Life Ceremony: stories

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I bet Mr. Nakao tastes good,” said a woman a year older than me as she ate her pork and potato stew.“ An unconventional family of two women, not lovers but sworn to each other to live together when still single at 30. One is dealing with cancer, leading the other to consider her life, children and what a family is. Unusually tender and almost without any subversion of "normal" society.

To me, her work speaks with an understanding of the unconscionable—as if she was born with exceptional deep observation skills. The closing story “Hatchling” is perhaps closest to Convenience Store Woman territory, and my favourite of the collection. The narrator is someone who so much fits in with those around her, and, in particular their very first impression o Sayaka Murata writes about the life more ordinary . . . But ordinary is a shape-shifting concept . . . Murata’s prose, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, is both spare and dreamlike . . . Murata’s skill is in turning round the world so that the abnormal, uncivil or even savage paths appear—if momentarily—to make sense.”— Louise Lucas, Financial Times This bundle of short stories is closer to Earthlings than to Convenience Store Woman. Sayaka Murata explores society and conformity in creative ways. In general I found the characterisation of the persons starring in the story a bit light, but the ideas are definitely very interesting, and often disturbing. Below I give a brief summary of the constituent parts of Life Ceremony: Stories:The long-awaited first short story-collection by the author of the cult sensation Convenience Store Woman, tales of weird love, heartfelt friendships, and the unsettling nature of human existence

the last line in this short story collection is....... something else. i liked this one, but i felt a little confused by the end (??????? someone dm me and tell me wtf happened). other than that, pretty good conclusion!In this off-kilter collection, Murata brings a grotesque whimsy to her fables of cultural norms . . . Like the author’s novels, this brims with ideas.” — Publishers Weekly and then there's this quote which sums up all of murata's writing to me: "Instinct doesn't exist. Morals don't exist. They were just fake sensibilities that came from a world that was constantly transforming." She sees offices as encasing organs e.g. her coworkers, leading to quite a bizarre vista of the world. I really enjoyed this. I definitely would like it to be a longer story because I think the friendship could have really been explored more and I would even read a full novel of this. It reads a lot like middle grade but it has a lot of room to roam and explore a lot of subjects.