Thursday 19 May 2016

Chorus of Mushrooms: week seven

Thank you to those who attended the in-person discussion last Saturday! What a great chat, and I hope more of you will join us for our next book, The Letter Opener by Kyo Maclear!

We've come to the end of Chorus of Mushrooms - this week, I want to talk a little bit about the end of Part Four as well as Part Five. Finish the book before reading this post, because I'm not going to hold back from spoilers!

At the end of the book, we finally hear Keiko's perspective in her own words, and from Muriel's father Sam. Adult Murasaki decides to embark on a new chapter of her life, and Naoe continues a mysterious career as a bullrider in Calgary known as The Purple Mask. Are you satisfied with the ending? What questions does it leave you with? Would you change the story, as Goto tells us we can?

I'm also very interested in "Tengu's" story, and the revelation that he doesn't have a name. How does this relate to the earlier discussions we've had about naming and renaming in the book? What is the nameless man, alias Tengu's, role in the story, and does his namelessness reflect that role, or somehow challenge it?

I'll also pose the question I asked on Facebook, which is: Both Naoe and Murasaki are told that they have been speaking to their lovers in Japanese since meeting them, without having realized it. What does this tell you about these relationships, and each of their relationship to the language?
As someone who learned enough Japanese to hold a conversation with GREAT difficulty, I think that Japanese and English are too vastly different for such a thing to really be possible, no matter how fluent you are in both - the content of what you are saying changes with the language, not just the sounds. So I take this move on Goto's part to be a kind of magical realism - the same fantastical streak that lets Naoe spontaneously pull off an award-winning gymnastics routine. But why this fantastical detail, or indeed any of them (can you name other examples)? What does it reveal about Naoe's and Murasaki's respective, and collective, stories/story?

Thank you for reading with me, and I hope you'll join me for The Letter Opener next month! I'll start posting about that book in two weeks.

-Carolyn

Thursday 12 May 2016

Chorus of Mushrooms: week six

This week, I'd like to talk about Part Three of Chorus of Mushrooms, as well as some of Part Four - up to Keiko's article in The Herald. This is a very revealing section of the book - we are challenged with a "missing part", where Goto announces "An Immigrant Story With a Happy Ending" and then removes it from the novel. What did you feel when you came across the missing Part Three? Why do you think Goto includes it where she does in relation to the rest of the narrative?

We also get some explanations for Muriel/Murasaki's name given to her by Naoe: those of you familiar with Japanese language and culture may already have recognized that Murasaki not only means "purple", but is also the name of Murasaki Shikibu, the author of The Tale of Genji. What do you know about The Tale of Genji? Why do you think Goto introduces a link between that story and this one? Do you think it is part of what Naoe meant when giving the name to her granddaughter, or is this just Keiko's added interpretation?

Another element of the novel that becomes even more prominent in this section is the identification between Naoe and Murasaki. Naoe tells Tengu that of her own alias, Purple, and the one she gives her granddaughter, Murasaki, "The words are different, but in translation, they come together" (174). Murasaki describes a scene where she becomes her departed grandmother in their house, sitting in her grandmother's chair and retorting to Keiko in Japanese, which she didn't at the time speak. Is this coming together a transformation for Naoe, Murasaki, or both? Or is it merely an intensification of what was already in place? Why is it happening at this point? And where does Keiko, mother to one and daughter to the other of them, belong in this coming-together?


We'll be wrapping up the book online next week, but you can also join us in person this Saturday at 11am to discuss the book. Please share any other thoughts you had while reading this section in the comments, as well as any favourite parts! And remember that if you're finishing up Chorus of Mushrooms, you can get started on our next book for June-July, The Letter Opener by Kyo Maclear.

-Carolyn

Thursday 5 May 2016

Chorus of Mushrooms: week five

Welcome to another instalment of Nikkei Book Club! This week, we're finishing up Part Two of Chorus of Mushrooms.

There's so much happening in Part Two that I hardly know where to start our discussion. The trip to the Oriental grocery store in Calgary? Naoe's fantastic adventures with Tengu? Her telling of the yamanba legend? Muriel's discovery of her family name? But I think what really pulls everything happening in the book right now together is the healing power of food: Muriel/Murasaki heals her mother by cooking tonkatsu for the whole family, while Naoe feasts on Chinese food, saying, "I eat for Murasaki. I eat for Keiko" (148). It's not just any food, either - both Murasaki and Naoe are reconnecting to long-lost food that brings them closer to their heritage. And Murasaki is learning about this food for the first time, through her mysterious psychic link to her grandmother. Meanwhile, "weiners and Cheese Whiz and left-over potato salad" (150) are getting dumped into the garbage. Where do the mushrooms of the Tonkatsu family's farm fit into this spectrum of food, eating, re-connection, and discarding?

Other things I'm thinking about:

Naoe says: "My Japanese eyes are at the back of my head, and they can only see backwards" (110). What does this mean? Would it be possible for this to change for her? How does this statement relate to Keiko and Murasaki?

More funny names in this section: if you didn't know the meaning of Tonkatsu, you do now, and there's also Tengu the truck driver, Naoe's new alias Purple, and Sushi the shop person. Any guesses as to what's going on here?

And some more interesting things about knowing and not knowing: Muriel doesn't know how to make tonkatsu, resorting to trial and error, and she doesn't know how to use chopsticks. But she tells Sushi that she "know[s] what the words mean" on her grandmother's shopping list, without having any idea what they are. And she knows what the mimikaki is on sight. Where is this knowledge coming from, and why is it only for some things and not others?

Can we talk about Shane Wu? Why is he included in Muriel's story?

I'll finish off with an announcement: the June-July book club read will be The Letter Opener by Kyo Maclear. This is a novel with a mystery at its heart: the main character Naiko is a young Japanese Canadian woman whose coworker Andrei suddenly vanishes. Make sure to get a hold of a copy for June!

-Carolyn