Monday 23 June 2008

What is Valdemar Reading Now?


Well, my brain fell out a few weeks ago and it took me a while to find it, what with work and everything. However, it's back in position, more or less, and I'm reading a Japanese novel. Ooh, clever - intellectual poseur or what? Actually someone has kindly translated the book into English for me, so it's no big deal. I'm only a chapter in, but it's interesting. The story concerns a TV scriptwriter who has just been divorced and has moved into what was an office in a block near a busy highway. Once accustomed to the roar of the traffic, our man becomes a bit jumpy about the fact that the building seems deserted at night. Sure enough, it seems that he is the only person actually living there - all the other rooms are rented offices. Bit weird, that, but perhaps it's more common in Japan. Anyway, the book is entitled Strangers and the author is Taichi Yamada. The book comes highly recommended by the likes of Brett Easton Ellis. But is it a proper ghost story? Much is made of the writer's encounter with what may be his dead parents. We shall see.

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