(First translation of a book review! And a bugger, too, because of all the cultural references. As always, the original can be found here.
Also, another article [in English] on the novel and its author can be found here.)
Dogbody (犬身), by Matsuura Rieko (松浦理英子)
Reviewed by Saitou Minako (斎藤美奈子), literary critic
Originally printed 11/04/2007
If you really loved dogs, what if you tried turning into one…
There’s an eagerly-awaited new work from Matsuura Rieko, known for her low output. Since Opposite Version (裏ヴァージョン), seven years have passed; and I’ve counted 14 years since Big Toe P’s Training Period (親指Pの修業時代). Enough already! But it was worth the wait.
The question this time is, what would it be like to be a dog? Snorting “kuun?” Wagging your tail? Doing things like not caring at all for books and being content with chewing? Dogbody explores the fantastic idea, what if I were a dog?
In a town called Whelpburg [1], Fusae, who contributes to editing the town newspaper A Dog’s Life, likes dogs to the point of having a self-acknowledged “species identity disorder.” I want to be a dog—-The day when this hope becomes reality arrives, and Fusae shuts away her life as a human and transforms entirely into a wooly-furred puppy [2]. What’s more, a male puppy. His name is Fusa. He becomes the pet of a female potter whose own dog died, going so far as to let her castrate him; and he expects his blissful life of being petted and fawning on his owner will continue forever.
But, here, instead of the maid, it’s the dog who saw [3]! The family dynamics of this female pet owner’s household are unusual, and one day Fusa stumbles on a forbidden sight. Bark-bark-bark-bark-bark-bark.
Since I Am a Cat [4], novels narrated by cats and dogs have often been written in differing ways and differing qualities. But Dogbody, instead of anthropomorphizing a dog, could be called a tale of an anthropomorphized human. This use of a dog has more meaning than just being a device for observing human society. The body is the puppy Fusa; the mind is the human Fusae. Because of this, there’s a unique sense of humor and frustration.
“If Azusa touches Fusa’s fur, he becomes completely passive, wanting to give himself over to Azusa’s caresses, turning his belly up and rolling over to demand, ‘More.’” This near-sexual touch between dog and human establishes a contrast: If you simply change the roles of dominator and dominated and add violence (like a beast?), it transforms into the human male and female sexual relationship.
Akeo, the nihilistic werewolf who turned Fusae into a dog, is ridiculously cool. The sections where he exchanges critical conversation with Fusa tighten the novel up into a complete whole. Hakkenden [5], Hotel New Hampshire [6], Real-Life Demon Wife Diary [7]!? This is a bittersweet transformation tale, woven together into a many-colored design.
Matsuura Rieko won the New Writer of the Year Award in ’78. In ’94, Big Toe P’s Training Period won the Woman Writer’s Award.
[1] “Kujishi” is made up of the characters for an archaic term for puppy and for “town.”
[2] “Wooly” is “fusafusa,” using the first kanji from “Fusae”; so the name “Fusa” is a pun on “Fusae.”
[3] This seems to be a reference to a character/popular story in Japan that began with Yasutaka Tsutsui’s Kaseifu-wa Mita: Kazoku Hakkei (What the Maid Saw: Eight Family Tales), a collection of stories about a psychic housemaid who gradually discovers more and more horrible secrets in her employers’ lives and must take increasingly morally-ambiguous action to protect herself. It looks like it’s led to lots of novels and TV shows in Japan.
[4] Wagahai-wa Neko-dearu, a classic novel by the famous Japanese author Natsume Souseki. It’s narrated by a cat, who comments on the daily lives of the humans around him.
[5] A multivolume classic Japanese novel, by Kyokutei Bakin, about the lives of eight men, the sons of a noble woman and a dog spirit, who each embody one of the eight Confucian virtues.
[6] A novel by John Irving – apparently one of the characters is a lesbian who spends much of her time wearing a bear costume, which may be what makes it topical for reference in Dogbody.
[7] Jitsuroku Oni-Yome Nikki, which appears to be the title given to a novel formed from a blog by the Japanese author “Kazuma” – it looks to be about a severely hen-pecked husband, the blog’s author. A drama series and manga series have been based on the blog, too.
[8] And one last note — in Japanese, the title’s said “Kenshin” (composed of the characters for “dog” and “self/body”), which may be a pun on “henshin,” the word for “transformation” (composed of the characters for “change” and “self/body”).
Leave a comment