It’s another way to catch the reader off-guard and it works brilliantly. I especially love the way the first and last story are tied together this way, as a mother whose son has died in the first story, observes an old woman watching her, an old woman who is the main character in the last story. It is only upon going back and rereading the stories that you can see these odd connections. A character from one pops up in the next, and little by little you realize that Ogawa is painting a picture of a group of people who live in the same city and interact on a very basic level, sometimes only as strangers. The further into the stories you go, you begin to notice that each one is tenuously connected to another. The author has a talent for luring us into a seemingly cozy place, and then with little or no warning, pulling the rug out from under us. But slowly these characters begin to reveal their unexpected secrets, and the stories don’t feel so ordinary anymore. They seem like normal people who you might pass on the sidewalk or nod to in line at the grocery store. Most of Ogawa’s characters are unhappy and lonely, mourning dead children and relatives, or thrown into situations with strangers. Each premise seems ordinary, but as the stories progress they become more and more horrifying. A man on the way to his step-mother’s funeral is waylaid when his train gets stuck in the snow. Two girls work in the laundry at a hospital washing lab coats. A woman goes into a bakery to buy a cake for her son’s birthday. Like a box of chocolates that are sweet on the outside and bitter on the inside, Ogawa’s stories left me feeling uncomfortable, but grateful to have tasted them.Įach story begins benignly, in almost unremarkable prose.

I came away from these stories with an uneasy feeling that lingered long after I read the final page.

This book deserves every accolade it has received and then some. This is the second remarkable short story collection I’ve read this year, and I’m thrilled to review Revenge by the very talented Yoko Ogawa. In a word: Disturbing, unexpected, shocking and heartbreaking.

Revenge by Yoko Ogawa Translated by Stephen Snyder

Yoko ogawa revenge review