The Factory

Paperback, 128 pages

English language

Published Jan. 5, 2019 by New Directions.

ISBN:
978-0-8112-2885-5
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A surprising satire of working life in contemporary Japan

Like the other works of hers that I've read, The Hole and Weasels in the Attic, Oyamada begins by easing readers into the situations of her characters. Before long, though, their worlds begin to unravel. Following four characters in their strange occupations on the enormous campus of an unnamed factory, Oyamada builds suspense as questions about the factory mount and the surreal becomes more and more real.

Review of 'Factory' on 'Storygraph'

Western reviewers sometimes miss the fact that most characters and occurrences in a contemporary Japanese novel are accurate depictions of life. That’s why — as I discovered when I moved to Tokyo — authors like Haruki Murakami aren’t well regarded in Japan; they simply tell stories from everyday life. Yes, there’s a number of plot points, such as the final transformation of the narrator into a bird, that obviously are fantastic or surrealistic. Yet it’s always in the context of a perplexing or broken society; the surrealism stands in for the many emotions people cannot express in this world. Once aware that a novel like The Factory serves more realism than fantasy, I think readers (or maybe it’s just me?) may be disappointed that the book doesn’t draw its criticism out into the open. But that wouldn’t be very Japanese, would it?

Subjects

  • Language and languages