Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse (Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse (Novel-Paperback))

For those of you who looked at the title and cringed, please do not be deterred. Although it is true that the three tales in this short story collection are grotesque at times, the idea behind each story is very creative, deserving a chance to be enjoyed. I have always found the Japanese to be risk-takers in their writing, never having any shame or worrying that they will offend someone, like Chuck Palahniuk, which is why I love reading their literature and always looking past the obvious content to find the deeper meaning.There are three stories in this collection: Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse; Yuko; and Black Fairy Tale.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse is about three children; siblings Ken and Satsuki and their friend Yayoi and how an innocent conversation and honest confession soon turns into murder. (SPOILER ALERT: One of the children dies.) The description of the death is graphic but the deceased child lives on by being the narrator of the events that occur (Similar to the narration of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones). In terms of theatre, the term dramatic irony works well here because in a sense, the reader is aware of what happened to one of the children as the other two main characters try to hide the evidence, but the other characters are not aware as to why the siblings have been acting so strangely.Honestly, I was very disappointed with the ending until I read the epilogue. I cannot say the ending left me warm and fuzzy but the epilogue had a crazy twist that I was not expecting, almost making up for my irritation with Otsuichi for ending the story in such a way.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The 2nd story, Yuko, is about a young woman named Kiyone and her new position as housekeeper for Master Masayoshi and his wife, Yuko. The couple seems ordinary until the meal ritual Kiyone must follow is set into place. As Kiyone begins to talk to the neighbors and their rumors begin to mess with her mind, things become stranger by the minute.At first, the story reminded me of William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, but soon different elements came into play that made that comparison not as viable as I had thought. The twist he gives us in this story is very clever but there is a lot of explanation behind it, making the impact not as much of a ‘wow’ factor as I had hoped. Regardless of the ending, the story was brilliant.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The 3rd and final story, Black Fairy Tale, was the longest of the three stories but still packs a pretty good punch in the end. The story focuses on Nami, a high school girl who loses her left eye in a freak accident and causes her to have amnesia. Not long after she has amnesia does she get an eye transplant that brings her more than vision in her left eye; she can also see the memories of its previous owner at sporadic times of the day. As Nami becomes more comfortable with these memories to take the place of the ones she lost, she discovers the hometown of the previous town and the secrets, both good and bad, are waiting for her.This story has an alternating narrative, in which a writer named Miki tells us his story as well. He has a terrible gift, one reminiscent of John Coffey in The Green Mile, in the respect that both men can prolong life or take it away. Miki becomes a serial killer not out of thirst for blood, but out of curiosity for what the human body can become; since everyone he kills stays alive without feeling pain. Miki and Nami eventually meet as fate would have it, but Miki is only a penname and his real idenitity comes to light as Nami’s gets involved in a situation that may be over her head.The best part about this story is the subtle detail in the alternating narratives; you think the two narratives are happening at the same time but as the story goes on, we see just how clever Otsuichi is when he delivers a second twist out of nowhere without skipping a beat.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------When I read a book as ‘different’ as this one, I am not expecting a huge following of people to read this. At times it was not easy for me to read because of the gory detail and the images that came with them but I challenged myself and made it through those difficult parts to enjoy the rest. I am not asking you to have the same appreciation of Japanese Horror or ‘J-Horror’ as I do, in the same respect that I cannot appreciate the film, ‘Melancholia,’ as much as a friend of mine does. My point is that sometimes it is nice to challenge yourself; and if you are someone who likes Stephen King, enjoys writers that challenge the way their reader’s think, and you have an open mind towards different cultural literature, Otsuichi’s novels will be a joy to read.

This book consists of three stories: Summer, Fireworks, and my Corpse; Yuko, and Black Fairy Tale.The title story- Summer, Fireworks, and my Corpse- follows the body of a young girl, whom also happens to be our narrator. The reader sees and hears what she hears and sees as her body is hidden and moved several times. Sometimes it is through small slits in wood, listening in as police stand over her body. Suspenseful, huh? It was more creepy then horror, as much J-horror tends to be, and has a really nice(?) creepy ending.Yuko is a short story that’s a major creeper alert. A housekeeper comes to a mansion to help out a husband and his ill wife. The husband doesn’t allow her to enter the bedroom and she never interacts with the wife, and eventually starts expecting the wife doesn’t exist. I’ll tell you right now, as soon as you think you have this short story figured out, there’s yet another twist thrown at you. You might flip back pages a few times to make sure you got the entire story straight.Black Fairy Tale is the longest, but it’s more like three intertwined stories in one. It also gains an eleven on the creepy factor scale. The first part of the story is about a little blind girl waiting for a surgery that’s supposed to help her to see, and a raven that brings her eyes that lets her see the memories of its former owners. The second story follows a girl that had an eye transplant and sees the memories of the former owner, and follows a mystery surrounding it all. The third story is where it gets really strange and I can’t dive in it too deep without giving away spoilers, but it continues straight from the second story. I do have to warn you that this is where most people will cringe at the gore and it’s not for the lighthearted.

I am a big fan of Otsuichi and this book only furthers my respect for him as a horror writer.Disturbing and dark, these stories stay with you long after you read them. The imagery and detail is so well implanted that you can almost feel the press of cold air on your back or hear the sounds of dried leaves crunching under your feet as you walk through each page with pulse quickening anticipation to see what's around that next corner or hiding in that dank basement.I would recommend this book to any Otsuichi fan and anyone who loves a good chilling tale in general.

I loved Otsuichi's "Zoo", so I decided to try this one, as well - and I am SO glad that I did. I don't want to give anything away, but this is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read - and I read a LOT. If you like Japanese horror/mystery, you will love this book!! Otsuichi is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers - absolutely amazing prose!!

What a wild couple of stories! I had a lot of fun in particular with the first story and the titular one; in any case, the author is a master of narration and knows what he is doing to capitalize on unique perspective after death.

the stories are extemely captivating, it was really hard to find a good english version as the translation loses some of its original playfulness and context

The first story, 'Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse' I was really intrigued by. It made me uncomfortable, particularly with how young the children were, and the relationship between both Ken and Yayoi, and Ken and Midori.I also loved how, despite knowing how awful what they were doing was, I desperately didn't want them to get caught.The ending was a little lackluster, and I'd have enjoyed a bit more of a follow-on with Midori and whatever was going on with her.Overall a pretty solid story with some good tension, drama and overall creepiness.The second story was 'Yuko' which, while it contained some twists and ge really weirdness, just didn't grab me in the same way. It was sort of a let down after how much I enjoyed the first story.Overall a solid read!

A gift. My girlfriend loved it.