Ito Ogawa's The Restaurant of Love Regained is a curious and unusual read. A story that subverted my expectations and wandered into the realm of the sensual and fantastical. It reminds me of novels by South American writers who dabble in magical realism. The premise made me think of a cozy story of love lost and found (or if not love found at least a sense of contentment) and the delights of food as way to heal emotional wounds. There was something of all that, but, too, there was more than a touch of the foreign and exotic that bumped up against my western sensibilities and 'fear' of the 'trying the unknown' (and here I mean--Japanese cuisine).
Rinko has been unceremoniously dumped by her Indian boyfriend. She returns home to find her apartment emptied of everything she held dear to her life save a vase (she had tucked away in a closet) of rice bran (fermented vegetables) she used in her cooking. There is nothing left but to return to her home village and her mother, a place she left as a schoolgirl. She finds she has been replaced by her mother with a pig named Hermes, but her mother offers her a space where she can do the one thing she is good at--cook.
Rinko has lost her voice, but not her talent to prepare meals as special as they are restorative to their diners. With the help of an old friend who had worked at her school, she sets about transforming a shed of her mother's into a special place, The Snail, where she will prepare just one meal a night tailored to the person or couple who have booked the table. And it is a magical experience, one that, mostly anyway, makes dreams come true--restores life and love and gives happiness.
It's a lovely story, bittersweet in some ways, and for me anyway, quite different from the stories I am used to. Of course, I am indeed virtually traveling here by way of stories, and Japan is a culture that is still quite foreign to me. So where my experience of western culture butted up against eastern culture, I do admit, there were some meals that did not appeal to my own sensibilities. I can't fault the author for that however, it just gives me a glimpse of the unknown. The universal appeal, though, is the redemption she finds by returning home and reconnecting with her mother.
While I might forego a few of the meals she prepared, I will say I wouldn't mind a version of the fruit sandwich she makes for one of her customers. She bakes a perfect raisin bread, on which she spreads a thin layer of melted milk chocolate then perfectly whipped cream and topped with pears at just the perfect moment of ripeness.
If you are looking for something a little bit different, a story that will be both familiar and yet foreign you might try Ito Ogawa's story.
I am ready to pick up another novel but I am first concentrating on two mysteries. I am mostly spending time with All She Was Worth by Miyuki Miyabe, published in 1992 and named a best novel and best mystery of the year in Japan. I really like the detective in the story, Shunsuke Honma, who is off work recuperating from an accident. He is a single father of a young son who has agreed to look into the disappearance of a woman. She is the fiance of his deceased wife's cousin. It turns out to be like dropping down the rabbit hole as it is a case of stolen identity. The mystery is to find out who the two women are and which or maybe whether both women are dead. I am really enjoying this as it is a puzzle with, again, the slant of being both familiar yet foreign. There is a lot about Japanese culture in the story and I hope to write more about it when I finish.
On temporary hold is Seicho Matsumoto's most acclaimed novel, Points and Lines which was written in 1958. Another puzzle of the Agatha Christie class. This is an unusual mystery--a couple is found on a beach, dead. It appears they have committed a love pact suicide. But something is not quite right. The pair were spotted on a train together yet the woman got off and only much later met back up with the man and shortly thereafter they were found posed and dead. It might come down to a four minute window of opportunity when their express train was waiting to pull out of the station--just moments before and after the departure and arrival of two other trains. Sound tricky? I know all the facts are there but I have not sussed things out yet. I can't wait to get back to it. Now I want to read more of Matsumoto's books, and he was quite a prolific writer, but I think there are only a small handful translated into English and easily available. Also, some of his books have been filmed, about which I will share more later.
Slowish progress in my Japanese reading, but all quite satisfying and I have a stack more (bought and borrowed) to explore. Since it is going to be far too hot to be outside for the coming week, I plan on armchair traveling to Japan!