Forty plus years ago, I did my senior thesis work on Noh Drama and its (supposed) influence on William Butler Yeats.I think often of the measure, the movement, the poetry, the masks and kimonos and music - the sense of structure and lyricism.And now it's issue 127 of Granta.I was hooked and torn by virtually all the photographs, stories and non-fiction. What lingers is a sense of surreal. Such a thread of history and culture maybe squashed by "Tokyo-Tokyo." All the ads, all the bustle, all the c...

This particular issue of Granta has some pleasant stories, but they are all quite understated and for the most part, none stand out from the rest. But perhaps, for an issue dedicated to Japan, such deference and uniformity is not unexpected."Variations on a theme" and "Pink", the final story, are the highlights here.

3.75 starsThis is my first encounter with Granta (2014) Issue 127, a 280-page book-like magazine, because it is a collection of 20 'new writing' stories by Japanese and Non-Japanese writers having focused on something Japanese. Some color and black-and-white illustrations are also included to support some stories. There are 11 stories written in Japanese, 1 in Spanish and 8 in English; therefore, the 12 stories needed 10 translators: 9 (Japanese) [Ivan Vartanian himself has translated 3 stories]...

I went to the book launch party in Tokyo in March and was able to buy an advanced copy of Granta 127: Japan (2014) edited by Yuka Igarashi, which will be released in April of 2014. I started out reading essays by the authors I already knew best, then went back to the start and read the the rest of the entries in order. So I started with David Mitchell's short story, "Variations on a Theme by Mister Donut." I have to admit I was disappointed by his contribution, it was the story of an incident in...

A very troubling mix of styles and stories, reinforcing for me the "otherness" of Japan and Japanese culture. The sexless marriage, the curative value of breast milk, mountains made of crumpled tin foil (ESPECIALLY the mountains) have stayed with me long after finishing the book. I read Granta because I want to try new authors and new styles, so I don't expect to always like everything. This collection gave me plenty to think about and I recommend it.

Some excellent reading in this collection of stories from Japan. Curious insight into Japanese culture. Like any anthology, there were stories included that less than delighted me. On the whole, glad I spent my weekend soaking this collection up.

This was a nice little taste of modern Japanese literature, even if my favorite story was by Chinese-America author Tao Lin, where asks his Chinese parents about Japanese people. There is a lot of good stuff here, much of it apparently non-fiction personal essays.Brief notes on each story or essay. My favorites have an asterisk.Sayaka Murata - A Clean Marriage, translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori - short storyDefinitely odd. A couple in a sexless marriage decide to get pregnant, to...

Although reading several rather harsh reviews of the latest Granta issue which criticised many of the stories for being unrelated and on unnecessary tangents about 'Japan', I found that this solid issue contained a good mix of topics. Many stories were originally written in Japanese and translated into English, while others are written by foreigners familiar with Japan, resulting in both interesting insider and outsider perspectives.One of the most profound insights was by Pico Iyer in 'The Beau...

A few duds but overall an excellent selection, by editor Yuka Igarashi, of weird and wonderful stories, poetry, and essays! Some personal favourites include The Dogs by Yukiko Motoya, Pink by Tomoyuki Hoshino, and Blue Moon by Hiromi Kawakami (but really, most of the pieces in here are wonderful!).Full review: https://weneedhunny.wordpress.com/201...

An interesting collection of short fiction and essays related, however loosely, to Japan.

starts extraordinarily strong with three awesome stories: A Clean marriage by S. Murata (husband and wife marry but do not have sex with each other, only outside the marriage - so the title - but what happens when they want a child together?), Breakfast by T. Okada (a man waits for a visit from his wife who left him because she didn't want to live in Tokyo anymore) and Variations on a Theme by Mister Donut by D. Mitchell (excellent sample of David Mitchell's polyphonic voice and one of the best

this volume was great. new translations of japanese authors who have either barely or not at all been translated into english, whose names are not haruki murakami. shows the range of contemporary japanese fiction. my personal favorite is "breakfast" by toshiki okada.

This was my first experience with Granta and it was such an overwhelming and interesting one. What I liked most about the anthology is perhaps what some reviewers complained was a downside – I liked how close and far the stories, and artwork/photography, were to the theme of Japan. But there was something immersive in each one, as they all created the very same twenty new Japans that I was promised from the back cover. Some stories, such as “Breakfast” and “Things Remembered and Things Forgotten...

The latest offering from granta is an excellent collection of short pieces themed loosely round Japan. None of the authors were familiar to me, but I will defintely look out for more writing by Sayaka Murata, Andres Felipe Solano, Kyoko Nakajima, and Yukiko Motoya. If anythin links to pieces together other than a theme of Japan it would be a certain spareseness of writing - more is unsaid or shown and left to the reader's imagination than is tytpical in more Western writing. That's exactly what

Liked David Mitchell's piece and the numerous perspectives on a single event. Toh Enjoe's "Printable" was an engaging contemplation of reproduction and simulacrum. I liked David Peace's work because it introduced me to the writer Ryunosuke and the legend of the Peach Boy. I haven't studied much Japanese literature or culture, so the entire Granta was engaging on some level. Scavengers by Adam Johnson was a great piece using a single individual's story to reveal a profound truth about an entire o...

There are some that I find very interesting, but some are otherwise. I can’t bring myself giving 3 stars, hence the 4 stars.

"It's not just that surface and depth are different here; but that you can't begin to infer one from the other." (Pico Iyer, The Beauty of the Package).Granta 127, from Spring 2014, is the first volume I've read and I have mixed feelings about the format.On the positive side, the Granta brandname is sufficiently powerful to line up an impressive array of authors - perhaps only The New Yorker has a better reach. From English-language writers, David Mitchell, Ruth Ozeki, David Peace and perhaps Ka...

I didn't like this book. At all. And maybe that's because I don't really get in to short stories type books; however, I have read some decent ones that I didn't hate. But this one, I hated. I still am trying to understand how this was in the travel section. I thought it was going to be short writeups of places and things Japanese authors like or hate or whatever. What I got was weird fiction with no real end. Only maybe three stories had anything to do with places in Japan. For gosh sakes, one o...

This is an uneven collection that includes (in my opinion) just a few standout pieces. It looks to me like a number of authors "mailed it in" for a check: I'm looking at you Tao Lin. By far the best submission was Hiromi Kawakami's Blue Moon, in which she ruminates on her mortality in connection with a trip to Russia. Other solid pieces include Things Remembered and Things Forgotten (Kyoko Nakajima), Pig Skin (Andres Felipe Solano) and Scavengers (Adam Johnson). Far too many pedestrian and banal...

Some favorites from this issue: Variations on a Theme by Mr Donut; Things Remembered and Things Forgotten; Blue Moon; The Beauty of the Package; Pig Skin; The Dogs and Pink. Interesting issue with Japan as the theme.