I love Japanese literature.
An economy of words.
Upside down moments.
Impressionistic writing.
It has all the parts of stories I love.
As a matter of fact, visiting Japan and spending time in some of my favorite writers’ hometowns is on my bucket list of things to do.
One of those favorite writers is Yoko Ogawa.
I love her work so much, I named my bonsai tree after her.
I learned of her in the literary journal "A Public Space," a journal out of Brooklyn that contains many themes (seeing the world through someone else’s eyes, finding beauty in the plain, understanding genius in the simple, feeling wonder in the ordinary, showing courage in the human) that are meaningful to me.
She wrote a book, The Housekeeper and the Professor, that I think you’d like.
Here is a review I wrote about the story for Powell's Books (My favorite indie bookstore):
This book is a serendipity.
It’s like a flower growing through the cracks in a sidewalk.
Ogawa's lowly housekeeper, broken math professor, and latch key kid show the essence of what it means to be human.
How do you build community in the midst of loneliness?
How do you find hope in the midst of despair?
How can you be human in the midst of inhumanity?
Her little book takes on these big questions.
It also introduces us to the wonderful worlds of math and baseball.
It’s a simply profound book that is profoundly simple! (This, btw, is the greatest compliment I can give)
I'm always looking closely and listening carefully to help us overcome the cruelties of the world.
Authors like Ogawa help us do just that.
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