RaveAsymptoteThe collection is unsettling, paved with the disturbances of odd people and new customs nestled amidst familiar words and routines ... Sayaka Murata is a master of delivery, and in Ginny Takemori’s translation, it becomes clear that the way to convey these odd stories in all their philosophical force is to do it deadpan, matter-of-factly, and sometimes, coldly. But—there are breaks, moments that aren’t so much characterized by their coldness but by their sincerity, their characters’ confusion, and their loss ... it would be a disservice to Murata’s work to suggest that she is only concerned with the question of moral ambiguities and whether morality can be universal or timeless. While Murata does push the question of what it means to live an ethical life to its extremes and upsets common social standards without providing any final conclusions, what is most compelling in her collection is how each story pushes us to consider, and then re-consider, who and what we consume; what we allow to become a part of us, to make us—and in her refusal to provide any ready-made solutions, Murata asks us to begin the collective work of coming up with an ethics that responds more fully, more mindfully, to our contemporary predicaments.
