Echo on the Bay by
Masatsugu Ono
My rating:
4 of 5 stars
This is probably my last book for January in Japan - the second book
I've read by Masatsugu Ono from Two Lines Press, who I subscribe to.
Miki
is the narrator and has been reading about anthropology in high school,
so when her father's police job moves the family to a fishing village
(Oita) and people start dropping by to drink and tell stories, she pays
attention and tries to figure out how pieces connect and why some
stories seem to contradict. The reader is limited to that same
information, so it takes a while to realize that there is an underlying
history of violence and corruption in the community, not to mention
great harm done to children that uncomfortably sits on the page but is
never addressed by the characters in the book.
The characters run
the gamut from oozing drunkards to strong silent fishermen to cruel
children. I think some of the older characters are supposed to read as
funny but I was too disturbed to find them amusing. The cover probably
symbolizes the red tide that occurs in the story, destroying much of the
fish farm and oyster farm infrastructure. It's funny how sometimes when
I end a book feeling unsettled (most recently, books from Argentina and
Japan) - it's because there is violence that is used as a metaphor. So
I've been asking myself what this book is really about. Is it about
corruption and violence? Could it also (I'm stretching) be about
environmental destruction and the parallel to human corruption? Or have I
read
Tender Is the Flesh too recently?
A
conversation on page 71 makes me think maybe it is just more directly
about violence in families and how dangerous it is when it isn't dealt
with. I know countries are all on different stages of dealing with
domestic violence and the trauma passed down between generations. I did
find an article that domestic violence cases had reached an
all time high
in 2019, and then in 2020, many articles about how pandemic situations
have made these situations even worse, as they have everywhere people
are stuck together for too long. The first significant study I could
find was in 1999 and this book was published in Japan in 2002, so I kind
of think I'm on to something.
"'Violence passes from person to person,' Iwaya said, tickling Shiro's neck. 'And it builds up.'"
I
haven't yet found many articles or reviews who discuss the book from
this angle - so many reviewers want to compare the author to Murakami
and interpret the events as weird, as if they are not really happening.
But to me the true power of the novel is the idea that they really are,
that people choose not to see the dead bodies and the rotten fish and
the child chained up in the yard. And they are suffering the
consequences.
View all my reviews
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