A Single Rose
The advertising, the review that suggested this novel, it was about a 40-year old woman who travels from Paris to Japan for the reading of her father’s will. Along the way, there is a meditative, Zen-like series of parables. What the copy suggested, not an original expression of why I started reading it. Library had a copy, looked kind of interesting and change from potboiler template murder and mayhem.
In translation, big nod toward the translator, the prose is soft and gentle.
“Life always ends up crushing us,” she said. “What’s the point of trying, since we’re in prison?” Page 51.
It’s a broken person, and I think the image is that of the broken pottery that’s been patched with gold, making it flawed yet stronger and prettier than its predecessor. Headings that are supposed to be Zen Koans, but wind up wrapping around the narrative.
Lyrical and poetical in translation.