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A review by joecam79
Life of a Counterfeiter by Yasushi Inoue, Michael Emmerich
3.0
This volume, issued in the attractive "Pushkin Collection" series, includes three stories by Yasushi Inoue (1907-1991), one of the leading Japanese authors of the 20th Century. Two of the pieces - "Reeds" and "Mr Goodall's Gloves" appear in English for the first time in a translation by Michael Emmerich, who also provides a new translation of "Life of a Counterfeiter".
"Life of a Counterfeiter" is the longest - and by far the most compelling - of the featured tales. Its narrator is an Osaka arts journalist who is commissioned to write the biography of the artist Onuki Keigaku. The task turns out to be more difficult than envisaged and years pass without the narrator concluding his job. During his research he comes across the shadowy figure of Hara Hosen, a one-time friend of Keigaku who falls out with him after Hosen starts forging Keigaku's works. Ironically, it is Hosen who takes hold of the narrator's imagination, displacing Keigaku who should be the subject of the biography. Through a mixture of dogged research and serendipitous discoveries, the narrator starts piecing together the story of Hara Hosen and his life's obsessions - art for a start, but later also fireworks manufacturing and the quest for an elusive sort of deep-violet 'chrysantemum' firework.
The story is conceptually interesting and well-executed. The contrast between the "authentic" art and forgeries prompts ruminations about fact and fiction, memory and authorship. As the narrator teases out more details about Hosen, our perception changes changing - from a roguish, despicable figure Hosen almost takes on the stature of a tragic figure. "Life of a Counterfeiter" is also likely the first story I ever read which made me feel some of the excitement which leads fireworks manufacturers to risk life and limb in pursuit of their dreams.
The other two pieces included in this collection have similar themes but are more autobiographical in nature. This time it is the author himself who sifts through half-forgotten childhood memories, trying to understand and, possibly, retain a grip, on a past which is slipping out of reach. Unfortunately, however, I did not warm to these two vignettes. Inoue's approach here seems rambling and erratic and whilst this was also partly the case with "Life of a Counterfeiter", there was an overarching thrust to that story which I thought missing in "Reeds" and "Mr Goodall's Gloves". I found myself thinking - rather unreasonably and unfairly, I admit - that there could have been a good reason why they had remained untranslated to date...
"Life of a Counterfeiter" is the longest - and by far the most compelling - of the featured tales. Its narrator is an Osaka arts journalist who is commissioned to write the biography of the artist Onuki Keigaku. The task turns out to be more difficult than envisaged and years pass without the narrator concluding his job. During his research he comes across the shadowy figure of Hara Hosen, a one-time friend of Keigaku who falls out with him after Hosen starts forging Keigaku's works. Ironically, it is Hosen who takes hold of the narrator's imagination, displacing Keigaku who should be the subject of the biography. Through a mixture of dogged research and serendipitous discoveries, the narrator starts piecing together the story of Hara Hosen and his life's obsessions - art for a start, but later also fireworks manufacturing and the quest for an elusive sort of deep-violet 'chrysantemum' firework.
The story is conceptually interesting and well-executed. The contrast between the "authentic" art and forgeries prompts ruminations about fact and fiction, memory and authorship. As the narrator teases out more details about Hosen, our perception changes changing - from a roguish, despicable figure Hosen almost takes on the stature of a tragic figure. "Life of a Counterfeiter" is also likely the first story I ever read which made me feel some of the excitement which leads fireworks manufacturers to risk life and limb in pursuit of their dreams.
The other two pieces included in this collection have similar themes but are more autobiographical in nature. This time it is the author himself who sifts through half-forgotten childhood memories, trying to understand and, possibly, retain a grip, on a past which is slipping out of reach. Unfortunately, however, I did not warm to these two vignettes. Inoue's approach here seems rambling and erratic and whilst this was also partly the case with "Life of a Counterfeiter", there was an overarching thrust to that story which I thought missing in "Reeds" and "Mr Goodall's Gloves". I found myself thinking - rather unreasonably and unfairly, I admit - that there could have been a good reason why they had remained untranslated to date...