The Lonesome Bodybuilder

 

The Lonesome Bodybuilder / Yukiko Motoya
trans. from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda
NY: Soft Skull Press, c2018.
224 p.

This was another strange little collection. I found it in audiobook format thanks to my library, and listened to it over the course of a couple of days. The stories are quirky -- strange things happen, fateful decisions are taken, the narrators encounter really odd people -- and each one is related in a slightly deadpan way, as if there is nothing at all strange about what they are telling us. 

I really liked this. Unlike some of the books that I've tried to read lately, there is no dark twisted horror here, just bizarre and slightly charming strangeness. The stories are entertaining, definitely engage your curiosity, and sometimes I got a laugh out of a conclusion as well. 

There are 11 stories here; the title story opens the collection and seems the most 'normal' of the lot. A woman, feeling neglected and overlooked by her husband, takes up bodybuilding. And in this process, he finally sees her. It's a quietly powerful story. 

In others, a woman waits on a customer trying on clothes in her boutique to a ridiculous extent -- all night, without ever seeing her customer who seems oddly non-human somehow. All is well until the exhausted employee pulls the changeroom on wheels into town for more options but reaches the top of a hill...

A short and quirky tale about what happens to people who carry umbrellas in typhoons was memorable, and really well told by the narrator, especially the expressive closing lines. And another short story about a woman who married a husband made of straw and is living to regret it was striking in its matter-of-fact style. 

The longest story was one about a woman who feels that she and her husband are beginning to look alike, almost identical, and their traditional roles of working and housekeeping/cooking are also melding. It was a bit long in the audio version, as I had to break it up, and I think that might have confused me a little. Otherwise, it had some interesting metaphors to develop. 

Overall, I found this collection well balanced, engaging, and thoughtful in its subjects, no matter how weird or alien they were. There was always something relatable in the narrative, even if starting from an uncanny or fantastical premise. I enjoyed the style and was pleased by the bizarre nature of the stories that nevertheless didn't get grotesque or dark. I'm glad I tried this one out, and would definitely search out any other translations by this author.