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A review by reaperreads
Chorus of Mushrooms by Hiromi Goto
5.0
Absolutely gorgeous. This audiobook was such a pleasure to listen to. It runs the gamut of the emotional spectrum: I felt joy, sadness, anger, indignation, confusion, validation, humility . . . and I even blushed a couple of times. It's rare these days for me to find a book that both engages me as a reader and as a former student of literary studies. I actually found myself enjoying the narrative so much that I would sometimes get blindsided by a massive wisdom blimp that I should have seen coming, or by a really awesome moment of magical realism or poststructural treatment of time.
Basically, I need a physical copy of this book so I can annotate the shit out of it.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in multi-generational narratives, Japanese-Canadian literature, and strong female characters. These are but three facets of this highly mutable novel, though, so there's plenty more to enjoy here. Through three generations of women, Chorus of Mushrooms explores pleasure and pain, youth and old age, subject and object, folklore, legend, immigration, racism, assimilation, self-concept, self-acceptance . . . Like I said, it runs the gamut. The internal lives of the grandmother and granddaughter are unique and beautiful, and they bring their separate experiences and understandings of their selves and the world in which they're living to bear on all the topics listed above. And all in such a digestible page length!
For fans of: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith, Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken. by Various Authors
Basically, I need a physical copy of this book so I can annotate the shit out of it.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in multi-generational narratives, Japanese-Canadian literature, and strong female characters. These are but three facets of this highly mutable novel, though, so there's plenty more to enjoy here. Through three generations of women, Chorus of Mushrooms explores pleasure and pain, youth and old age, subject and object, folklore, legend, immigration, racism, assimilation, self-concept, self-acceptance . . . Like I said, it runs the gamut. The internal lives of the grandmother and granddaughter are unique and beautiful, and they bring their separate experiences and understandings of their selves and the world in which they're living to bear on all the topics listed above. And all in such a digestible page length!
For fans of: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith, Tortured Willows: Bent. Bowed. Unbroken. by Various Authors