Life Ceremony : : Stories

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / General / Murata, Sayaka, Fiction / Murata, Sayaka
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Murata, Sayaka	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Murata, Sayaka	4-week checkout	Due 01-28-2025
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Murata, Sayaka	4-week checkout	Due 02-07-2025

"Originally published as Seimeishiki. Original Japanese edition published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Ltd., Tokyo."--Title page verso.
A first-rate material -- A magnificent spread -- A summer night's kiss -- Two's family -- The time of the large star -- Poochie -- Life ceremony -- Body magic -- Lower on the breeze -- Puzzle -- Eating the city -- Hatchling.
"With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata, whose Convenience Store Woman has now sold more than a million copies worldwide, returns with a brilliant and wonderfully unsettling collection, her most recent fiction to be published in Japan. In these twelve stories, Murata mixes an unusual cocktail of humor and horror and turns the norms and traditions of society on their head to better question them. In "A First-Rate Material," Nana and Naoki are happily engaged, but Naoki can't stand the conventional use of deceased people's bodies for clothing, accessories, and furniture, and a disagreement around this threatens to derail their perfect wedding day. "Lovers on the Breeze" is told from the perspective of a curtain in a child's bedroom that jealously watches the young girl Naoko as she has her first kiss with a boy from her class and does its best to stop her. "Eating the City" explores the strange norms around food and foraging, while "Hatchling" closes the collection with an extraordinary depiction of the fractured personality of someone who tries too hard to fit in. In these strange and wonderful stories of family and friendship, sex and intimacy, belonging and individuality, Murata asks what it means to be a human in a world that often seems very strange, and offers answers that surprise and linger"-- Jacket flaps.
Contents: First-rate material. -- Magnificent spread. -- Summer night's kiss. -- Two's family. -- Time of the large star. -- Poochie. -- Body magic. -- Lower on the breeze. -- Puzzle. -- Eating the city. -- Hatchling.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Social Norms and Taboos submitted by bookasaurusray on August 24, 2022, 10:35am Murata's work destabilizes our socially coached ideas of what it means to be normal and conventional.
I really liked most stories in the collection.