Too slow, very boring, hard to follow.
I don't know if there is a massive error in translation however I tried to read this I simply couldn't get very far. ( )

Originally posted at
https://reallifereading.com/2017/05/30/asianlitbingo-the-goddess-chronicle-by-na...

“And so it came to pass that sisters who had been the best of friends were forced to follow separate paths. ‘Separate’ is not quite the right word. Our paths were more distinctly different, as if she were to follow the day and I the night; or she the inner road and I the outer, she to traverse the heavens and I the earth. That was the ‘law’ of the island – that was our ‘destiny’.

It feels like a bit of a gamble for Natsuo Kirino, best known for her crime/mystery novels, to have written this retelling of the Japanese creation myth.

Yet it also remains true to her female-focused narratives, with this being a more feminist rebelling.

Apparently when Kirino’s books, especially Out, were first published in Japan, many criticized her plots and one radio DJ refused to speak to her because in Out, a woman murders her husband.

Also, later I realize that The Goddess Chronicle is part of the Canongate myth series and that Kirino was invited by the publisher to write a story based on ancient Japanese myth.

I didn’t know anything about this myth of Izanaki and Izanami before reading the book – and you don’t really need to but I guess it would enhance your reading of it. Izanaki and Izanami are deities commanded to make the lands of Japan. Their first attempt resulted in a deformed island and upon consulting the other deities, they learn that it’s because Izanami (the female) had spoken first. And when they try procreating again, Izanaki speaks first and Izanami gives birth to the many islands of Japan. After giving birth to the fire deity, Izanami dies. Izanaki pursues her to the underworld. (You can read more here)

The Goddess Chronicle begins with a dual thread of a story of a young woman whose journey has echoes of the goddess’ life. Namima who lives on a tiny remote island, where the islanders believe they are ruled by ancient gods.

“They sustained our lives; the waves and wind, the sand and stones. We respected the grandeur of nature. Our gods did not come to us in any specific form, but we held them in our hearts and understood them in our own way.”

Her sister Kamikuu is apprenticed to the Oracle on her sixth birthday. She lives with her and learns from her. And she is to no longer see Namima again. Namima is tasked to carry food to Kamikuu. Despite the poverty and scarce resources of the village, the food for Kamikuu is bountiful and rich. Yet she barely eats it, and as is tradition, the leftovers are tossed into the sea

Namibia is due for a very different life.

“Kamikuu, Child of Gods, is yang. She is the high priestess who rules the realm of light. She resides at the Kyoido on the eastern edge of the island, where the sun rises. But you are yin. You must preside over the realm of darkness. You will live here, in the Amiido, on the western edge where the sun sets.

That is, she is to care for the dead. She is to live with them, tend to their decaying bodies, and never return to her village.

But Namima wants more than this dreadful life she is expected to live, just because she is second-born. Things take a very different turn for her when she meets a young man, a fellow outcast whose family is shunned because his mother cannot produce a female child.

We eventually meet the deities Izanaki and Izanami and gods being gods, their story does sound rather silly and petty but they will never change. Or will they?

It took me a while to get into this story. Sometimes with translations one can never tell – is it the translation or is it just how the original story is written? Quite a bit of over-explaining makes the narrative a bit clunky. But overall, I really enjoyed learning about this Japanese myth and I especially liked the human story running alongside. Although I so wish that there was a better resolution to Namima’s story.





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Reading this book made me feel as though I have been living in a hut and beachcombing on a remote Japanese island for a while. Also glad I don't live at the edge of starvation in a tightly controlling village social structure. Really interesting dip into characters in the Japanese myth swirl. ( )

The story of two sisters, one of whom, Kamikuu, will grow up to succeed their grandmother as the Oracle and the other of whom, Namima, is "impure". Namima is the narratorof the story from the underworld, where, because of the parallels in their circumstances, she serves Izanami, the goddess of the dead, in her vengeance against Izanaki, her husband who abandoned her.

I don't know anything about Japanese mythology and so can't tell how much is the traditional story and how much is Natsuo Kirino's take on it but I really enjoyed venturing out of the usual Greek and Norse myths in this story of what bitterness can do to a person, whether human or deity.

The author writes detective fiction, some of which has been translated into English and I would definitely like to try it at some point. ( )

I so wanted to enjoy this book, but it was, for my taste, not nearly entrancing enough. The writing felt flat (although i can understand that some readers may prefer that to overwrought emotion). I am glad to have now tasted of some Japaense mythology, though. ( )