Christine Wunnicke

Durante el verano de 1891, el joven doctor Shimamura es enviado a una expedición al remoto interior de Japón. Han llegado informes a Kioto que hablan de poblados perdidos en las montañas en los que ciertas mujeres han sido poseídas presuntamente por espíritus de zorros. Al principio, Shimamura se muestra escéptico, hasta que conoce a Kiyo, una «belleza floreciente» cuyos síntomas (aullidos, retorcimientos, y una forma zorruna deslizándose sinuosamente bajo su piel) se ajustan más al folclore que a cualquier diagnóstico recogido en los libros de texto. Sin embargo, al médico le sucede algo transformador: a partir de ese momento, sufre una fiebre crónica y las mujeres se sienten atraídas hacia él como polillas a la llama. Enviado a Europa por el gobierno japonés, armado con una carpeta de grabados pornográficos en caso de que necesite «jugar la carta oriental», Shimamura conocerá a los apóstoles de la psiquiatría moderna: Charcot, Tourette, Binet, Breuer, Freud. Y tratará de que la ciencia exorcice las preguntas persistentes planteadas por «la princesa zorro de Shimane».… (mais)

Dieses Buch hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Es erinnert mich an Daniel Kehlmanns "Vermessung der Welt", nur dass der (ebenfalls historische) Göttinger Gelehrte Carsten Niebuhr nach Osten fährt. Niebuhr war tatsächlich ein großer Erforscher und Kenner Arabiens und auch die Umstände der Reise, etwa der Tod sämtlicher Expeditionsbegleiter, ist verbürgt.
Im Buch aber begegnet Niebuhr dem persischen Astronomen Musa al Lahuri auf der seltsamen Insel Elephanta. Die Gespräche sind mindestens so amüsant und erhellend wie in Kehlmanns Roman, haben aber einen anderen Fokus. Denn sie zeigen verschiedene Denkrichtungen zur selben Zeit, im Grunde aus dem selben Ursprung: Monotheismus der zur Aufklärung führt und Wissenschaft, begleitet von Fabulierfreude. Man sieht das selbe, deutet es aber unterschiedlich. Dies zeigt sich sinnbildlich an der Dame mit der bemalten Hand, dem Sternbild der Kassiopeia. Carsten Niehbur deutet es europäisch als Abbild einer Frau, Meister Musa erkennt die rötlich schimmernde, wie mit Henna bemalte Hand.
Ich mag das Buch, es ist klug und vermittelt Einsichten, dabei ist es jedoch fröhlich und verschmitzt, was man durchaus auch mal wieder gerne liest, gerade auf der Buchpreis-Shortlist.… (mais)

I'm giving this three stars because it is in large part a matter of taste, but I thought it was rather tedious, and it's only 151 pages. I generally don't read “serious contemporary fiction,” and this reminds me why. I read this because I was intrigued by the use of the kitsune motif, although I had only heard of the version where a vixen turns into a woman.

The New York Book Review said, “But absurdist fiction, like psychotherapy, requires an investment of energy and a suspension of judgment.” They're not getting it from me in either of those two cases. Wunnicke wrote: “Sachiko, Hanako, and Yukiko often spent hours and days in such conversations that led nowhere and which no-one understood.” (Chapter 8, p.77) That summed up a lot of the book for me. It seemed to spend a lot of time frettingover meaningless details and dead ends, particularly in the sections concerning Shimamura's illness. As is often the case, the author matches this with vagueness about things that happened. I think the parts set in Europe were better for being stronger narratives. There are some interesting elements and good writing here, but I am not satisfied with the use that Wunnicke made of them.

Some my reaction, I suspect is age and familiarity. I might be more taken with Wunnicke's judgements about about late 19th to early 20th century psychology if I hadn't read what I think was much more interesting and effective nonfiction on the subject. (I recommend Frederick C. Crews Freud : the Making of an Illusion.) I've seen so many literary tricks so many times that they don't have the charm of novelty. So yes, Sun'ichi Shimamura is yet another unreliable narrator, at least in some parts of the book; it doesn't intrigue me. I want an involving read that leaves me feeling satisfied and characters that interest me. Most writers aren't good enough to do something really unusual and make it work.

I'm sure other readers do enjoy absurdist fiction so they want to read more sympathetic reviews. Most of the male characters are real people, one can find them in Wikipedia. For the most part, Wunnicke seems to have stuck to the basic facts, even if the details had to be made up to flesh out the story. Sun'ichi Shimamura isn't in the English language Wikipedia, but an internet search will bring up the basic facts of his life in Wikidata and Wiki Commons, as well as an English-language abstract from the National Library of Medicine, of a biographical article written in Japanese. It would be interesting to know if he left any writings about his adventures in Europe and the Shimane Prefecture where he went to investigate possession by fox demons.… (mais)