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Review: Manazuru
June 28, 2011

Manazuru
Hiromi Kawakami

Many novels examine the consequences of a life lived without meaning and unanswered questions. Hiromi Kawakami takes dead aim at this theme in Manazuru. The title of the novel is the name of a seaside village in Japan, where Kei, a middle-aged woman, visits seeking solace and answers. Her life took a sudden turn twelve years ago when her husband, Rei, left her and their young daughter without a word of warning.

In many ways, Kei has moved on. Her daughter, Momo, is doing well enough, as well as teenagers can. Momo doesn’t remember anything of her father and unaffected by his disappearance, except for how it visibly affects her mother. Kei’s mother lives with them, too, and the three seem to survive, if not exactly thrive, together. Kei has even taken a lover. She met Seiji, who is married and older, at work. He’s much different than Rei -- friendly, comfortable, rather than hard and edgy.

And yet Kei has not gotten over Rei. “I am mad, but my anger assumes no form, it is in the cloaked depths, deep in my body’s core, that I rage at my husband. The core of me rages, but it also yearns. I have Seiji, but there is something I can’t keep down when I am with him. Rei was the only one.” Much of the novel consists of Kei recalling memories to understand why he affected her this way.

And the deeper she explores this, the more she begins to unravel her own twisted psyche. A mysterious woman, invisible to all but her, appears. She questions Kei’s actions, and points her in different directions. Kei does not find this woman obtrusive, as if she knows it must be some cleaved part of herself.

As she exposes her tender feelings to air and light, Kei’s life begins to change. She writes a novel, while her affair with Seiji slowly ends. Then Rei is declared officially dead by his family and she must remove her name from their family registry. This forces her to confront her deeply buried feelings. In Manazuru, where her memory of Rei was formed, she at last discovers answers to her questions.

A meditative novel written in clipped but poetic prose, Manazuru is well worth reading. The story of Kei will linger in your own memory long after you finish.

© 2013

COMMENTS

Number of comments: 2
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Lee Witte
Seems like a lot of Japanese novels end up being set near the sea, especially ones with a lot of melancholy.

Todd
Interesting observation, Lee, sounds like a good literary research project.

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