Revenge

Product Information

After he was gone, I began to collect newspaper clippings about children who had died under tragic circumstances. Macabre, fiendishly clever, and with a touch of the supernatural, Yoko Ogawa’s Revenge creates a haunting tapestry of death—and the afterlife of the living. Throughout the book, we get introduced to a series of colourful characters; some were selfish, some were cruel, some had an evil hidden side, some had a softness that made your heart ache, and some, especially the ones in the last story, had an ethereal beauty to them, one that had you both startled and, surprisingly satisfied, when you reach the end. Although Ogawa’s characters, scenes, stray artifacts, and memories overlap from story to story, their connections are opaque. As the perspective and point of view change from story to story, the reader feels ground shifting constantly.

REVENGE | Kirkus Reviews

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published. I could see her taking the steaming sponge cakes from the oven, piping on the cream, and arranging each strawberry with infinite care. J states that he was a drunk who gambled away all the money she made from rent and didn't work and that one night he disappeared, presumably falling drunkenly into the sea. For instance, The Housekeeper and the Professor follows a mathematics professor who cannot remember anything for longer than eighty minutes, and The Memory Police is about a group of islanders who gradually forget the existence of certain things, such as birds or flowers.Completely amazing and enjoyable for such a short read and I would suggest this book to probably everyone who might like a dark read. I was waiting for the bite, and the "horror" that I was promised, the nasty pinch on the ass that makes you bleed. Welcome to the Museum of Torture” and all the rest of the short stories are excellent but what is remarkable is that there is a continuous flow from one story to another and that is so skilful in itself. After what seems like some time, the narrator is interviewed by the police, who ask her if she knew what had happened to Mrs.

The Housekeeper and the Professor - Penguin Books UK

Whenever she moved in her seat, she gave off an odd smell…” that reminds the narrator of a childhood scene. The US edition of Revenge is billed as Eleven Dark Tales, but the eleven episodes are connected, a detail from one appearing in the next -- and then eventually more, as the sequence not only comes full-circle but turns out to be self-contained, making it ultimately more novel-like than just a collection of short stories. In addition, the deaths themselves are almost all presented as distant, off-scene, or at some remove -- the murder in the apartment above; a death years earlier resurfacing in one form or another; newspaper or other second-hand reports -- even as their effects (and occasionally physical traces) linger, one way or another. It’s a practice that I couldn’t put in words or was not even conscious of until I read it in this book. After the funeral, he is given a box of her belongings, and it includes a picture of Mama with a thin old woman, both of them holding carrots shaped like human hands.And it’s a world that turns full circle, as in the final story, where an old lady, despairing as a sensual relationship with a young pianist has ended, takes a final walk, enabling Ogawa to deliver a final heart-stopping twist, not only to the story but to the book as a whole. Some of these deaths are entirely everyday, from old age and disease; others, the senseless tragedies that occur everywhere (as is the case with the death of a boy in the opening story). The bagmaker is disgusted but curious about what it will look like to see a human heart outside of the body, and agrees.

Revenge (Vintage Editions) eBook : Ogawa, Yoko, Snyder Revenge (Vintage Editions) eBook : Ogawa, Yoko, Snyder

Ogawa has come up with many ways to get there… Even while punctuated [by] macabre flourishes her book maintains its restraint, like a dark alley that's too quiet, or an insane person acting too calm. Revenge” is an ambiance, one that comes with a reminder that even the stealthiest dark acts leave echoes and open the door to epilogues—which is precisely what the book’s final story feels like. It’s amazing how one by one the author connects all the short stories, weaving them into one beautiful piece that comes together to form a hauntingly perfect picture. The Professor may not remember what he had for breakfast, but his mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past.Using spare strokes and macabre detail, Ogawa creates an intense vision of limited lives and the twisted ingenuity of people trapped within them. I mean, I know there are like a million reasons but for me the most important one is to be able to discover books. But overall the bundle kept me really engaged, I loved the interconnections and some of the poetic and disturbing images Yōko Ogawa paints: like a child in a refrigerator, an abandoned building full of kiwi's, a rotting strawberry cheesecake or carrots shaped like hands. Their sudden appearance -- and also the small bridges between episodes Ogawa builds -- are often particularly well done, and much of the fun of Revenge is in the smaller (and then larger connections).

Revenge - Macmillan Revenge - Macmillan

As one character admits: "Everyone I know has died", and death does come to seem unsettlingly commonplace here -- even as it still comes as a surprise how and when it pops up in some of these tales. In many ways, her stories are all the more effective -- and terrifying -- because of their bland settings. Ogawa’s scene-setting is so powerful that midway through Revenge, even produce has acquired an eerie quality. Filled with breathtaking images, Ogawa provides us with a slice of life that is resplendent in its chaos, enthralling in its passion and chilling in its cruelty.When there are more direct encounters with death, often they're only partial -- in one particularly nicely turned story: "I shake it and out falls a tongue" -- or involve animals.