A review by blessa
The Fox and Dr. Shimamura by Christine Wunnicke

3.0

a strange book. the multiple layers of narrative and time-flux are akin to a phrase itself in the book...."a wild shadow play"; gradually takes on the disjointed, constrained movements of beckettsian theater where the reader is only peeking in from the fire exit door. despite the unrootedness and localized-mythos context of the plot i feel any comparison to writers that try to construct similarly ephemerally "eastern" worlds/narratives (i see murakami mentioned a few times)--there is a deep disquiet underlying it all, and is barren of that fluid spark. i only wonder how many of these quirks of language are the consequence of translation. maybe one day (if my german is ever good enough!) i'll revisit it, but in the original text.
note--if i weren't on a 5 hour train ride, i wouldn't have finished it. appropriate adjectives: "dry", "uninhabitable"