I have been making an effort to read more non-English literature, and these new Penguin Moderns are great bite-sized tasters for new authors and unfamiliar cultures. I’m already halfway through my second one, Four Russian Short Stories!
Heroes have always been monsters who crushed sentimentalism underfoot.
Behind the Prison: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Lethally sharp satire whetted against uncomfortably relatable truths. Behind the Prison is at once uproarious and unapologetically pessimistic.
“No, nothing in this world is as oppressive and debilitating as blood ties.”
“For her I would gladly ferry across the Sumida on the coldest winter day to buy her those sakura-mochi sweets from old Edo that she loved so much. But medicine? Not even on the warmest day would I want to go buy her medicine.”
Closet LLB: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The most personally terrifying of the three. Like Otsukotsu Sansaku, I had “embraced the unshakeable goal of becoming a novelist” as a child, and I, too, steep myself in literature while I have supposedly settled into (and here is the most obvious difference) medicine. Thankfully, studying medicine was my own choice, and I hope to become something of a Paul Kalanithi or Atul Gawande. But my goodness, may I never be reduced to a Sansaku!
“How much fun are you getting out of life?”
General Kim: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This last story fits the blurb best: “beguiling, strange, funny and hair-raising”. A delightfully surreal parody of Patriotism with a capital P to round it all off.
“To any nation’s people, their history is glorious. The legend of General Kim is by no means the only one worth a laugh.”
Overall rating: 5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Have you read any Penguin Moderns yet? If so, which ones were your favourites?
Christy Lau 
2 thoughts on “Three Japanese Short Stories”