{"id":49472,"date":"2022-06-27T11:12:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T15:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=49472"},"modified":"2022-06-11T19:29:23","modified_gmt":"2022-06-11T23:29:23","slug":"life-ceremony-by-sayaka-murata-translated-by-ginny-tapley-takemori-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/life-ceremony-by-sayaka-murata-translated-by-ginny-tapley-takemori-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"*STARRED REVIEW
\n<\/strong>Once more, internationally bestselling Sayaka Murata confronts unspeakable topics with quotidian calm, shockingly convincing logic, and creepy humor in a dozen genre-defying stories, translated again by her chosen, Japanese-to-English enabler, Ginny Tapley Takemori.<\/p>\n

Death is no longer an ending, full stop, in \u201cA First-Rate Material,\u201d in which all body parts of the departed are recycled into clothing, jewelry, and furniture, while in \u201cLife Ceremony,\u201d the lifeless are consumed to nourish the living, who then are inspired to procreate immediately after.<\/p>\n

Sex is replaced by artificial insemination as the preferred method to produce children in \u201cA Summer Night\u2019s Kiss\u201d and \u201cTwo\u2019s Family.\u201d Food at a family gathering becomes highly individualized in \u201cA Magnificent Spread\u201d: \u201cThe spread on the table now included the dishes from the magical city of Dundilas, the high-quality pouches of Happy Future Food, and the various insects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fantastical impossibility becomes commonplace in \u201cThe Time of the Large Star\u201d (sleep no more), \u201cPoochie\u201d (homeless humans as children\u2019s pets), \u201cLover on the Breeze\u201d (a possessively anthropomorphized curtain), and \u201cPuzzle\u201d (a woman\u2019s body parts might involve an acrimoniously estranged couple). Then there\u2019s an urban forager in \u201cEating the City\u201d and a woman with five personalities in \u201cHatchling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murata groupies will appreciate a glimpse of characters from Earthlings<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>(2020) \u2013\u00a0from a different POV. Bordering realism are an urban forager in \u201cEating the City,\u201d and a woman with five personalities in \u201cHatchling.\u201d Audiences seeking the undefinable will enjoy immensely.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: modified from “Fiction,” Booklist<\/em>, June 1, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers:<\/strong> Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*STARRED REVIEW Once more, internationally bestselling Sayaka Murata confronts unspeakable topics with quotidian calm, shockingly convincing logic, and creepy humor in a dozen genre-defying stories, translated again by her chosen, Japanese-to-English enabler, Ginny Tapley Takemori. Death is no longer an ending, full stop, in \u201cA…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,76,6535,7,66],"tags":[89,6608,6668,75,10,11,7883,123,10326,39,64,7882,35],"class_list":["post-49472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-japanese","category-repost","category-short-stories","category-translation","tag-anthology-collection","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-death","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-ginny-tapley-takemori","tag-illness","tag-life-ceremony","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-pets-animals","tag-sayaka-murata","tag-speculative-fantasy"],"yoast_head":"\nLife Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/life-ceremony-by-sayaka-murata-translated-by-ginny-tapley-takemori-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*STARRED REVIEW Once more, internationally bestselling Sayaka Murata confronts unspeakable topics with quotidian calm, shockingly convincing logic, and creepy humor in a dozen genre-defying stories, translated again by her chosen, Japanese-to-English enabler, Ginny Tapley Takemori. Death is no longer an ending, full stop, in \u201cA...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/life-ceremony-by-sayaka-murata-translated-by-ginny-tapley-takemori-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-27T15:12:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-11T23:29:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/06\/Life-Ceremony-Sayaka-Murata-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/life-ceremony-by-sayaka-murata-translated-by-ginny-tapley-takemori-in-booklist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori [in Booklist] - BookDragon","og_description":"*STARRED REVIEW Once more, internationally bestselling Sayaka Murata confronts unspeakable topics with quotidian calm, shockingly convincing logic, and creepy humor in a dozen genre-defying stories, translated again by her chosen, Japanese-to-English enabler, Ginny Tapley Takemori. 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