BOOK REVIEW: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

I sort of cheated with this one; I listened to this as an audiobook, and thank goodness I did that, for while it was short, it was deeply repetitive.  

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is a well-known, popular book about declutter by Japanese author Marie Kondo.  Marie Kondo is a former Shinto shrine maiden who is now a decluttering consultant and has developed a way of decluttering that dumps everything in a certain category (i.e. clothes, books, etc.) from every room in the house into one big pile and sorting it by deciding what you want to keep.

Kondo's small book is persuasive in inspiring one to declutter in a sincere, conversational tone. I enjoyed her focus on thinking on what you want to keep, rather than what you want to throw away. Her idea is that everything that you like (or in her words, that "sparks joy.") should be kept, and that you will feel less stressed and much happier for it, and that everything else is free to discard or donate. I also liked her idea of getting all categorized items in the entire house in the same pile, rather than proceeding room by room. She has a good point about things such as forgetting about coats in a closet down the hall, and allowing one to notice better any potential duplicates.

Kondo might seem difficult to relate to, as she asks for a lot of time and initial familial peace about decluttering one's possession. She also speaks often on the spirit and emotions of objects, which may seem off-putting to some; I personally found it charming. However, I did question her confidence of having no customers with any relapses; it does show her commitment to helping others declutter.

Unfortunately, listening to this book did not necessarily help me clean or declutter. I have already begun my decluttering journey for a few years now (slowly, one small chunk at a time, something Marie Kondo would not approve of). So part of the book seemed like it was preaching to the choir. That aside, the book was still very repetitive, with certain maxims from Kondo seeming to pop up every chapter. Also due to my personal living situation (I have many things in storage, a currently very small living space, and little familial support), I was unable to actually enact her method. Maybe I can properly test it out when I move.

My personal situation aside, I enjoyed some of her humorous anecdotes about her clients, but I found the overall tone too serious for The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up to be called my favourite decluttering book. That crown belongs to Clutter's Last Stand by Don Aslett, which does not have such a rigid, spelled-out method, but makes up for it with more humour sprinkled throughout and less repetition.

In any case, if you are starting to get claustrophobic and antsy in you own home and are looking for inspiration to declutter, I would recommend either The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up or Clutter's Last Stand. Whichever book suits your tastes and personally you to declutter is the most important thing, whether you prefer sincere structure or cheerful goading. Both books should be available digitally or from your local library if you're afraid of adding to your clutter pile.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea

Yukio Mishima is a famous Japanese author almost as famous for his highly public suicide as he is for his literature. For years, I had heard his name quietly mentioned in bookstores' "Recommended Authors" displays and have seen his books under lists of notable novels. Particularly, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea always caught my eye with its plethora of masterfully designed covers. For years I felt unsure if the plot would interest me or would be too serious, but it nagged at the back of my mind; until, finally, I bought a very cheap paperback version of it off eBay.

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea stars a young 12 year old boy named Noburu who, pardon my French, is a little shit. He acts all contrite to his mother, but then finds a peephole in the wall to watch his single mother change clothes at night. He then hangs out in reclusive spots by the docks in his port town and brags about his newfound, sexual knowledge of the female body, and all of his friends nod sagely and feel that this contributes to their wholly, "authentic," amoral philosophy and allows them to rebel from their boring, middle-class, childish existence. One might find them slightly sympathetic characters, like Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield, if they didn't turn out to be blatant psychopaths. Their wanton violence against pitiful creatures completely turned me off of this book.

The book's plot doesn't really move until the Noburu's mother starts dating a sailor named Ryuji. Noburu has a deep interest in boats, and initially idolizes Ryuji; yet this quickly fades when Ryuji considers quitting his lonely sailor's life to marry Noburu's mother. Initially, I considered this to be a metaphorical representation of Ryuji as Japan with his sailor profession representing pre-WWII Japanese masculine culture, Ryuji's giving up of his profession as a representation of post-WWII Japanese culture. This would explain Noburu's youthful perspective having such intense, instantaneous disdain for Ryuji after his abandonment of the profession and marriage to his mother; yet this seems flawed as Noburu does not seem to represent a reliable perspective, having seemingly no capacity for empathy.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more if we had a larger point-of-view from that of Ryuji; however, I found Noburu to be largely unlikable and unnecessarily violent. Noburu's perspective was largely emotionless, barring his intense joy at the sight of boat mechanics and his intense anger at Ryuji. This left the supposedly-emotional breakthrough of Ryuji, and the ending of the book seem rather hollow. Also I feel that Mishima was trying to deliver a metaphor of some sort, but it got lost in the murkiness of preadolescent, psychopathic behavior.

However, Yukio Mishima is still a well-known author of Japanese literature and has many more novels that he has written, so perhaps I will give him another go. Perhaps other with a stronger stomach for violent children will find something to enjoy in The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, although it wasn't to my particular taste. It is, at least, a thankfully short adventure.

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BOOK REVIEW Rashomon and Other Stories

It is a sad reality that a surprising number of famous Japanese authors have been both rumoured and confirmed to have died from suicide: Osamu Dazai, Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, and also Ryuunosuke Akutagawa.

Ryuunosuke Akutagawa is a well known Japanese author of numerous short stories, of which the collection Rashomon and Other Stories is the only collection to be translated and printed into English. Akutagawa's most well-known stories are "In a Grove," and "Rashomon." There is a famous 1950 movie directed by Akira Kurosawa that takes the plot from "In a Grove," and the plot from "Rashomon," which is usually the primary reason Western readers are inspired to seek out his work.
Like any good short story collection, Rashomon and Other Stories needs to have a majority of well-written, well-liked, memorable stories. Such stories can be found immediately with "In a Grove," about conflicting testimonies regarding a rape and murder in a bamboo grove and "Rashomon," about a poor man who considers theft. Those were my two favourite stories from this collection. The characters and moral dilemmas presented stay with the reader long after the stories are finished.

These two are quickly followed by other favourites such as "Hell Screen" about a court painter putting his entire being into painting the eight scenes of Buddhist hell for his lord, and "" about a Japanese woman in feudal times ostracized by her village for joining the Christian religion. There is a sense of awe and horror left with the reader regarding humanity's devotion to theological deities and the depravity of human behaviour resulting from intolerance for others' religious devotions.

Some less poignant but still likable stories include "The Nose," humourously about a priest obsessed with having an overly long nose. Unfortunately, the collection falls apart near the end with the stories published very close to Akutagawa's death. The final story, "Spinning Gears," in his collection is one that is a kind of fragmented, stream of consciousness narrative that does little more than confuse the reader. They also serve as a sad reminder of the author's failing mental health at the end of his life.

Despite the lackluster of the final couple of stories, I would strongly recommend Rashomon and Other Stories for those who are interested in Japanese culture or history, or those who enjoy short stories with meaningful moral dilemmas.

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