Terminal Boredom

Stories

Paperback, 218 pages

Published April 28, 2021 by Verso Books.

ISBN:
978-1-78873-988-7
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OCLC Number:
1179048328

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3 stars (3 reviews)

"Born from the obsessive and highly idiosyncratic mind of a cult figure of the Japanese underground, these stories borrow themes and subjects familiar to readers of Philip K. Dick and fuses them with a conflicted, tortured, and intense imagination"-- Provided by publisher.

1 edition

Interesting ideas but boring writing

3 stars

Speculative fiction short stories by a mid-20th century feminist Japanese performance artist and writer…what’s not to like? Well, the writing, that’s what. I found myself consistently interested in the ideas but bored by the actual writing. Characters were hollow vehicles for ideas and plot and I just could not get into it.

reviewed Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki

Not for me

2 stars

I see this as a very vivid portrait of Suzuki's mindset at the time she wrote it. The stories read as a tragedy, especially when you know the ending of the author's personal story, but there was nothing I found compelling. The pedestrian stories make blatant and unsuccessful attempts to sound interesting while ultimately going nowhere. It felt as if the author tried to include things that she knew make critics and scholars swoon. Unfortunately, the heavy-handedness with which they were forced into the narrative makes them fall flat, and they are ultimately lacking the very things she was trying to achieve.