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Terminal Boredom: Stories Paperback – April 20, 2021
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The first English language publication of the work of Izumi Suzuki, a legend of Japanese science fiction and a countercultural icon
At turns nonchalantly hip and charmingly deranged, Suzuki's singular slant on speculative fiction would be echoed in countless later works, from Margaret Atwood and Harumi Murakami, to Black Mirror and Ex Machina. In these darkly playful and punky stories, the fantastical elements are always earthed by the universal pettiness of strife between the sexes, and the gritty reality of life on the lower rungs, whatever planet that ladder might be on.
Translated by Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O'Horan.
- Print length224 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVerso Fiction
- Publication dateApril 20, 2021
- Dimensions5.08 x 0.59 x 7.77 inches
- ISBN-101788739884
- ISBN-13978-1788739887
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Editorial Reviews
Review
—Jessica Esa, Metropolis Japan (5 Japanese Novels to Read in 2021)
"Her punky irreverence remains radiant"
—Frieze
"If you’re into Kobo Abe and prefer Ryu Murakami to Haruki you’ll not (as the title of this inaugural translation of Suzuki into English suggests), be bored."
—The Millions (Most Anticipated: The Great First-Half 2021 Book Preview)
"Weird and wonderful, unique and unsettling ... You won’t put this one down."
—Osusume Books
"The stories chosen for this collection showcase an author whose interest in alienation and despair as well as playful literary exploration parallels the work of other '70s SF titans such as Joanna Russ or Thomas Disch. … Essential reading not only for those interested in Japanese SF, but for anyone interested in spiky, beautiful, and bleak literature."
—Nell Keep, Booklist (Starred Review)
"These strangely prescient stories are perfect for fans of Haruki Murakami, George Saunders, and Philip K. Dick."
—Publishers Weekly
"The latest inclusion in the modern canon of Japanese women authors' surreal feminist work, [Terminal Boredom] puts a distinctly sci-fi spin on the concept."
—Thrillist (30 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021)
"Surprisingly contemporary ... with pertinent musings on the mutability of gender and the elusive nature of identity."
—Declan O'Driscoll, Irish Times
"With the use of speculative elements, [Suzuki's] dark and playful stories highlight the realities of living on the lower rungs of society."
—Patricia Thang, Book Riot
"[Terminal Boredom plays] with tech, gender, and tradition in marvelous ways. Highly recommended."
—Patrick Rapa, Philadelphia Inquirer
"There’s nothing boring about the short stories in Terminal Boredom."
—The A.V. Club (5 new books to read in April)
"Terminal Boredom provides a historical capsule and an interesting mirror to the American science fiction of the [1970s]."
—Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Washington Post
"The seven stories here are not only still relevant but remarkably fresh … brilliant"
—Lisa Tuttle, Guardian
"Each of the worlds Suzuki creates is deep and complex, with many of the questions raised lingering long after the last page and making you crave more."
—Iain Maloney, Japan Times
"An engaging and highly-relevant collection of short stories that will resonate with many readers, especially fans of writers like Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, and even George Orwell, but from a refreshingly female perspective."
—Rachel Stanyon, Asymptote Journal
"Full of punk, punch, and feminist shruggings ... a spiky, timeless, and timely collection of psychologically astute speculative fiction"
—Lunate Fiction
"Sure to be a treat for fans of Haruki Murakami, George Saunders, and the twisty genre experimentation of Black Mirror."
—Chicago Review of Books (12 Must-Read Books for April)
"The work and messages of Ursula K. Le Guin, the author’s longer-lived contemporary, come to mind."
—Catherine Lacey, New York Times
"A welcome glimpse inside the mind of a writer whose talent has been overlooked for far too long."
—All the Anime
"Suzuki’s stories are reminiscent of the unhinged science fiction dystopias of the master of the craft, Philip K. Dick ... [and] extend the canon of twentieth century science fiction."
—Ian MacAllen, Chicago Review of Books
"Suzuki’s work, now released in English for the first time, marks an exciting moment. Its themes feel of-the-moment despite being written over thirty years ago, and yet they are also surreal—the imagined artificialities of the 1980s written as futuristic now mirror our mundane, modern technology."
—Makenna Goodman, Electric Literature
"The themes of [Suzuki's] fiction thrum with a resistant, brightly grim tension. Passing decades certainly haven’t dulled the razor’s cut of her punk sensibilities."
—Lee Mandelo, Tor
"A vital addition to the science fiction canon in the anglophone world ... If there is any proof needed that the future has ended, it is that these stories can speak to us so directly across the four decades since their writing."
—Calum Barnes, The Quietus
"Dazzling ... her stories are characterised by the elegance with which they pierce the well-ordered surface of modern life to uncover the corrosion at its heart."
—Andy Hedgecock, Morning Star
"At last, we have access to some of [Suzuki's] most exciting works"
—Books & Bao
"Terminal Boredom is even more striking and believable in 2020 than it was in 1980 … Suzuki’s feminist spirit is as relevant and her stories as piercing today as they were more than thirty years ago"
—Alison Fincher, Asian Review of Books
"One of the freshest collections I’ve read in years."
—Andy Weir, Toronto Star
"Brilliant and often bleak … all shot through with a camp ethos, dark humour and kitchen-sink realism … in their brio and jagged urgency, these stories have, if anything, only gained in their alarming immediacy."
—Bryan Karetnyk, Times Literary Supplement
"A thoroughly likeable and engaging book"
—Bernard Cohen, South China Morning Post
"Whether riffing on the poison of technology or about private feelings of loneliness and want, there is a psychic complexity to Suzuki’s fiction ... Terminal Boredom is a reason for celebration."
—Jason Parham, WIRED
"No matter how strange the fictional worlds of the future she manufactures, her reader would find something deeply familiar in the simple conversations of her characters."
—Xiaochen Su, The News Lens
"Although they were written in the 70s and 80s, some of [the stories in Terminal Boredom] feel so fresh that it would be easy to mistake them as new ... For its time, the writing is subversive, defiant, and unapologetic, and for our time, it is poignant and prescient."
—Leah Binns, Full Stop
"Gets under the skin ... The groundlessness of life, the absence of the big Other, is a disconcerting theme and a feminist perspective is explored in a highly speculative and punkish way"
—Sean Sheehan, The Prisma
"Wildly imaginative ... Psychologically this book is not an easy read, but intellectually it is fascinating"
—Kerryn Goldsworthy, Syndey Morning Herald
"Izumi Suzuki was a wonderful writer who should’ve been published in English much sooner. Like the protagonist of ‘Women and Women’, we’ve been deprived of some good jams."
—Lloyd Markham, New Welsh Review
"Sucks you with its darkness."
—Eugen Bacon, Aurealis
"Darkly irreverent ... such well-written anatomies of anxiety and dissatisfaction are both timeless and of obvious relevance today."
—Rhian E. Jones, New Humanist
"Intriguing from start to finish, rife with bitter truths about relationships, imaginative haunting worlds, and—buried beneath it all—some insightful commentary on the human condition."
—Ethan Wescoatt, International Examiner
"Suzuki’s science fiction isn’t neatly categorisable ... Her voice is fiercely unique and her stories linger in the corner of the mind’s eye long after reading – devour them."
—Jennifer Brough, Lucy Writers Platform
"The truths, beauty and strangeness [Suzuki] gave the world throughout her career are hard-fought, rewarding, and demanding."
—Josh Wilson, The Fabulist
"Startlingly prescient ... Part of what makes Suzuki’s storytelling so engrossing is her ability to depict existential boredom and grim, sometimes terrifying, futures without falling into fatalism."
—Julia Shiota, The Ploughshares Blog
"Terminal Boredom is a subtle but sharp collection ... and a worthwhile introduction to Izumi Suzuki’s work."
—Juliet Jacques, Tribune
"These are brash, clever, odd works of science fiction, propelled by an irreverent kind of up yours! energy, and yet also a deep worry for the state of life in twentieth-century Japan and also the planet itself."
—Rhian Sasseen, The Baffler
"One of the freshest collections I've read in years"
—Alex Good, Toronto Star
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Verso Fiction (April 20, 2021)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1788739884
- ISBN-13 : 978-1788739887
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.08 x 0.59 x 7.77 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #111,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #50 in Absurdist Fiction (Books)
- #1,268 in Short Stories Anthologies
- #3,056 in Short Stories (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Writer of fiction and translator of Japanese into English, specializing in novels, fashion and the arts.
Japanese translator and editor specializing in both modern and classical literature, science fiction, pop culture, music, and the avant-garde.
Suzuki began her career as an actress and model. The counterculture icon has long been a staple of Japanese science fiction, penning a number of essays, short stories and novels, after her ex-husband and father to her daughter, jazz musician Karou Abe, died from an overdose. Abe and Suzuki were the subject of Koji Wakamatsu's 1995 biopic Endless Waltz (which was titled Endoresu warutsu in Japan). Suzuki died by suicide in 1986.
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That being said, I found the first story confusing and then they only moderately got better as I kept reading. Then, when they finished, I was glad they were over and I could move on to something else.
I am not a native Japanese speaker and wonder if they would be better in their original language.
It might not be the book for everyone, and I can see some people being disappointed.
For me it delivered.
Suzuki was born in 1949 (the same year as Haruki Murakami) in Shizuoka. She killed herself at age 36 in 1986. After graduating from high school she worked briefly as a keypunch operator. In 1969 she was a runner-up for the literary magazine Shosetsu Gendai and move to Tokyo where she worked as a bar hostess, nude model, and actor in “pink films”—sort of low-budge soft-core porn. She wrote plays and from 1971 devoted herself to writing. In 1975 she published her first science-fiction short story.
She married Kaoru Abe in 1973 and they had a daughter in 1976. A year later she divorced Abe although they continued to live together. He died in 1978 from an accidental overdose of Bromisoval, a sedative/hypnotic drug. According to Wikipedia, “For a time she managed to support her daughter by publishing stories in sci-fi magazines, but eventually her health deteriorated and she began receiving public assistance. In 1986, she committed suicide by hanging herself at home.”
Given Suzuki’s tumultuous marriage and avant-garde instincts (writes the reviewer who has no idea what he is talking about), it is no surprise that the seven stories in Terminal Boredom tend to be bleak. They are selected from earlier collections and translated by six translators: Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Akio Masubuchi, and Helen O’Horan.
In the first, “Women and Women,” men, responsible for war and the world’s other evils—have begun to die off, the survivors exiled to the Gender Exclusion Terminal Occupation zone. The narrator is fine with this until a boy—someone who has escaped the zone—passes by her house. They become unlikely and secret friends until one day:
“Suddenly he hugged me, then flipped me over and pinned me down like we were wrestling. At first, I thought he was just messing around. But he wasn’t. Not in the slightest. Hiro wasn’t messing around at all. I spent the rest of that day learning the unexpected, dreadful truth about human life. Learning it with my body.” What she’s learned, however, is an adolescent fantasy.
The stories all have sci-fi aspects, but they tend to be subordinate to the conversations between characters. Two friends seem to be in an ordinary coffee shop when “she took a slow look around the room and pushed the button at the edge of the table. A see-through capsule popped up to cover us. No one could hear us now.” In “Night Picnic” the family picnics on the moon. In “That Old Seaside Club” CHAIR in small caps “sits in the middle of my apartment and talks to me—and only ever to say mean things!”
I am afraid that my patience with talking chairs and human/alien individuals and faster-than-light travel is limited. Nevertheless, I think Terminal Boredom is worth reading if only to be exposed to the attitudes and ideas of a prolific and interesting writer. I also do not regret the two hours I’ve spent (because I’ve watched it twice) with the translators talking about translation in general and Suzuki in particular.
This collection is one of three English translations (one forthcoming in Fall 2024) by Verso of her works. Granted the large text of this collection, I assume all three could've been collected in one book but alas... capitalism even from a Leftist press!
The content is malaise ridden stories some Sci Fi and none very memorable except "Women And Women" - a story that has been written about academically.
Characters have no magnetism for the reader so the stories depressingly move at a slow pace.
If anything it's a document of postWWII - Anpo Agreement, Japan and its affect on subcultural kids / young adults.
She's definitely more interesting than her prose; hence Verso's use of her imagery to entice potential readers. Too expensive for what you get.
It's akin to some modern day edge lord cutting edge social media celebrity writing stories and publishing them - kind of "meh."
Top reviews from other countries
If you liked Black Mirror and you like succinct but still descriptive writing, you will like this book.
Not even a remotely interesting story that might have been okay.