Reviews

Territory of Light by Yūko Tsushima

yeehaw_agenda's review

4.0

Tsushima did an incredible job putting me in the head of a mother who is doting but selfish, grounded but untethered. She was allowed to be complicated and have moments where I was repulsed by her and moments I adored her. One of the best character pieces I have read in a while, and one of the few that allows the character to experience the full range of human emotions without judgment.

kell_xavi's review

sad tense

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Sexism

faradinazhra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

daphnesayshi's review against another edition

4.0

I was originally really annoyed by the narrator's voice and the glacial pace with which everything was moving at, but as the book meandered along, the quintessentially Japanese-ness of the book struck me. Here is a woman much like many in Japan, passive and obliging but not necessarily a pushover. Here is an old lady who's desperate for company, and seeks it in the regular schedules of passersby. Here are two colleagues who know very little about each other, but it's okay, even perhaps preferred. And here is the middle aged stripper who regrets divorcimg her husband 15 years ago, and along with it a certain sense of security – likely primarily financial.

The culturally rigid structures of japanese society are captured well: there is a social fixation on being married even as less Japanese are doing so these days; social attitudes towards people who are divorced, or rather women who are divorced are also explored.

But i think most resonating for me is the reflection that we are nowhere near perfect beings. We try our best, we try to make things work, we persist and we trudge on even when we don't feel like. A wife can grow to stop loving her husband. A mother may not like her kid very much - at least not all the time. A woman may not necessarily need a man, or need to take care of one.

I think the book is a book of its time and space, and primarily reflects the fear and insecurity that this one japanese woman (and many others like her) have about a great number of things, but mostly of her womanhood, especially as is prescribed by a patriarchal and traditional society. The narrator is stripped from all of that – divorced from her unreasonable husband, struggling to care for her problematic child, and without a home to keep in order, she seems lost. What is she if not what she knows?

I think the distanced, impersonal tone of voice and seemingly banal smattering of life observations not only reminds me of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway but also lends to the growing sense of claustrophobia...of a certain panic that comes from wondering what's next (or if even there is anything that comes next that is less mind numbing than the ones before).

But ultimately, by the book's end, i get a sense of pensive optimism, that things will be alright even as they remain imperfect.

this book is also pretty special in that it was translated by the aunt of a friend.

wallros's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

mihu_'s review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

emi_dilli's review against another edition

4.0

Much like if Camus’ narrator of The Outsider were a Japanese mother going through divorce.

At first I felt the distance between me and the narrator was too great. I was frustrated I couldn’t get inside her head. She was unpredictable and chaotic. Then I let go and allowed myself to be swept up in her self-destruction and neglect and abuse of her daughter.

I wanted so often to shake her by the shoulders and tell her to stand up for herself in the face of male bullies so that she wouldn’t take our her repressed anger on her daughter. The narrator is a real reminder of all the things I fear becoming as a parent.

bryn_thecowboy's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

krythstal's review against another edition

5.0

"Qué profundidad. Me embargaba la tristeza. Y, finalmente, me llegaba un sonido desde el fondo, como el ruido de un cristal roto. No, algo más bello y agudo. Para mí, era el sonido de los huesos humanos al quebrarse. Y, una vez que recibía ese eco, por fin me quedaba tranquila."

intenta no decir MADRE durante 12 capítulos seguidos challenge. lo de que la autora sea hija de osamu dazai y me haya enterado ahora... wow.

lottie1803's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0