Reviews

MONKEY New Writing from Japan: Volume 3: CROSSINGS by Ted Goossen

bladelikesbooks's review

medium-paced

4.0

Monkey is an anthology collection of essays and poems on Japanese literature and releases a volume annually. 

The eighth piece is a favourite and I’d like to find a full translation of the entire report and continue reading it. I’d love to hear more from the people of Fukushima and how the nuclear melt down affected their lives from many different perspectives. 

The eleventh piece, Lost and Found Babies, was really interesting. I think I’d like to read a fully fleshed out version of that one, it was quite mind bending and the mc kind of fell down a rabbit hole, and I loved it. 

I rated each piece separately and worked out an overall average rating of 4 stars. Overall, I really enjoyed this! I would recommend reading the pieces sporadically rather than trying to read them all one after the other in one sitting. But I think a lot of people would enjoy this! 

Rep - Japanese (authors); Trans (Kuze, MTF, #4); Disability (leg injury, chronic sinusitis, asthma #8); They/Them (Mehsa #9); Gay (Matsuo Takahashi #15) 

Tropes - Unreliable narrator (Malig, #9) 

TWs/CWs - Ableism; Abortion; Alcohol; Animal Death; Beheading; Blood; Bugs; Cancer; Corpse; Cults (mentioned); Death; Death of a loved one; Disembowelment; Divorce; Domestic Abuse; Drugs (mentioned); Earthquake; Infertility; Medical Detail; Misogyny; Natural disasters; Nuclear Meltdown; Pandemic; Polio; Pregnancy; Rape; Sex; Sexual Harassment (mentioned); Stroke; Suicide (mentions); Tsunami; Vomit; War

alldebooks's review

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

3.75

An absolute delight to read and travel with these writers through an anthology of stories.
I will be seeking out other volumes of Monkey - New writing from Japan.