Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Proper Nouns
Name
Hiragana reading
Notes
Kindle location first mentioned
小川 洋子
おがわようこ
the author
cover
二階堂
にかいどう
doctor (?family doctor for the main character)
22
Discussion questions
What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
Did you spot any interesting kanji this week?
Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
I’m reading along
I have finished this part
I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
I’m reading at IBC primer pace
I’m reading this book after the club has finished
I’m no longer reading the book
0voters
If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”
Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!
Here is an idea of what the photograph might have looked like (for those who haven’t personal experience). The resolution was likely to be much grainier in the 1980s when this novel was written and when Yoko Ogawa had her first child.
(This video might give a fairer idea)
Some interesting words in this section
そらまめ I wondered whether there was a bit of word play in likening the shape of the fetus to a broad bean (“sky bean”). Admittedly it is very apt (see picture!), but after all the discussion of the 夜空に降る雨 and the 空洞amid the fog.
超音波診断装置 - well I’m not sure if it counts as one word, but a 7 kanji expression certainly makes my head hurt
There were a couple of competitors, but I really liked
それはもろい影の塊で、風がふくと夜の低くはらはら舞い落ちていきそうだった。
(Though I confess I find it hard to translate)
I was a bit confused by the closing sentences until I realised that there wasn’t proof that 姉 had burned her hand (手を焼いている証拠), but rather that she was at a loss
I’ll definitely be slower than the club, and I don’t think the extra week would make it or break it for this story, so I already voted I don’t mind about pace.
What really will help if/when I get behind is the way you labelled your first reading comment in this thread by the week of pregnancy it applies to in the book. Spoiler hiding like that will make it so much easier to check the thread partway through a club week, so thanks!
What did others make of 義兄’s sudden manifestation of つわり
(I discovered a term that I might have met before, but if so have forgotten. Pregnancy symptoms in non-pregnant partners is called “Couvade syndrome”)
Some interesting medical terms
妊娠中毒症 this looks like it would be some sort of pregnancy addiction! But actually it is 妊娠中 (while pregnant) 毒症 poisoning illness = pre-eclampsia. (This is an uncommon but potentially dangerous multi-system illness in pregnancy with high blood pressure, leg swelling, headaches that can progress to seizures).
Interesting kanji
籠
Like quite a lot of the sections so far, it ends with a curious expression and reflection - here that 妹 suddenly decides that she has a hankering after someone (a man?) who could eat a “full course” French meal…
十一週
Striking confrontation between 姉 and 妹 this week.
I have to say that sitting downstairs smoking and then cooking bacon and eggs seems like a pretty predictable way to upset someone else in the house with morning sickness. So I wasn’t totally on 妹’s side, though 姉’s reaction was extreme.
two interesting words (kanji) for things that I only knew in hiragana
煙草
薔薇
and another striking closing image - the cold bacon and egg in the frying pan breathing a sigh of relief (was this because the fight was over, or was it because they weren’t going to get eaten?)
I read it as this: she hopes to fall in love with somebody who would still be able to eat a full course French meal even in case she was not able to.
Background information: For Japanese people, eating is incredibly important (and especially eating delicious food), so that’s why she made it a French meal because I guess in her mind that’s as delicious as it can get…
I think I like 妹.
十一週 :
I thought she said that she started all sorts of undesirable behaviour when 姉 was out, like drinking and smoking. (I guess that’s why she complained about stinky curtains?)
Until 三月十四日:
What do y’all think of this doctor of hers? He seems not to do much for her, still she goes to see him for 10 years straight, and she dresses up for him like there’s no tomorrow Are we about to discover an affair here? Maybe it’s even his child?
Really enjoyed the second week reading. I enjoyed the quirkiness of the characters, especially the younger sister. I read コンビニ人間 not too long ago and I keep having to remind myself that the story teller in this story is not the main character from that story!
However, what I particularly enjoyed again was the richness of the description, and all the wonderful quirky similes. I picked out one that I really liked this week in 十二週 -
Summary
しかし、姉のつわりに変化はない。つわりはずぶ濡れのブラウスのように、じっとり彼女に貼りついている。
I love the analogy that both things cling to you in an unpleasant way. That feeling of a wet t-shirt sticking to you evokes that unpleasant, uncomfortable feeling that really makes the analogy work.
I shared those suspicions; indeed, I had the same thought about that possible explanation for the pregnancy, though I think that it is likely not to end up being the case
Oh OMG I did not even think that far I was just going off of 姉 going to see him for so long and dressing up for him like crazy - but are you saying that she desperately tried to get pregnant for so long and of course talked to him about it because he is her therapist, and then he - ahem - helped her in numerous ways and boom! she got pregnant, and that’s why she was so apparently unfazed about her pregnancy because she had such a bad conscience? Now that would be a plot twist
But no, I don’t see that either…
IIRC, she was fussing over what to wear to the obstetrician appointment, not to see 二階堂先生. (But still, I also wondered the same thing, especially since her relationship with her husband is so strange—well, through 妹’s eyes at least!)
@Domjcw I think that’s a great catch on the そらまめ, regardless of whether the author intended it. It’s cool how reading in our non-native language leads to close reading and discoveries like this.
(Unrelatedly, by chance are you writing 周 instead of 週 by accident, or is this a pregnancy-related counter I’m not aware of?)
@Micki I also kept thinking of the narrator of コンビニ人間! That way of being like, “Oops, so and so looks mad, I don’t get it but let me try to smooth over the situation…” is so familiar.
Speaking of typos, my version (Kindle) seems to have a typo! There’s 赤ん切 instead of 赤ん坊 pretty much in the middle of the 一月二十八日 entry. Did anyone else notice this or am I going crazy?
Actually she doesn’t say either, I think … She says that
耳たぶが分厚いとか、指がたくましいとか、首のラインがくっきりしているとか - for example fat earlobes, stout fingers or a clearly standing out neck
いう心に残る印象が、- impression remaining in the heart
一つもなかった。- not a single one was there
In other words, she doesn’t remember any particular features of his. Which can mean that he doesn’t have them, or it can mean that he is the type whose features one forgets immediately, is my interpretation here.
OMG yes, I wasted so much time trying to google it
I think my favorite bit from this section was
八週
When 姉 went on and on about how much she enjoyed the ultrasound gel, like to an uncomfortable degree. She keeps her feelings about some topics on total lockdown, but on other topics she just lets fly with excessive honesty.
That makes sense. (Though it seems striking to list a set of (unusual) memorable features that you don’t remember someone having. Eg “he didn’t have any memorable features, like a giant squid tattoo on his nose, or a third arm, or purple hair”)
Yeah. This also reminded me of the narrator’s fascination with medical equipment in the flashback on the first day, when the sisters peak through the examination room’s window, and 妹 can’t understand why the patients (women who have just giving birth) look so tired out when they’re so close to such fascinating stuff. This is the second time (in addition to their aversion to food) where the sisters seem to share an oddly specific quirk.