleuth
This novel was somewhat of a surprise. I was looking through my books for something light to read, and without looking at the blurb or reading reviews I dipped straight in. What I did not expect was such a multi-layered and interesting novel.* It is neither a police procedural nor a crime thriller.
Plot
Briefly, the plot is that a divorcee (Rié) with a young son (Yuto) meets and marries a man (Daisuké Taniguchi), a tree feller who works in the nearby forests. They have a daughter (Hana), but after a mere handful of years he dies in a work related accident. Against her deceased husband’s wishes not to let his family know if anything were to happen to him, she contacts them a year later. That is when she finds out that her husband lived under a name not his own. She is flabbergasted that her husband could have lied to her, and she decides to contact the lawyer Akira Kido who represented her in her divorce, to assist her in this matter.
Construction
The novel is cleverly constructed, starting with a prologue in which a novelist meets a man in a pub. They chat and get to know each other better, and eventually the novelist relates the man’s tale. That man is Akira Kido.
“There’s a painting by René Magritte entitled Not to Be Reproduced in which a man with his back turned is looking into a mirror at the back of another version of himself inside the mirror, who is likewise looking into the depths of the reflection. This story is similar in some ways. And perhaps the reader will spot the central theme of this work in the back of me, the artist, obsessing over Kido-san absorbed in his own obsession.”
Themes
The main theme is about identity, most obviously that of the deceased husband. The dead husband and father (X) obviously had some issue(s) which compelled him to use someone else’s identity. Why? Where is that person? Is he still alive? Authorities had duly been advised and the relevant family registers were altered so that to all intents and purposes Rié had not been legally married, and as a result little Hana was illegitimate. But young Yuto also has an identity crisis, because he first bore the name of the divorced father, then his mother’s maiden name followed by the deceased father’s name. What is their name now, and who is he? And why, why when he loved his second father more than the first?
Kido himself has some identity issues, as he is a third-generation Zainichi, i.e. his Korean ancestors settled in Japan before the end of WWII. Having grown up as Japanese and being a Japanese national does not exempt him from abuse. In his quest to solve the problem posed by X, Kido briefly tries out the Taniguchi identity too to get the feel of a different identity. During his search for answers he ponders several existential questions.
Other issues that are raised are racial discrimination (for example against other ethnic groups living in Japan), the death penalty and domestic violence. Kido even gets fed up with himself for being hyper-sensitive to others’ prejudice.
Relationships
Marital relationships are laid bare. Kido too has a wife (Kaori) and child (Sota), but his marriage is foundering. Kido ponders and philosophises about these various issues as he works on this case and tries to save his marriage. He also tries to understand how, in a supposedly loving relationship, a man (X) could lie (and what a lie!) to his wife and children. Father and son relationships of Kido, Yuto and other characters are discussed.
Events
The major earthquake plus tsunami of 2011 is woven through the tale, and the 1923 earthquake is also referred to including “… the massacre of Koreans in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake…”.
Extracts
“So Rié had to wonder who her late husband had been. Or in other words, whose death he had died.”
“I suppose it’s a fact that the present is a result of the past. In other words, one is able to love someone in the present thanks to the past that made them the way they are. While genetics are surely a factor too, if that person had lived under different circumstances, they would have probably become a different person—but people are incapable of telling others their entire past, and regardless of their intentions, the past explained in words is not the past itself. If the past someone told diverged from the true past, would the love for that person be mistaken somehow? If it was an intentional lie, would that make it all meaningless? Or could it give rise to new love?”
“For the first time, Kido wondered if X might have been a perfectly normal guy who simply got bored with his life and decided that he wanted a new one. As the conversation with Sota suggested, memories make people who they are. Thus, if you possessed the memories of another, wouldn’t it be possible to become them?”
“Having a stigma means that you have some kind of trait that serves as the basis for discrimination, negative feelings, or even attacks. This irrespective of whether the trait is intrinsically bad or not. For example, the circumstances of your birth and rearing, a birthmark on your face, a criminal record. Everything else about you is ignored. All your multifaceted complexity is reduced to that one aspect. So if you’re Zainichi, that’s all you are and nothing more.”
###
Keiichiro Hirano is a multi-award winning author.
This novel was somewhat of a surprise. I was looking through my books for something light to read, and without looking at the blurb or reading reviews I dipped straight in. What I did not expect was such a multi-layered and interesting novel.* It is neither a police procedural nor a crime thriller.
Plot
Briefly, the plot is that a divorcee (Rié) with a young son (Yuto) meets and marries a man (Daisuké Taniguchi), a tree feller who works in the nearby forests. They have a daughter (Hana), but after a mere handful of years he dies in a work related accident. Against her deceased husband’s wishes not to let his family know if anything were to happen to him, she contacts them a year later. That is when she finds out that her husband lived under a name not his own. She is flabbergasted that her husband could have lied to her, and she decides to contact the lawyer Akira Kido who represented her in her divorce, to assist her in this matter.
Construction
The novel is cleverly constructed, starting with a prologue in which a novelist meets a man in a pub. They chat and get to know each other better, and eventually the novelist relates the man’s tale. That man is Akira Kido.
“There’s a painting by René Magritte entitled Not to Be Reproduced in which a man with his back turned is looking into a mirror at the back of another version of himself inside the mirror, who is likewise looking into the depths of the reflection. This story is similar in some ways. And perhaps the reader will spot the central theme of this work in the back of me, the artist, obsessing over Kido-san absorbed in his own obsession.”
Themes
The main theme is about identity, most obviously that of the deceased husband. The dead husband and father (X) obviously had some issue(s) which compelled him to use someone else’s identity. Why? Where is that person? Is he still alive? Authorities had duly been advised and the relevant family registers were altered so that to all intents and purposes Rié had not been legally married, and as a result little Hana was illegitimate. But young Yuto also has an identity crisis, because he first bore the name of the divorced father, then his mother’s maiden name followed by the deceased father’s name. What is their name now, and who is he? And why, why when he loved his second father more than the first?
Kido himself has some identity issues, as he is a third-generation Zainichi, i.e. his Korean ancestors settled in Japan before the end of WWII. Having grown up as Japanese and being a Japanese national does not exempt him from abuse. In his quest to solve the problem posed by X, Kido briefly tries out the Taniguchi identity too to get the feel of a different identity. During his search for answers he ponders several existential questions.
Other issues that are raised are racial discrimination (for example against other ethnic groups living in Japan), the death penalty and domestic violence. Kido even gets fed up with himself for being hyper-sensitive to others’ prejudice.
Relationships
Marital relationships are laid bare. Kido too has a wife (Kaori) and child (Sota), but his marriage is foundering. Kido ponders and philosophises about these various issues as he works on this case and tries to save his marriage. He also tries to understand how, in a supposedly loving relationship, a man (X) could lie (and what a lie!) to his wife and children. Father and son relationships of Kido, Yuto and other characters are discussed.
Events
The major earthquake plus tsunami of 2011 is woven through the tale, and the 1923 earthquake is also referred to including “… the massacre of Koreans in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake…”.
Extracts
“So Rié had to wonder who her late husband had been. Or in other words, whose death he had died.”
“I suppose it’s a fact that the present is a result of the past. In other words, one is able to love someone in the present thanks to the past that made them the way they are. While genetics are surely a factor too, if that person had lived under different circumstances, they would have probably become a different person—but people are incapable of telling others their entire past, and regardless of their intentions, the past explained in words is not the past itself. If the past someone told diverged from the true past, would the love for that person be mistaken somehow? If it was an intentional lie, would that make it all meaningless? Or could it give rise to new love?”
“For the first time, Kido wondered if X might have been a perfectly normal guy who simply got bored with his life and decided that he wanted a new one. As the conversation with Sota suggested, memories make people who they are. Thus, if you possessed the memories of another, wouldn’t it be possible to become them?”
“Having a stigma means that you have some kind of trait that serves as the basis for discrimination, negative feelings, or even attacks. This irrespective of whether the trait is intrinsically bad or not. For example, the circumstances of your birth and rearing, a birthmark on your face, a criminal record. Everything else about you is ignored. All your multifaceted complexity is reduced to that one aspect. So if you’re Zainichi, that’s all you are and nothing more.”
###
Keiichiro Hirano is a multi-award winning author.
April 10, 2022
Winner of the Yomiuri Prize for Literature 2019
Hirano won the Akutagawa Prize with his debut 日蝕 Nisshoku when he was still a law student, "A Man" is his first work to be translated into English and German (Das Leben eines Anderen, tr. by Nora Bierich). In it, he investigates how the future can change how we see the past, or as he explained in an interview: "The past is not as stable as we like to believe. (...) The past is vulnerable and fragile. (...) Future events are changing the past." The story revolves around Kido, a lawyer who becomes obsessed with investigating a case of identity theft: After a mother of two loses her husband in a logging accident, she finds out that her husband was not who he claimed to be, that he had claimed to be someone else.
So the whole story ponders how new developments, events and insights change the characters' interpretation and evaluation of the past. As Hirano states, the question if played out in an aesthetic manner reminiscent of a fugue, with slight changes of the theme as the story/movement evolves. We meet the family of the man in question, but also people from his past and the family and colleagues of Kido, who, in this tale of psychological noir, becomes somewhat of a detective in crisis, struggling with his own identity and marraige while trying to solve the mystery.
The novel also discusses the discrimination of Koreans / people of Korean descent in Japan, as Kido is a Zainichi, and how the resentment has grown with the rise of nationalism after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Other political and social issues feature as well, particularly relating to the legal system (remember: the author is a lawyer, and this book has some Ferdinand von Schirach-like aspects): Divorce and family law, public registers, the death penalty. Hirano also criticizes the stigma around domestic violence and the fragility of poor and psychologically impaired people.
And this is also a book about writing: The widow owns a stationery shop, her son seeks refuge in literature and writing. "A Man" itself is surprisingly lyrical for a crime thriller, full of strong images and well-rendered interior monologue.
I'm not a crime reader at all, but I would certainly become one if more thrillers were as socially relevant and psychologically convincing as this one.
Hirano won the Akutagawa Prize with his debut 日蝕 Nisshoku when he was still a law student, "A Man" is his first work to be translated into English and German (Das Leben eines Anderen, tr. by Nora Bierich). In it, he investigates how the future can change how we see the past, or as he explained in an interview: "The past is not as stable as we like to believe. (...) The past is vulnerable and fragile. (...) Future events are changing the past." The story revolves around Kido, a lawyer who becomes obsessed with investigating a case of identity theft: After a mother of two loses her husband in a logging accident, she finds out that her husband was not who he claimed to be, that he had claimed to be someone else.
So the whole story ponders how new developments, events and insights change the characters' interpretation and evaluation of the past. As Hirano states, the question if played out in an aesthetic manner reminiscent of a fugue, with slight changes of the theme as the story/movement evolves. We meet the family of the man in question, but also people from his past and the family and colleagues of Kido, who, in this tale of psychological noir, becomes somewhat of a detective in crisis, struggling with his own identity and marraige while trying to solve the mystery.
The novel also discusses the discrimination of Koreans / people of Korean descent in Japan, as Kido is a Zainichi, and how the resentment has grown with the rise of nationalism after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Other political and social issues feature as well, particularly relating to the legal system (remember: the author is a lawyer, and this book has some Ferdinand von Schirach-like aspects): Divorce and family law, public registers, the death penalty. Hirano also criticizes the stigma around domestic violence and the fragility of poor and psychologically impaired people.
And this is also a book about writing: The widow owns a stationery shop, her son seeks refuge in literature and writing. "A Man" itself is surprisingly lyrical for a crime thriller, full of strong images and well-rendered interior monologue.
I'm not a crime reader at all, but I would certainly become one if more thrillers were as socially relevant and psychologically convincing as this one.
August 27, 2021
| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | |
Keiichirō Hirano has spun an intriguing psychological tale. A Man presents its readers with an in-depth and carefully paced mystery revolving around identity theft.
Hirano novel's opening is rather old-fashioned (a work of fiction masquerading as a true story) as it is narrated by an unmanned novelist who after bumping into a man called Akira Kido becomes fascinated by Kido's own obsession with another man (the narrator goes on to compare the story he's about to tell to a painting by René Magritte entitled 'Not to Be Reproduced'):
Kido is a divorce attorney who has become detached from his wife. She, in turn, shows little interest in him or his job and is rather unsympathetic when it comes to his Zainichi background (that is ethnically Korean residents of Japan). Kido's practical and reserved nature frustrate his wife (who often mistakes impassiveness for callousness) While Kido disapproves of his wife's strict parenting style, she mistakes his reserved disposition as a sign of callousness. When a growingly disillusioned Kido is contacted by Rié Takemoto, a former client of his, he finds himself drawn into the life of another man. After Rié's second husband dies in a work-related accident, she discovers that his name and past are that of another man. Throughout the course of his investigation Kido questions X's motives. What could make someone want to conceal their true name or background? And what constitutes an identity?
As Kido comes in contact with the various individuals and families connected to X, and as his relationship with his own wife becomes further strained, he grows fond of this unknown X and starts to see the appeal of 'starting' over.
Although Kido's investigation is the running thread that connects together these seemingly disparate characters and events, it sometimes seems more of a background. The narrative provides a panoramic view of the characters Kido comes into contact during the course of his investigation. While many of Kido's thoughts are dedicated to X and issues of identity, he's an erudite and his mind will often wonder down philosophical paths. He makes many literary allusions (he compares his stance towards other Zainichi as being similar to the way in which Levin—from Anna Karenina—views 'peasants'). Kido's precarious relationship to his ethnicity is one of the novel's main motifs:
Kido passes most of his time in contemplation. He muses on the myth of Narcissus, the nature vs. nurture debate, questions his marriage, and those of other people, considers the notion of an identity and broods over his own loneliness:
Hirano's Japan is vividly rendered. From its recent history to its social norms, Hirano's novel provides plenty of insights into contemporary Japan. There are extensive discussions on Japan's penal and legal system (given Kido's line of work there is a lot on divorce and custody laws).
As much as I liked novel (identity concealment makes for a fascinating subject) I was deeply disappointed by the abrupt way it ended. After spending so much time with Kido, I felt cheated by those final chapters. Kido is seemingly discarded, and readers are left wondering what exactly he will do after he makes an important discovery.
Still, I would probably recommend this one, especially to those who are interested in learning about contemporary Japan or for those who prefer more thought-provoking and philosophical mysteries.
“It's unbearable to have your identity summed up by one thing and one thing only and for other people to have control over what that is.”
Keiichirō Hirano has spun an intriguing psychological tale. A Man presents its readers with an in-depth and carefully paced mystery revolving around identity theft.
Hirano novel's opening is rather old-fashioned (a work of fiction masquerading as a true story) as it is narrated by an unmanned novelist who after bumping into a man called Akira Kido becomes fascinated by Kido's own obsession with another man (the narrator goes on to compare the story he's about to tell to a painting by René Magritte entitled 'Not to Be Reproduced'):
“With all the unique characters that make an appearance, some of you might wonder why on earth I didn't pick one of the bit players to be the protagonist. While Kido-san will in fact obsessed with the life of a man, it is in Kido-san, viewed from behind as he chases this man, that I sensed something to be seen.”
Kido is a divorce attorney who has become detached from his wife. She, in turn, shows little interest in him or his job and is rather unsympathetic when it comes to his Zainichi background (that is ethnically Korean residents of Japan). Kido's practical and reserved nature frustrate his wife (who often mistakes impassiveness for callousness) While Kido disapproves of his wife's strict parenting style, she mistakes his reserved disposition as a sign of callousness. When a growingly disillusioned Kido is contacted by Rié Takemoto, a former client of his, he finds himself drawn into the life of another man. After Rié's second husband dies in a work-related accident, she discovers that his name and past are that of another man. Throughout the course of his investigation Kido questions X's motives. What could make someone want to conceal their true name or background? And what constitutes an identity?
As Kido comes in contact with the various individuals and families connected to X, and as his relationship with his own wife becomes further strained, he grows fond of this unknown X and starts to see the appeal of 'starting' over.
Although Kido's investigation is the running thread that connects together these seemingly disparate characters and events, it sometimes seems more of a background. The narrative provides a panoramic view of the characters Kido comes into contact during the course of his investigation. While many of Kido's thoughts are dedicated to X and issues of identity, he's an erudite and his mind will often wonder down philosophical paths. He makes many literary allusions (he compares his stance towards other Zainichi as being similar to the way in which Levin—from Anna Karenina—views 'peasants'). Kido's precarious relationship to his ethnicity is one of the novel's main motifs:
“Since he had grown up almost entirely as a "Japanese person" even before he naturalized, he was profoundly uneasy with the idea that he was either a direct victim or perpetuator of the troubles the best Korean enclaves.”
Kido passes most of his time in contemplation. He muses on the myth of Narcissus, the nature vs. nurture debate, questions his marriage, and those of other people, considers the notion of an identity and broods over his own loneliness:
“Yes, loneliness. He did not shy from this word to express the dark emotion that had been seething in his chest of late. It was a bottomless, middle-aged kind of loneliness that he never could have even conceived when he was younger, a loneliness that saturated him with bone-chilling sentimentality the moment he let down his guard.”
Hirano's Japan is vividly rendered. From its recent history to its social norms, Hirano's novel provides plenty of insights into contemporary Japan. There are extensive discussions on Japan's penal and legal system (given Kido's line of work there is a lot on divorce and custody laws).
As much as I liked novel (identity concealment makes for a fascinating subject) I was deeply disappointed by the abrupt way it ended. After spending so much time with Kido, I felt cheated by those final chapters. Kido is seemingly discarded, and readers are left wondering what exactly he will do after he makes an important discovery.
Still, I would probably recommend this one, especially to those who are interested in learning about contemporary Japan or for those who prefer more thought-provoking and philosophical mysteries.
July 3, 2024
عودة للأدب الياباني و كالعادة كل ما هو ياباني جميل❤️
هل سمعت عن أشخاص يعيشون فوق مائتي عام بل و ربما ثلاثمائة عام؟ كالأشجار تستمر حياتها بعد قطعها في صورة قطعة أثاث أو قطعة حطب.. هل باكتساب هوية شخص آخر يقتلع الشخص ماضيه أم يمتد ماضيه و يؤثر علي مستقبله؟
قد تكتشف المرأة بعد وفاة زوجها وجود امرأة سرًا في حياته بل و ربما أطفال لا تعلم بوجودهم أما هوية مزيفة و عائلة متخيلة فهي مفاجأة صادمة كانت في انتظار السيدة ريئة بعد وفاة زوجها.
home of the sparrow
عاشت ريئة في سعادة ل ٣ سنوات و ٩ أشهر مع "دايسكيه تانغوشي" و انجبت منه فتاة. و صدمت بعد وفاته بأنه ليس دايسكيه. فاستأجرت السيدة ريئة المحامي المقيم كيدو للكشف عن هوية زوجها الحقيقية. ما الذي دفعه لانتحال هوية شخص آخر؟
هل بدل حياته بسبب شعوره انها حياة مملة فرغب في حياة أكثر إثارة؟ أم تبديل الهوية بسبب تاريخ إجرامي أراد التخلص منه؟ إلي أي مدي تماهي مع هويته الجديدة و عائلته المزعومة و ماضيه و مشكلاته؟
أثناء رحلة كيدو للبحث عن هوية زوج موكلته الحقيقية و ليكن اسمه X، يبدأ كيدو في البحث عن مخزي حيات�� هو.. يحاول التأكد من ذاته هل نجح في التعايش كمواطن ياباني و اثبات هويته للمحيطين و التخلي عن أصله و ماضيه؟
"من خلال حياة الآخرين، و لو بطريقة غير مباشرة، أستطيع لمس حياتي الشخصية. و أستطيع التفكير فيما يجب علي التفكير فيه."
يدفعنا الكاتب للتوحد مع X و دوافعه و كذلك كيدو الذي أحيانًا كان يحسد X و يحاول تقليده.
قد تحسده كونه شخص محظوظ استطاع أن يعيش حياتين، و لكنك تشفق عليه و علي حياته الأولي.. ألم يحظي فيها بلحظات من السعادة و التي ربما قد تثتيه عن التخلي عن حياته الأولي؟
رواية عن الهوية..أحدهما مغترب في هوية غيره، و الآخر يحاول اثبات هويته كمواطن ياباني و ليس مقيم كوري بجنسية يابانية.. ربما يحاول إثبات هويته لنفسه قبل الآخرين. لكن كلاهما يجمعهما أمنية وحيدة و هي الاستمتاع بنعمة أن يكون "شخص عادي".. أن يمحي ماضيه و معاناته و وصمته.. فهل يكفي تبديل الهوية؟
"إن قطعت علاقاتك الإنسانية و ابتعدت عن ذلك المكان، من الطبيعي أن تنسي كل شيء. كلا، الماضي الكريه فقط لن تنساه أبدًا حتى و إن حاولت نسيانه. و لذلك تكتب فوقه ماضي شخص آخر. إن لم تستطع محوه فليس أمامك إلا أن تكرر الكتابة فوقه إلي أن تصبح قراءته مستحيلة. "
يطرح الكاتب أفكار عديدة منها ربط الهوية بصفة واحدة أو اختزال شخصية الفرد في صفة واحدة و التي قد تكون وصمة لديه. بالإضافة للعنصرية و التنمر و احساس عدم الاستحقاق. ماذا عن الحب؟ هل يعتمد فقط علي شخصية الفرد و صفاته و يمكن فصله عن ماضيه؟
"إن حب انسان ما حاليًا، هو بفضل ماضيه الذي جعل منه ما هو عليه الآن. إن الجينات لها تأثير، و لكن الشخص نفسه سيكون إنسانًا مختلفًا إذا عاش ظروفًا مختلفة. لكن ما يحكيه المرء للناس، ليس كل الماضي بحذافيره، و بصرف النظر عن تعمد ذلك من عدمه، فالماضي الذي تشرحه الكلمات ليس هو الماضي نفسه. فهل يكون ذلك الحب خطأ إن اختلف ذلك مع الماضي الحقيقي؟ هل يتحول كل شيء إلي سراب لو كان كذبًا متعمدًا؟ أم يتولد من ذلك حب جديد؟"
هل الحب يحتاج الي ماضي؟ هل تتغير مشاعر ريئة بعد معرفتها بحقيقة ماضيه؟
رواية مختلفة بإيقاع هادئ و كتابة منمقة عذبة. الشخصيات مرسومة بعناية و كل شخصية لها مخاوفها و أسرارها. في النهاية لا تملك إلا أن تتعاطف معهم جميعًا. استمتعت بصحبة الرواية و بترجمة المبدع ميسرة عفيفي و هو في رأيي أفضل مترجم من اللغة اليابانية للعربية.
May 7, 2020
Another book that I found by chance from the monthly Amazon Prime free book promotional email - and opened it as I am a fan of Japanese literature (though my interest in it comes and goes in waves) only to captivate me so much that I put down everything else I was reading/trying at the time. Not only that but A Man kept me turning pages until the end and I regretted when it ended (with a good conclusion, but it definitely could have gone for a while more as the main storyline closes, but a few secondary ones remain open).
Very Japanese though quite modern, the novel is about a middle-aged family lawyer who tries to forget his arid marriage by helping a former client of his from a contested divorce who in the meantime moved to her parents home, took over the family business and remarried with a stranger working in a local wood mill only to discover after his tragic accidental death that everything she thought she knew about her husband was a lie.
Getting involved in unraveling the mystery - which depends on intricacies of Japanese customs and laws regarding personal identity - Akira Kido, the main character, starts understanding (and even wistfully thinking of doing it himself) why a man would want to annihilate his past and take on the identity of a complete stranger without necessary being a criminal, a debtor, fleeing from family responsibilities or something similar
Overall great stuff and a captivating novel that you won't put down until the end and regret when you turn the last page.
Very Japanese though quite modern, the novel is about a middle-aged family lawyer who tries to forget his arid marriage by helping a former client of his from a contested divorce who in the meantime moved to her parents home, took over the family business and remarried with a stranger working in a local wood mill only to discover after his tragic accidental death that everything she thought she knew about her husband was a lie.
Getting involved in unraveling the mystery - which depends on intricacies of Japanese customs and laws regarding personal identity - Akira Kido, the main character, starts understanding (and even wistfully thinking of doing it himself) why a man would want to annihilate his past and take on the identity of a complete stranger without necessary being a criminal, a debtor, fleeing from family responsibilities or something similar
Overall great stuff and a captivating novel that you won't put down until the end and regret when you turn the last page.
June 2, 2022
Berührend, vielschichtig und unterhaltsam.
Die Diskurse um Rassismus, Pogrome gegen Menschen mit koreanischen Wurzeln, Karoshi oder die Todesstrafe in Japan könnten alle etwas komplexer und weniger schulmeisterlich sein, das ändert aber nichts daran, dass ich mich gerne darauf eingelassen und auch viel Neues gelernt habe.
Das Zentralthema der fluiden oder gebrochenen Identität und des Wunsches nach dem Ausbruch aus der eigenen Identität wird von vielen Seiten aus betrachtet und macht oft großen Spaß. Das geht kapitelweise als Krimi durch, wird dann eine Romanze, bevor weitere Kapitel sich der Philosophie oder der Literatur widmen. Insgesamt ein schöner Mix!
Und endlich endlich mal eine liebevolle Vater-Kind-Geschichte in der Literatur! (Sonst scheinen Väter in Büchern ja allzu oft Existenzbedroher zu sein.)
Die Übersetzung kam mir an manchen Stellen schwach vor, aber was weiß ich denn schon vom Japanischen 😄
3 bis 4 Sterne
Die Diskurse um Rassismus, Pogrome gegen Menschen mit koreanischen Wurzeln, Karoshi oder die Todesstrafe in Japan könnten alle etwas komplexer und weniger schulmeisterlich sein, das ändert aber nichts daran, dass ich mich gerne darauf eingelassen und auch viel Neues gelernt habe.
Das Zentralthema der fluiden oder gebrochenen Identität und des Wunsches nach dem Ausbruch aus der eigenen Identität wird von vielen Seiten aus betrachtet und macht oft großen Spaß. Das geht kapitelweise als Krimi durch, wird dann eine Romanze, bevor weitere Kapitel sich der Philosophie oder der Literatur widmen. Insgesamt ein schöner Mix!
Und endlich endlich mal eine liebevolle Vater-Kind-Geschichte in der Literatur! (Sonst scheinen Väter in Büchern ja allzu oft Existenzbedroher zu sein.)
Die Übersetzung kam mir an manchen Stellen schwach vor, aber was weiß ich denn schon vom Japanischen 😄
3 bis 4 Sterne
May 2, 2020
All my favorite things: liver transplant, body doubles, penguins, literary allusions, philosophy. This is a psychological story (my preference) as well as a detective story. The language (I read the English translation by Eli K.P. William) feels modern and fresh.
May 23, 2021
Who are you? Who would you be if you could leave your life and be someone else? Would you have regrets? Does your identity change with your experiences? And can you love someone if their life is based upon a lie?
These are the questions Kiichiro Hirano asks in his novel A Man.
This is my first foray into Japanese literature and I was intrigued by this look into modern Japan and the philosophical bent of this novel.
The 2011 earthquake plays in the background throughout the novel. It brings up the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in which the Japanese Army, the police, and vigilantes murdered an estimated 6,000 ethnic Koreans, Chinese, other foreigners, and Japanese socialists. The story's protagonist, Kido, is a middle-aged third generation Korean-Japanese lawyer. As right-winged Japanese become more xenophobic and hate speech and anti-Korean demonstrations increase (sound familiar?) Kido begins to expand the question of "Who am I?" into "Did I make the right choice?"
Through most of the story Kido is investigating a dead man. A widow discovers that her husband is not the man he claimed to be, so Kido sets off to find out who he really was and what happened to the man he declared himself to be. During the course of the search Kido explores his own identity.
"To throw away everything and become someone else--imagining doing this undeniably aroused in Kido a certain beguiling excitation. It was not necessarily only in the midst of despair that someone might be placed at the mercy of such a yearning but also when happiness was interrupted by ennui."
“What is the past to love? Kido wondered as he thought about Rié’s late husband. I suppose it’s a fact that the present is a result of the past. In other words, one is able to love someone in the present thanks to the past that made them the way they are.”
"... it��s not as if you love someone once and that’s it. You renew your love again and again over the long haul, through everything that happens along the way.”
This is a slow paced novel; it gives you plenty of time to mull over the questions Hirano poses and perhaps come up with some answers for your own life.
These are the questions Kiichiro Hirano asks in his novel A Man.
This is my first foray into Japanese literature and I was intrigued by this look into modern Japan and the philosophical bent of this novel.
The 2011 earthquake plays in the background throughout the novel. It brings up the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in which the Japanese Army, the police, and vigilantes murdered an estimated 6,000 ethnic Koreans, Chinese, other foreigners, and Japanese socialists. The story's protagonist, Kido, is a middle-aged third generation Korean-Japanese lawyer. As right-winged Japanese become more xenophobic and hate speech and anti-Korean demonstrations increase (sound familiar?) Kido begins to expand the question of "Who am I?" into "Did I make the right choice?"
Through most of the story Kido is investigating a dead man. A widow discovers that her husband is not the man he claimed to be, so Kido sets off to find out who he really was and what happened to the man he declared himself to be. During the course of the search Kido explores his own identity.
"To throw away everything and become someone else--imagining doing this undeniably aroused in Kido a certain beguiling excitation. It was not necessarily only in the midst of despair that someone might be placed at the mercy of such a yearning but also when happiness was interrupted by ennui."
“What is the past to love? Kido wondered as he thought about Rié’s late husband. I suppose it’s a fact that the present is a result of the past. In other words, one is able to love someone in the present thanks to the past that made them the way they are.”
"... it��s not as if you love someone once and that’s it. You renew your love again and again over the long haul, through everything that happens along the way.”
This is a slow paced novel; it gives you plenty of time to mull over the questions Hirano poses and perhaps come up with some answers for your own life.
July 15, 2020
A new translation by a famous Japanese author always piques my curiosity. This is a literary thriller which tackles themes of identity theft, burying the past, family structures, tradition, the plight of the Zainichi, social status, parenthood, and more. It is neither a crime procedural nor a traditional detective story. The narrator interviews many key figures in the life of a mysterious man, who was the victim of a swapped family registry. By chance uncovering this distinctly Japanese form of identity theft, he uses his lawyerly aplomb to plumb the depths of modern man's psyche in the face of accumulated personal guilts, racism and convoluted manipulation of established bureaucracy.
Though it is written in a straightforward, unimpressive manner, the plot and engaging characters along with the surprising digressions, ensured that I enjoyed my quick reading of this book. I await further translations of Hirano to come with some trepidation. Too often Japanese authors are catapulted into stardom in their own country, only to infiltrate the English-speaking literary firmament with less success. It could be that translations tend to dumb the pieces down, or that the mystery genre is not as radically over-saturated overseas as it is in the US. I'm cautiously hopeful that Hirano will prove to entertain me as much as Shuichi Yoshida did, but at the same time I wanted more lyricism, and less reliance on cliches from this one.
Overall this is a winner. A mature novel, skirting a few genres with a tired approach, luckily injected with several sparkling segments of revealing insight and character depth. I was taken by a description of a cicada casing at the end, though the parallel with the myth of Narcissus was a little heavy handed. A memorable book, but I hope it is not the author's crowning achievement.
Though it is written in a straightforward, unimpressive manner, the plot and engaging characters along with the surprising digressions, ensured that I enjoyed my quick reading of this book. I await further translations of Hirano to come with some trepidation. Too often Japanese authors are catapulted into stardom in their own country, only to infiltrate the English-speaking literary firmament with less success. It could be that translations tend to dumb the pieces down, or that the mystery genre is not as radically over-saturated overseas as it is in the US. I'm cautiously hopeful that Hirano will prove to entertain me as much as Shuichi Yoshida did, but at the same time I wanted more lyricism, and less reliance on cliches from this one.
Overall this is a winner. A mature novel, skirting a few genres with a tired approach, luckily injected with several sparkling segments of revealing insight and character depth. I was taken by a description of a cicada casing at the end, though the parallel with the myth of Narcissus was a little heavy handed. A memorable book, but I hope it is not the author's crowning achievement.
June 28, 2021
A Man - Keiichirō Hirano
تركز الرواية على المحامي أكيرا كيدو، ورحلته لاكتشاف هوية الرجل الذي حتى وفاته، كان يتظاهر بأنه دايسوكي تانيغوتشي، يبحث كيدو أيضًا عن دايسوكي تانيغوتشي الحقيقي، ولكن كلما تقدمت تحقيقاته، يبدأ بالتفكير أكثر وأكثر في حياته هو شخصيًا... زواجه الذي على وشك الإنهيار وهويته المختلطة كونه يابانيًا من أصل كوري، في حين يلقي زلزال شرق اليابان 2011 بظلاله على الأحداث كلها مع مخاوف الموت وأسئلة حول الهوية، واستكشاف تعقيدات نظام تسجيل الأسرة في اليابان الذي لولاه لما كانت كتابة هذه الرواية ممكنة.
القضية التي يتسلمها كيدو تجبره على التفكير أكثر في من هو، ومن يريد أن يكون، إنه زوج وأب ومحامي وياباني ومن الجيل الثالث من عائلة كورية مقيمة في اليابان. لا يواجه صعوبات ولا يعاني من تمييز صريح، لكن ليس هناك شك في أن جزءً من هويته له تأثير عليه، ويرفض بشدّة أن يتم تصنفيه ووضعه ضمن فئة ما ويحكم عليه بموجبها وبمعزل عن كل ما سواها:
"It’s unbearable to have your identity summed up by one thing and one thing only and for other people to have control over what that is."
في الرواية نقضي وقتًا طويلًا مع عائلة الرجل الذي كان يحمل اسم دايسوكي تانيغوتشي، زوجته ريو وطفليها. ريو التي كان هذا زواجها الثاني عاشت معه حياة سعيدة حتى وفاته لكن يحزنها أنها لم تعد تعرفه وهكذا استعانت بالمحامي كيدو.
هذه رواية عميقة وشاملة وتطرح أسئلة كثيرة متعلقة بالهويّة، والجدل السياسي حول العنصرية والتاريخ، لكنها تركز كثيرًا على ا��إنسان، ما الذي يجعل حياته ذات معنى حقًا، وما الذي يتركه وراءه بعد أن يرحل عن هذا العالم.
هي واحدة من تلك الروايات التي تستحق مراجعات مستفيضة.
ووصلني أن الرواية ترجمت إلى العربية على يد المترجم ميسرة عفيفي وستصدر قريبًا.
تركز الرواية على المحامي أكيرا كيدو، ورحلته لاكتشاف هوية الرجل الذي حتى وفاته، كان يتظاهر بأنه دايسوكي تانيغوتشي، يبحث كيدو أيضًا عن دايسوكي تانيغوتشي الحقيقي، ولكن كلما تقدمت تحقيقاته، يبدأ بالتفكير أكثر وأكثر في حياته هو شخصيًا... زواجه الذي على وشك الإنهيار وهويته المختلطة كونه يابانيًا من أصل كوري، في حين يلقي زلزال شرق اليابان 2011 بظلاله على الأحداث كلها مع مخاوف الموت وأسئلة حول الهوية، واستكشاف تعقيدات نظام تسجيل الأسرة في اليابان الذي لولاه لما كانت كتابة هذه الرواية ممكنة.
القضية التي يتسلمها كيدو تجبره على التفكير أكثر في من هو، ومن يريد أن يكون، إنه زوج وأب ومحامي وياباني ومن الجيل الثالث من عائلة كورية مقيمة في اليابان. لا يواجه صعوبات ولا يعاني من تمييز صريح، لكن ليس هناك شك في أن جزءً من هويته له تأثير عليه، ويرفض بشدّة أن يتم تصنفيه ووضعه ضمن فئة ما ويحكم عليه بموجبها وبمعزل عن كل ما سواها:
"It’s unbearable to have your identity summed up by one thing and one thing only and for other people to have control over what that is."
في الرواية نقضي وقتًا طويلًا مع عائلة الرجل الذي كان يحمل اسم دايسوكي تانيغوتشي، زوجته ريو وطفليها. ريو التي كان هذا زواجها الثاني عاشت معه حياة سعيدة حتى وفاته لكن يحزنها أنها لم تعد تعرفه وهكذا استعانت بالمحامي كيدو.
هذه رواية عميقة وشاملة وتطرح أسئلة كثيرة متعلقة بالهويّة، والجدل السياسي حول العنصرية والتاريخ، لكنها تركز كثيرًا على ا��إنسان، ما الذي يجعل حياته ذات معنى حقًا، وما الذي يتركه وراءه بعد أن يرحل عن هذا العالم.
هي واحدة من تلك الروايات التي تستحق مراجعات مستفيضة.
ووصلني أن الرواية ترجمت إلى العربية على يد المترجم ميسرة عفيفي وستصدر قريبًا.
June 10, 2020
I don't know why there isn't more attention being paid to this book in the U.S. Keiichirō Hirano is an award winning author in Japan, well known for his philosophical TED talks, and yet this is his first novel to be translated for English speakers. Rich in content, it holds the reader from the very first page not only because of its dual set of mysteries, but also because of its insights into the Japanese culture. I first became aware of the difficulties faced by Korean inhabitants in Japan through the wonderful novel Pachinko, and here there is an expansion of that theme. Through Kido, the attorney at the center of the novel, we learn of the process of identity, not only with the central storyline, but also with other cases he handles. So many thought-provoking quotes, but I'll just give one: "It's unbearable to have your identity summed up by one thing and one thing only and for other people to have control over what that is."
September 16, 2021
“Kido suspected that he envied and admired X for being able to discard his past and start anew. Otherwise, there was no satisfactory way to explain his interest in the man. Kido told himself that this desire, the wish to experience the life of another, was not exclusive to those who had lost all hope in the present. It was perfectly normal, an inevitable response to the human predicament, to our entrapment within a single, finite existence.”
This is a well-crafted story about a lawyer, Akira Kido, seeking to help a widow find out the real identity of her husband, whom Kido calls X. Her husband had been living under another person’s name. In the process of his research, we learn of his Kido’s personal life and his struggles to repair his broken marriage.
It is a well-written literary mystery. It is a quiet, reflective novel, with deep emphasis on character. It explores identity, memory, mortality, and the gap between the lives we lead and the lives we desire to lead. It also examines the racial history of conflict between Koreans and Japanese. The mystery is the thread that pulls the reader along, drawing on curiosity. Who were these people and why did they desire to lead other lives? It includes multiple layers of intrigue and engages the brain.
I think the reader needs to know it is a mystery but not a thriller. There is little danger to the main characters and there is not much action. The main draw is the writing. I read the English translation by Eli K.P. William. This is my type of book. It has enough of a plot to hold interest, contains deeply drawn characters, and illuminates aspects of human existence in the world. I absolutely loved it. I am adding it to my favorites and plan to read more of Hirano’s works.
“It’s unbearable to have your identity summed up by one thing and one thing only and for other people to have control over what that is.”
This is a well-crafted story about a lawyer, Akira Kido, seeking to help a widow find out the real identity of her husband, whom Kido calls X. Her husband had been living under another person’s name. In the process of his research, we learn of his Kido’s personal life and his struggles to repair his broken marriage.
It is a well-written literary mystery. It is a quiet, reflective novel, with deep emphasis on character. It explores identity, memory, mortality, and the gap between the lives we lead and the lives we desire to lead. It also examines the racial history of conflict between Koreans and Japanese. The mystery is the thread that pulls the reader along, drawing on curiosity. Who were these people and why did they desire to lead other lives? It includes multiple layers of intrigue and engages the brain.
I think the reader needs to know it is a mystery but not a thriller. There is little danger to the main characters and there is not much action. The main draw is the writing. I read the English translation by Eli K.P. William. This is my type of book. It has enough of a plot to hold interest, contains deeply drawn characters, and illuminates aspects of human existence in the world. I absolutely loved it. I am adding it to my favorites and plan to read more of Hirano’s works.
“It’s unbearable to have your identity summed up by one thing and one thing only and for other people to have control over what that is.”
August 9, 2024
นิยายที่ถ้าฟังจากพล็อต การจากไปด้วยอุบัติเหตุของสามี แล้วทางสามีขอให้ไม่บอกการตายของตัวเองต่อครอบครัว พอ 1 ปีผ่านไปภรรยาก็คิดว่าควรจะบอก ปรากฏว่าพี่ชายสามีเดินทางมาแล้วเห็นภาพของสามีแล้วบอกว่าคนๆ นี้ ไม่ใช่น้องชายของผม ตอนอ่านคำโปรยก็คิดแหละว่าต้องเป็นนิยายสืบสวนสอบสวนที่เดินเรื่องฉับๆ มีหักมุม มีความลับดำมืดแอบซ่อนแล้วรอเปิดโปงอยู่ท้ายเล่มแน่ๆ แต่พออ่านแล้วไม่ใช่เลย
ชายนิรนาม ใช้วิธีการเล่าเรื่องแนวสืบสวนสอบสวนมาใช้ในการเล่าประเด็นปรัชญาได้อย่างชาญฉลาด ตอนอ่านเราเหมือนถูกปะทะด้วยคำถามเชิงปรัชญามากมาย ไม่ว่าจะ ตัวตนของเราเกิดขึ้นได้จากอะไร หากเราไร้ซึ่งความทรงจำ เรายังเป็นเราอยู่ไหม ไปจนถึงหากได้สับเปลี่ยนชื่อและเราเอาตัวตนแล้วพ่วงเอาอดีตของคนๆ นั้นมาด้วย จะถือว่าเราประหนึ่งกลายเป็นผู้ที่เราสับเปลี่ยนชีวิตด้วยหรือเปล่า หรือกลายเป็นคนใหม่ได้จริงๆ ใช่ไหม ซึ่งเราชอบประเด็นนี้
ตอนอ่านเราเหมือนค่อยๆ ทำความรู้จักผ่านการสืบสวนของทนายคิโดะที่ค่อยๆ พาผู้อ่านรับรู้เรื่องราวของสามีที่ตายไปพร้อมๆ กับเขา เลยรู้สึกชื่นชอบชื่อหนังสือฉบับแปลไทย มันแบบชายนิรนามจริงๆ เราจะค่อยๆ ได้รับรู้เรื่องราวในอดีต เหตุผลในการสับเปลี่ยนชื่อ ความสัมพันธ์กับครอบครัว คนรอบข้าง ไปจนถึงความเป็นครอบครัวก่อนที่สามีจะประสบอุบัติเหตุตายจากไป จนท้ายสุดแล้วความนิรนามก็จางหายไป และเราผูกพันกับตัวละครตัวนี้ไปเสียแล้ว
ชอบอีกที่เรื่องราวไม่ได้เล่าเพียงเส้นเรื่องของสามีเส้นเดียว แต่เล่าเรื่องของทนายคิโดะ+ภรรยาของสามีที่ตายอย่างริเอะด้วย พอมีหลายเส้นเรื่องแล้ว หลายผู้คน นอกจากจะเสริมประเด็นเดิมให้แข็งแรงและเห็นมิติที่กว้างแล้ว ก็ยังมีประเด็นใหม่ๆ (อย่างชาติพันธุ์กำเนิด) ที่ผู้เขียนวางหมากให้เราได้ขบคิดระหว่างการอ่านเรื่อยๆ เลย เราชอบประเด็นเรื่องครอบครัว รู้สึกว่าผู้เขียนเขียนถึง รู้สึกเล่นกับใจจนรู้สึกซึ้งและใจหายในหลายๆ ฉาก ทั้งในแง่ความสัมพันธ์ที่ระหองระแหงของทนายคิโดะกับภรรยา การได้พบเจอรักใหม่แต่ก็ต้องหยุดไว้เท่านั้น เพราะมีความเป็นครอบครัว มีลูกเป็นกรอบและบ่วงที่เราต้องทำหน้าที่พ่อ ในขณะเดียวกันทางฝั่งริเอะภรรยาเองก็มีลูกติดกับสามีคนเก่าที่ไม่ใช่ผู้ตาย แต่รักและผูกพันกับตัวตนที่สร้างใหม่ของชายนิรนามนับถือให้เป็นพ่อมากกว่าพ่อทางสายเลือดเสียด้วยซ้ำ
การเล่าอาจจะมีช่วงเนือยๆ บ้าง แต่รวมๆ แล้วรู้สึกได้อ่านงานที่เอาความเป็นสืบสวนสอบสวนมาเป็นลูกเล่นใช้เล่าเรื่องเชิงปรัชญาได้เข้าท่าดี แถมแปลดีด้วย เชียร์ให้หามาอ่านกัน
ชายนิรนาม ใช้วิธีการเล่าเรื่องแนวสืบสวนสอบสวนมาใช้ในการเล่าประเด็นปรัชญาได้อย่างชาญฉลาด ตอนอ่านเราเหมือนถูกปะทะด้วยคำถามเชิงปรัชญามากมาย ไม่ว่าจะ ตัวตนของเราเกิดขึ้นได้จากอะไร หากเราไร้ซึ่งความทรงจำ เรายังเป็นเราอยู่ไหม ไปจนถึงหากได้สับเปลี่ยนชื่อและเราเอาตัวตนแล้วพ่วงเอาอดีตของคนๆ นั้นมาด้วย จะถือว่าเราประหนึ่งกลายเป็นผู้ที่เราสับเปลี่ยนชีวิตด้วยหรือเปล่า หรือกลายเป็นคนใหม่ได้จริงๆ ใช่ไหม ซึ่งเราชอบประเด็นนี้
ตอนอ่านเราเหมือนค่อยๆ ทำความรู้จักผ่านการสืบสวนของทนายคิโดะที่ค่อยๆ พาผู้อ่านรับรู้เรื่องราวของสามีที่ตายไปพร้อมๆ กับเขา เลยรู้สึกชื่นชอบชื่อหนังสือฉบับแปลไทย มันแบบชายนิรนามจริงๆ เราจะค่อยๆ ได้รับรู้เรื่องราวในอดีต เหตุผลในการสับเปลี่ยนชื่อ ความสัมพันธ์กับครอบครัว คนรอบข้าง ไปจนถึงความเป็นครอบครัวก่อนที่สามีจะประสบอุบัติเหตุตายจากไป จนท้ายสุดแล้วความนิรนามก็จางหายไป และเราผูกพันกับตัวละครตัวนี้ไปเสียแล้ว
ชอบอีกที่เรื่องราวไม่ได้เล่าเพียงเส้นเรื่องของสามีเส้นเดียว แต่เล่าเรื่องของทนายคิโดะ+ภรรยาของสามีที่ตายอย่างริเอะด้วย พอมีหลายเส้นเรื่องแล้ว หลายผู้คน นอกจากจะเสริมประเด็นเดิมให้แข็งแรงและเห็นมิติที่กว้างแล้ว ก็ยังมีประเด็นใหม่ๆ (อย่างชาติพันธุ์กำเนิด) ที่ผู้เขียนวางหมากให้เราได้ขบคิดระหว่างการอ่านเรื่อยๆ เลย เราชอบประเด็นเรื่องครอบครัว รู้สึกว่าผู้เขียนเขียนถึง รู้สึกเล่นกับใจจนรู้สึกซึ้งและใจหายในหลายๆ ฉาก ทั้งในแง่ความสัมพันธ์ที่ระหองระแหงของทนายคิโดะกับภรรยา การได้พบเจอรักใหม่แต่ก็ต้องหยุดไว้เท่านั้น เพราะมีความเป็นครอบครัว มีลูกเป็นกรอบและบ่วงที่เราต้องทำหน้าที่พ่อ ในขณะเดียวกันทางฝั่งริเอะภรรยาเองก็มีลูกติดกับสามีคนเก่าที่ไม่ใช่ผู้ตาย แต่รักและผูกพันกับตัวตนที่สร้างใหม่ของชายนิรนามนับถือให้เป็นพ่อมากกว่าพ่อทางสายเลือดเสียด้วยซ้ำ
การเล่าอาจจะมีช่วงเนือยๆ บ้าง แต่รวมๆ แล้วรู้สึกได้อ่านงานที่เอาความเป็นสืบสวนสอบสวนมาเป็นลูกเล่นใช้เล่าเรื่องเชิงปรัชญาได้เข้าท่าดี แถมแปลดีด้วย เชียร์ให้หามาอ่านกัน
February 17, 2022
Recently I read The Midnight Library where the patron could choose a book that explored what life would have been like if they'd made a different decision at some point along their life. In this book we discover that people have changed identities, sometime multiple times. As time goes by, what are your connections? Are you still you if you take a new name and backstory? What about the people who become you and interact with people you knew or only meet after they became you? Are you still related or bear responsibilities to people in your old life? It's mindbending to consider identity in these terms, but profound too the way that Hirano explores these themes. Who we were in the past and who we are in the present, who remembers us, either while we're living or once we die, is probed in a deeply engaging way as a divorce lawyer investigates the death of man who had married a former client. Masterfully done and beautifully written. (Translated from the Japanese by Eli William)
April 24, 2020
This book reminded me very much of Citizen Kane... and there can be very few bigger compliments I could pay a piece of art.
(Full review soon on my blog)
(Full review soon on my blog)
June 3, 2020
Oh boy. Here we go. While I was very intrigued by the plot of the story throughout, the narration really ruined the experience for me. Maybe some of the original charm was lost in translation, but the narration of A Man comes across monotonous and uninterested. The juxtaposition between the thrilling storyline and the bland prose was jarring, to say the least. Further, there was no thrill of discovery, no solving the mystery simultaneously with the narrator. It was more like "Then I found out the truth of this man's identity and I'll tell you how it happened."
Around 20% in I resorted to speed-reading, verging on skimming. I forced my way to the end to find out the truth of the mystery, but it took a lot of irrelevant blathering on the narrator's part to get there. On top of this, there were way too many characters and backstories to keep track of. Half the time I couldn't remember who was who and how they played into the plot.
Maybe I'm missing the deeper, philosophical point of the story, but I came here for a psychological crime novel, not a nobody, third-generation-Korean lawyer dissecting the subtle nuances of racism in modern Japan. I wouldn't mind reading such a story, but not when I was enticed into it believing it to be a mystery. Do you get what I mean?
To sum up my feelings on A Man I'll use a metaphor: this story is grape juice when it could have been wine.
(Also, I'm still confused. Is this fiction or is this based on true events? I genuinely cannot figure it out.)
POPSUGAR 2020 Reading Challenge: (Advanced) A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics
Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge A book related to the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Japan
Around 20% in I resorted to speed-reading, verging on skimming. I forced my way to the end to find out the truth of the mystery, but it took a lot of irrelevant blathering on the narrator's part to get there. On top of this, there were way too many characters and backstories to keep track of. Half the time I couldn't remember who was who and how they played into the plot.
Maybe I'm missing the deeper, philosophical point of the story, but I came here for a psychological crime novel, not a nobody, third-generation-Korean lawyer dissecting the subtle nuances of racism in modern Japan. I wouldn't mind reading such a story, but not when I was enticed into it believing it to be a mystery. Do you get what I mean?
To sum up my feelings on A Man I'll use a metaphor: this story is grape juice when it could have been wine.
(Also, I'm still confused. Is this fiction or is this based on true events? I genuinely cannot figure it out.)
POPSUGAR 2020 Reading Challenge: (Advanced) A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics
Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge A book related to the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Japan
October 11, 2022
An interesting book, though I found the writing a little odd, often stilted, generally unemotional, the main character, Kido, is often going into "reveries," and wonder whether that's how it was written in Japanese, or it's a result of the translation, I have no way to know. There's an emotional flatness I'm not sure was intended, and as a result it's hard to really burrow into the story or the characters. The synopsis fully explains the plot.
April 11, 2022
Kido Akira vertrat vor einigen Jahren als Scheidungsanwalt die junge Rie, deren Ehe durch die plötzliche unheilbare Krankheit ihres jüngsten Sohns zerbrochen war. Rie wendet sich wieder an Kido, nachdem ihr zweiter Mann durch einen Arbeitsunfall stirbt und sein Bruder konsterniert feststellt, dass der Mann ein Fremder war, der sich hier Taniguchi Daisuke nannte. Kido fühlt sich Rie nicht nur aufgrund ihres tragischen Schicksals besonders verpflichtet und weil der verunglückte "Mister X" so alt war wie Kido selbst, sondern auch, weil sie dringend seine Hilfe als Anwalt benötigt. Ihr verstorbener Mann kann nicht begraben werden, solange man nicht weiß, wer er war. Wenn Rie die Ehe annullieren lassen würde, wäre die kleine Hana ein uneheliches Kind – mit unerwarteten Folgen. Schlimmer noch, der ältere Bruder Yūto dürfte nicht mehr den Namen seines sozialen Vaters tragen, der sich liebevoll um den Jungen gekümmert hatte.
Zum Ärger seiner Ehefrau vergräbt sich Kido tiefer in den ungewöhnlichen Fall einer falschen Identität, als es sein Anwaltsmandat erfordern würde. Kido gehört zur dritten Generation koreanischer Einwanderer in Japan. Als Oberschüler hatte er die japanische Staatsbürgerschaft beantragt und einen japanischen Namen angenommen; seine koreanischen Vorfahren waren für ihn bisher kein Thema. Die Eltern sprachen nicht darüber, und anlässlich Kidos standesgemäßer Heirat wurde schamhaft unter den Teppich gekehrt, dass seine Großmutter nach koreanischen Traditionen lebt. Schließlich sollte Kido dankbar dafür sein, dass sein Schwiegervater ihn als „fast richtigen Japaner“ lobte. Erst kürzlich war sich Kido bewusst geworden, dass rassistische Einstellungen in Japan rasant zunehmen und ihn in eine Schublade stecken, in der er sich niemals gesehen hatte. Die Vorstellung, dass jemand seine Identität wie ein Kleidungsstück ablegen und an einem entfernten Ort ein neues Glück finden könnte, elektrisiert Kido. Seine Ehe, seine Rolle als Vater, sein Berufs-Ethos, alles was Kido bisher ausmachte, steht für ihn nun plötzlich auf dem Prüfstand.
Die Rolle des Taniguchi Daisuke, der auf der Insel Kyūshū dieses Glück erlebte, und die Kido aufgedrängte Identität als unerwünschter Einwanderer fügen sich zusammen wie Negativ und Positiv eines Fotos. Kido recherchiert geduldig, wo der Mann geblieben sein kann, dessen Identität Mister X benutzte. Dabei wird er mit einer erstarrten Gesellschaft konfrontiert, die ihre Werte nur durch Ausgrenzung von Individuen erhalten kann. Archaische Rollenbilder machen Männer wie Frauen unglücklich. Das Erdbeben und der Tsunami von 2011 haben das Land tief verunsichert und gerade in Familien wie den Kidos Abstiegsängste geweckt. Das männliche Ego scheint durch den Umbruch besonders verletzlich zu sein.
Keiichirō Hirano gibt seiner spannenden Spurensuche den Rahmen, er als Autor hätte Kido-san in einer Bar kennengelernt und so von seinem ungewöhnlichen Fall erfahren. Sachlich und empathisch zugleich verknüpft er Schicksale, die kaum einen Leser unberührt lassen werden. Kidos Spurensuche findet statt vor der Folie einer alternden Gesellschaft, in der Einwanderung auf breiten Wiederstand trifft, Arbeitnehmer sich aus Überforderung das Leben nehmen – und wo noch immer die Todesstrafe vollstreckt wird. Wie im Krimi habe ich in „Das Leben eines Anderen“ zunächst an meiner Wahrnehmung gezweifelt und mich gefragt, wohin der reale Taniguchi Daisuke verschwunden sein könnte.
Lesern von Keigo Higashino oder Kanae Minato empfohlen.
Zum Ärger seiner Ehefrau vergräbt sich Kido tiefer in den ungewöhnlichen Fall einer falschen Identität, als es sein Anwaltsmandat erfordern würde. Kido gehört zur dritten Generation koreanischer Einwanderer in Japan. Als Oberschüler hatte er die japanische Staatsbürgerschaft beantragt und einen japanischen Namen angenommen; seine koreanischen Vorfahren waren für ihn bisher kein Thema. Die Eltern sprachen nicht darüber, und anlässlich Kidos standesgemäßer Heirat wurde schamhaft unter den Teppich gekehrt, dass seine Großmutter nach koreanischen Traditionen lebt. Schließlich sollte Kido dankbar dafür sein, dass sein Schwiegervater ihn als „fast richtigen Japaner“ lobte. Erst kürzlich war sich Kido bewusst geworden, dass rassistische Einstellungen in Japan rasant zunehmen und ihn in eine Schublade stecken, in der er sich niemals gesehen hatte. Die Vorstellung, dass jemand seine Identität wie ein Kleidungsstück ablegen und an einem entfernten Ort ein neues Glück finden könnte, elektrisiert Kido. Seine Ehe, seine Rolle als Vater, sein Berufs-Ethos, alles was Kido bisher ausmachte, steht für ihn nun plötzlich auf dem Prüfstand.
Die Rolle des Taniguchi Daisuke, der auf der Insel Kyūshū dieses Glück erlebte, und die Kido aufgedrängte Identität als unerwünschter Einwanderer fügen sich zusammen wie Negativ und Positiv eines Fotos. Kido recherchiert geduldig, wo der Mann geblieben sein kann, dessen Identität Mister X benutzte. Dabei wird er mit einer erstarrten Gesellschaft konfrontiert, die ihre Werte nur durch Ausgrenzung von Individuen erhalten kann. Archaische Rollenbilder machen Männer wie Frauen unglücklich. Das Erdbeben und der Tsunami von 2011 haben das Land tief verunsichert und gerade in Familien wie den Kidos Abstiegsängste geweckt. Das männliche Ego scheint durch den Umbruch besonders verletzlich zu sein.
Keiichirō Hirano gibt seiner spannenden Spurensuche den Rahmen, er als Autor hätte Kido-san in einer Bar kennengelernt und so von seinem ungewöhnlichen Fall erfahren. Sachlich und empathisch zugleich verknüpft er Schicksale, die kaum einen Leser unberührt lassen werden. Kidos Spurensuche findet statt vor der Folie einer alternden Gesellschaft, in der Einwanderung auf breiten Wiederstand trifft, Arbeitnehmer sich aus Überforderung das Leben nehmen – und wo noch immer die Todesstrafe vollstreckt wird. Wie im Krimi habe ich in „Das Leben eines Anderen“ zunächst an meiner Wahrnehmung gezweifelt und mich gefragt, wohin der reale Taniguchi Daisuke verschwunden sein könnte.
Lesern von Keigo Higashino oder Kanae Minato empfohlen.
September 12, 2022
An instantly captivating mystery, which in unfolding became increasingly so, revealing itself a more intricate philosophical exploration on individual identity.
While the language felt quite stiff at times, this was likely due to translation and linguistic relativity, and went easily unnoticed once the full complexity of the widely resonant themes took the center stage.
A fascinating contemplation on the forces influencing one's inner reflection of self and ability to love.
"It's unbearable to have your identity summed up by one thing and one thing only and for other people to have control over what that is."
_____
Reading updates.
While the language felt quite stiff at times, this was likely due to translation and linguistic relativity, and went easily unnoticed once the full complexity of the widely resonant themes took the center stage.
A fascinating contemplation on the forces influencing one's inner reflection of self and ability to love.
"It's unbearable to have your identity summed up by one thing and one thing only and for other people to have control over what that is."
_____
Reading updates.
June 4, 2020
Thought -provoking
This novel examines the nature of identity. The author moves in concentric circles, expanding outward in wide swaths from the original point of self. The narrative is the vehicle for the philosophical search of "Who am I?" Is the sum of our identity gained from familial belonging, in the roles we play in relation to others, our socio-economic class, our profession, our nationality, our ethnicity? Does our identity change due to experiences which shape us?
The author dives into all of these questions, but the overriding areas of key interest to him are: can we take on the identity of another, are we who we think we are or are we more accurately known by how others see us, and in the search for another can we also learn more about ourselves?
The story is a good one, but it's the introspection, the philosophical nature of the protagonist, which gripped me.
This novel examines the nature of identity. The author moves in concentric circles, expanding outward in wide swaths from the original point of self. The narrative is the vehicle for the philosophical search of "Who am I?" Is the sum of our identity gained from familial belonging, in the roles we play in relation to others, our socio-economic class, our profession, our nationality, our ethnicity? Does our identity change due to experiences which shape us?
The author dives into all of these questions, but the overriding areas of key interest to him are: can we take on the identity of another, are we who we think we are or are we more accurately known by how others see us, and in the search for another can we also learn more about ourselves?
The story is a good one, but it's the introspection, the philosophical nature of the protagonist, which gripped me.
August 7, 2020
A literary thriller that just failed to thrill me. I really liked the premise, the mystery of an identity theft and how all the threads in the novel relate to aspects of identity. The execution, however, was slow, and I found myself unable to read more than a couple of chapters in any one sitting before turning to another book. A positive experience , but one that was also a struggle.
May 8, 2020
’I have always thought of writing novels that, rather than making people's hands unable to stop turning to the next page, are so immersive that a reader would want to bask in it forever, in a state of both wanting and not wanting to turn to the next page’
That statement is from Keiichiro Hirano’s website. It’s a statement that perfectly sums up, for me, Haruki Murakami novels.
To compere Hirano to Murakami is probably unfair, because Murakami is one of my favourite novelists of all time. He does however, like Murakami, feature music, specifically Jazz. No opera though, or cats. I did find myself listening to Masabumi Kichuchi a lot after reading this!
Does Hirano achieve the aim of his statement in A Man? Well yes I think he does. I loved his style, very subtle emotionally, something I find in Murakami’s work. He also has a fine eye for detail. There is a scene where one of the characters, Kido, is thinking of having a few drinks in a bar when a Masabumi Kichuchi piano solo comes on, ‘The tempo seemed to slowly dismantle time, each note a clear droplet that fell and spread overlapping ripples through the silent interior.’ I loved that description. Even though you may not have heard Kichuchi, you feel as if you can almost hear the music in your head.
A slight criticism is that the style isn’t consistent. This could be down to the translation, I notice this was mentioned in another review and I agree there were parts where it was a bit ‘chunky’ and didn’t flow smoothly. But this is a minor criticism and doesn’t deter you from enjoying the book.
The story is about mortality and identity. What is it that defines you? We all at times look at other people and think their lives are better, what would it be like if you could live their lives? ‘But how would you achieve this? ‘Could mendacious sincerity, consummately performed, be the ultimate deception.’
Hirano also covers heavy topics such racism and the death penalty. In fact he packs an awful lot into just under 300 pages (on the Kindle version). There is an awful lot to think about. On top of this A Man is also a detective story and is quite complex and dark.
The story concerns Rie Takemoto, who’s second husband, Daisuke Taniguchi is killed in a logging accident. He had told her never to contact his family if he died, but after a year she writes to his mother.
After this his brother arrives and it is discovered that the man who Rie had been married to was not all he seemed. This is the basis of the story but not all of it. It is multi layered.
Rie employs a lawyer, Kido, to unravel the mystery of Daisuke. Most of the book is centred around him. He too has identity problems. He becomes obsessed with the story of Rie’s husband, who he refers to as X.
There is a lot of information given by Hirano about Japanese law, the family register system and Korean racism within Japan. It also deals with psychology and what makes us who we are. This may be too cerebral for some, but I didn’t find this. I found it entertaining and interesting, and at times yes, I did linger on a page wanting and not wanting to turn the page. I found at the end I had highlighted a considerable amount of the text. Text that I wanted to go back and read again.
Despite my minor criticism I was impressed by A Man, so much so that I look forward to more translations of Keiichiro Hirano’s books. It’s beautifully written, It’s not an edge of your seat thriller but it is a good detective novel.
That statement is from Keiichiro Hirano’s website. It’s a statement that perfectly sums up, for me, Haruki Murakami novels.
To compere Hirano to Murakami is probably unfair, because Murakami is one of my favourite novelists of all time. He does however, like Murakami, feature music, specifically Jazz. No opera though, or cats. I did find myself listening to Masabumi Kichuchi a lot after reading this!
Does Hirano achieve the aim of his statement in A Man? Well yes I think he does. I loved his style, very subtle emotionally, something I find in Murakami’s work. He also has a fine eye for detail. There is a scene where one of the characters, Kido, is thinking of having a few drinks in a bar when a Masabumi Kichuchi piano solo comes on, ‘The tempo seemed to slowly dismantle time, each note a clear droplet that fell and spread overlapping ripples through the silent interior.’ I loved that description. Even though you may not have heard Kichuchi, you feel as if you can almost hear the music in your head.
A slight criticism is that the style isn’t consistent. This could be down to the translation, I notice this was mentioned in another review and I agree there were parts where it was a bit ‘chunky’ and didn’t flow smoothly. But this is a minor criticism and doesn’t deter you from enjoying the book.
The story is about mortality and identity. What is it that defines you? We all at times look at other people and think their lives are better, what would it be like if you could live their lives? ‘But how would you achieve this? ‘Could mendacious sincerity, consummately performed, be the ultimate deception.’
Hirano also covers heavy topics such racism and the death penalty. In fact he packs an awful lot into just under 300 pages (on the Kindle version). There is an awful lot to think about. On top of this A Man is also a detective story and is quite complex and dark.
The story concerns Rie Takemoto, who’s second husband, Daisuke Taniguchi is killed in a logging accident. He had told her never to contact his family if he died, but after a year she writes to his mother.
After this his brother arrives and it is discovered that the man who Rie had been married to was not all he seemed. This is the basis of the story but not all of it. It is multi layered.
Rie employs a lawyer, Kido, to unravel the mystery of Daisuke. Most of the book is centred around him. He too has identity problems. He becomes obsessed with the story of Rie’s husband, who he refers to as X.
There is a lot of information given by Hirano about Japanese law, the family register system and Korean racism within Japan. It also deals with psychology and what makes us who we are. This may be too cerebral for some, but I didn’t find this. I found it entertaining and interesting, and at times yes, I did linger on a page wanting and not wanting to turn the page. I found at the end I had highlighted a considerable amount of the text. Text that I wanted to go back and read again.
Despite my minor criticism I was impressed by A Man, so much so that I look forward to more translations of Keiichiro Hirano’s books. It’s beautifully written, It’s not an edge of your seat thriller but it is a good detective novel.
May 11, 2020
In the West, when a person seeks a new identity, it’s usually for profit. We call that identity theft. In Japan, where honor means a lot more than it does in the West, people also can be moved to seek a new identity because of shame. In THE MAN, Hirano gives us a fascinating detective story that revolves around that uniquely Japanese motivation. In this instance, a character wants to conceal his familial criminal background, while the obsessed inquisitor struggles with his own shame from passing as Japanese while actually being Korean.
Akiro Kido is a lawyer, specializing in civil matters, who is enlisted by a former client to discover who her recently deceased husband was and why he had switched identities with another man. Of course, Kido has skeletons in his own closet, so the lure of this challenge is understandable. As Kido steps through the looking glass into the underworld of identity switching, Hirano gives the reader a wonderfully complex story with backstories on the switchers and Kido, as well as explorations of familial dysfunctions and the psychosocial issues that can drive such behavior.
This translation is not an easy read mainly because of the multilayered nature of the plot, along with a Westerner’s unfamiliarity with Japanese legal precedents and names. Yet a persistent reader is rewarded with a compelling page-turner, complete with a satisfying conclusion and insights into universal themes of racism, memory and ancestral legacy.
Akiro Kido is a lawyer, specializing in civil matters, who is enlisted by a former client to discover who her recently deceased husband was and why he had switched identities with another man. Of course, Kido has skeletons in his own closet, so the lure of this challenge is understandable. As Kido steps through the looking glass into the underworld of identity switching, Hirano gives the reader a wonderfully complex story with backstories on the switchers and Kido, as well as explorations of familial dysfunctions and the psychosocial issues that can drive such behavior.
This translation is not an easy read mainly because of the multilayered nature of the plot, along with a Westerner’s unfamiliarity with Japanese legal precedents and names. Yet a persistent reader is rewarded with a compelling page-turner, complete with a satisfying conclusion and insights into universal themes of racism, memory and ancestral legacy.
July 28, 2023
I enjoyed reading this book even though it took me some time to finish it. The older I get, the more I lose my ability to appreciate Haruki Murakami's work. Reading Hirano's work was so refreshing. Since I don't read as many Japanese novels as I'd like to (since there aren't enough Japanese novels translated to English to choose from anyway) - I couldn't stop myself from comparing this to Murakami's. I found Hirano's female/women characters more complex and 'real', whilst Murakami tends to fetishise and sexualise his female/more feminine characters.
I think more than a 'mystery' novel, it's more about a series of different identity crises. It explores how one is comfortable/uncomfortable in one's skin. And the 'bodies' or identity we choose to stay with or change. It may be a little confusing in the beginning but it gets better towards the end.
“He said it grossed him out so bad to think that his father’s blood ran in his veins that he wanted to scratch himself open and scrape his own body off. You could never make love to someone if you saw your body like that, now could you?”
Without giving away too much, the excerpt above was said of one of the characters who tried to kill himself twice, and then decided to live his life as someone new without any attachments to his past. The novel ricochets between a more metropolitan setting and a quiet town(s). I liked how the quieter/more peaceful landscapes were described.
“I’d say we cut them at about fifty. After that, they become building materials and last another fifty as a house. So I think of each tree in terms of about a hundred years. Fifty years on the mountain and fifty years with people. That’s what I tell our workers too.”
I lingered along these lines for a bit after reading it. Thinking about the relationship between humans x nature in general. Perhaps it was because of my state of mind when I was reading it. I had wanted to get my door replaced last week, but the guy who came over to fix it told me that I should reconsider it. He convinced me to keep it instead - after he gave it a new coat of weather-proof paint or something like that - and changed the locks. It looks new, but it's essentially still old wood.
And that leads me to this bit in the later bit of the book that I like as well :
“I mean, it’s not as if you love someone once and that’s it. You renew your love again and again over the long haul, through everything that happens along the way.”
The excerpt above is rather ironic in the book though. But when taken out of context, it is appreciate-able on its own in a different way.
“The problem of whether Kido was personally embroiled in Zainichi issues was clearly no simple matter. Since he had grown up almost entirely as a “Japanese person” even before he naturalised, he was profoundly uneasy with the idea that he was either a direct victim or perpetuator of the troubles that beset Korean enclaves. ”
The main character struggles with his own identity because of something he didn't and couldn't even have chosen. He could change his life if he wanted to but in my opinion - he was afraid of change because he felt that it would be less meaningful because he was not exactly 'young' anymore (so spending that effort to change would not be that worthwhile?). Also, with regards to the bit when he was contemplating that state of his marriage - I felt like by choosing to stay in the marriage because he thinks that it'd be best for his son is both unreasonable/unfair to his son and to himself. Rie (his client whose case he's working on) on the other hand - chose herself and her own 'happiness' when it came to her marital dilemmas; and by doing that - she was able to provide herself and her son the life that they both deserve. For some reason it reminded me of the line in Junichiro Tanizaki's 'Some Prefer Nettles' : “Each worm to his taste; some prefer to eat nettles.”
The reason I only gave it 3 stars was because I didn't think it entertained me enough since I took a while to finish the book. Also, the plot/story lines were a bit tangled/disorganised (even though I think the writer had done that intentionally for an 'effect' he was trying to achieve/give to the novel) - and it distracted me more than anything. Also, I personally wanted the story to finish a little differently. Regardless, I'm keen to read more of Hirano's work because I think he's a rather interesting writer.
I think more than a 'mystery' novel, it's more about a series of different identity crises. It explores how one is comfortable/uncomfortable in one's skin. And the 'bodies' or identity we choose to stay with or change. It may be a little confusing in the beginning but it gets better towards the end.
“He said it grossed him out so bad to think that his father’s blood ran in his veins that he wanted to scratch himself open and scrape his own body off. You could never make love to someone if you saw your body like that, now could you?”
Without giving away too much, the excerpt above was said of one of the characters who tried to kill himself twice, and then decided to live his life as someone new without any attachments to his past. The novel ricochets between a more metropolitan setting and a quiet town(s). I liked how the quieter/more peaceful landscapes were described.
“I’d say we cut them at about fifty. After that, they become building materials and last another fifty as a house. So I think of each tree in terms of about a hundred years. Fifty years on the mountain and fifty years with people. That’s what I tell our workers too.”
I lingered along these lines for a bit after reading it. Thinking about the relationship between humans x nature in general. Perhaps it was because of my state of mind when I was reading it. I had wanted to get my door replaced last week, but the guy who came over to fix it told me that I should reconsider it. He convinced me to keep it instead - after he gave it a new coat of weather-proof paint or something like that - and changed the locks. It looks new, but it's essentially still old wood.
And that leads me to this bit in the later bit of the book that I like as well :
“I mean, it’s not as if you love someone once and that’s it. You renew your love again and again over the long haul, through everything that happens along the way.”
The excerpt above is rather ironic in the book though. But when taken out of context, it is appreciate-able on its own in a different way.
“The problem of whether Kido was personally embroiled in Zainichi issues was clearly no simple matter. Since he had grown up almost entirely as a “Japanese person” even before he naturalised, he was profoundly uneasy with the idea that he was either a direct victim or perpetuator of the troubles that beset Korean enclaves. ”
The main character struggles with his own identity because of something he didn't and couldn't even have chosen. He could change his life if he wanted to but in my opinion - he was afraid of change because he felt that it would be less meaningful because he was not exactly 'young' anymore (so spending that effort to change would not be that worthwhile?). Also, with regards to the bit when he was contemplating that state of his marriage - I felt like by choosing to stay in the marriage because he thinks that it'd be best for his son is both unreasonable/unfair to his son and to himself. Rie (his client whose case he's working on) on the other hand - chose herself and her own 'happiness' when it came to her marital dilemmas; and by doing that - she was able to provide herself and her son the life that they both deserve. For some reason it reminded me of the line in Junichiro Tanizaki's 'Some Prefer Nettles' : “Each worm to his taste; some prefer to eat nettles.”
The reason I only gave it 3 stars was because I didn't think it entertained me enough since I took a while to finish the book. Also, the plot/story lines were a bit tangled/disorganised (even though I think the writer had done that intentionally for an 'effect' he was trying to achieve/give to the novel) - and it distracted me more than anything. Also, I personally wanted the story to finish a little differently. Regardless, I'm keen to read more of Hirano's work because I think he's a rather interesting writer.
January 1, 2023
"There is a certain kind of loneliness that can only be soothed by finding yourself within the tale of another’s trauma.”
From A MAN by Keiichiro Hirano, translated from the Japanese by Eli K.P. William, 2018.
#JanuaryinJapan #ReadtheWorld21
A mystery is at the heart of A MAN, but this story is perhaps better thought of as a philosophical exploration of identity and longing.
An accidental death and a lawyer's investigation spirals into a larger world of traded & stolen identities, family histories, deep-seated prejudice, human rights, and the fragility of psyche and national consciousness during traumas and disaster. The scope is far-reaching but the story carefullly leads the reader through this landscape, putting the complex pieces together in quite a beautiful way.
Really liked the the richness Hirano constructs in his character's emotional lives, the questions he poses through their conversations, and his care with pacing - slower paced, giving characters space to "be".
Some valuable pieces I picked up from this book: brief history and struggles of Korean Zainichi communities in Japan, the state of prisoners rights and capital punishment politics, the family registers and their relationship to citizenship and 'legitimacy', and the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
Hirano opens the book with an intriguing Prologue that states the story was shaped around a story he heard in a neighborhood bar. The lines of fact and fiction may be blurry for the reader, but also completely tertiary once you get swept up into the immersive plot and detailed character development.
Happy to see other works by Hirano available in English translation too - The Transparent Labyrinth and At the End of the Matinee. Planning to pick these up too.
From A MAN by Keiichiro Hirano, translated from the Japanese by Eli K.P. William, 2018.
#JanuaryinJapan #ReadtheWorld21
A mystery is at the heart of A MAN, but this story is perhaps better thought of as a philosophical exploration of identity and longing.
An accidental death and a lawyer's investigation spirals into a larger world of traded & stolen identities, family histories, deep-seated prejudice, human rights, and the fragility of psyche and national consciousness during traumas and disaster. The scope is far-reaching but the story carefullly leads the reader through this landscape, putting the complex pieces together in quite a beautiful way.
Really liked the the richness Hirano constructs in his character's emotional lives, the questions he poses through their conversations, and his care with pacing - slower paced, giving characters space to "be".
Some valuable pieces I picked up from this book: brief history and struggles of Korean Zainichi communities in Japan, the state of prisoners rights and capital punishment politics, the family registers and their relationship to citizenship and 'legitimacy', and the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
Hirano opens the book with an intriguing Prologue that states the story was shaped around a story he heard in a neighborhood bar. The lines of fact and fiction may be blurry for the reader, but also completely tertiary once you get swept up into the immersive plot and detailed character development.
Happy to see other works by Hirano available in English translation too - The Transparent Labyrinth and At the End of the Matinee. Planning to pick these up too.
May 24, 2020
I was instantly hooked on this book and am surprised it took me so long to finish - I blame lockdown brain for my inability to rush through books right now!
It looks deeply at identity and touches briefly on various other issues throughout the book.
I found the characters compelling and was intrigued to see what happened to them and their relationships. I had no idea what the outcome would be and found myself pondering it randomly during the day .. which to me is a good sign that I am enjoying the book!
It looks deeply at identity and touches briefly on various other issues throughout the book.
I found the characters compelling and was intrigued to see what happened to them and their relationships. I had no idea what the outcome would be and found myself pondering it randomly during the day .. which to me is a good sign that I am enjoying the book!
February 3, 2023
a man by keiichirō hirano is an intriguing and profound work that delves deep into the thorny issues of human connection, individuality, and acceptance. one man's journey toward self-acceptance as a gay man in traditional japan is chronicled here. his name is tokio. his internal and external struggles during his quest for self-knowledge make for an intense emotional ride.
as a result of the novel's first-person narration, i felt as though i were going through tokio's trials alongside him. hirano does an excellent job of conveying the difficulties of living as an outcast in a society that rejects his identity. uniquely for literature, the story delves into the nuances of Japanese cultural norms around gender roles.
the story benefits greatly from the author's detailed portrayal of the people and their interactions. hirano shows great sympathy and insight as he delves deep into his characters' minds and emotions. he also does a wonderful job of delving into the complexities of their connections and how their unique personalities and worldviews shape one another.
throughout tokio's adventure, the reader is captivated by hirano's gorgeous and poetic prose. his expressive descriptions of characters, interactions, and feelings are what really make the story come alive.
in essence, a man is an engaging and thought-provoking fiction that delves into the delicate issues of personal history, interpersonal dynamics, and the acceptance of one's own personhood. hirano conveys the difficulties of being an outsider in society and how it affects the characters and their relationships through vivid descriptions and poetic writing. the story is powerful and poignant, perfect for those looking for a story about finding one's place in the world.
February 16, 2021
If you could be anyone you wanted to be, who and how would you go about doing this? Stealing someone’s identity? Scary!
This story was a gumbo pot of goodness: excellent writing and a writer with a fantastic imagination.
The reader looks at love and loss when she loses her second husband and son. Her third husband also dies. Is one still alive, or are they dead? I hope she doesn’t have a fourth husband. The lawyer is somewhat obsessed with figuring out what is going on.
The author penned an excellent read, and all the characters came to life with the turn of each page.
This story was a gumbo pot of goodness: excellent writing and a writer with a fantastic imagination.
The reader looks at love and loss when she loses her second husband and son. Her third husband also dies. Is one still alive, or are they dead? I hope she doesn’t have a fourth husband. The lawyer is somewhat obsessed with figuring out what is going on.
The author penned an excellent read, and all the characters came to life with the turn of each page.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 757 reviews