{"id":50081,"date":"2022-12-15T12:12:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T17:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=50081"},"modified":"2022-12-14T11:32:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T16:32:32","slug":"the-tatami-galaxy-by-tomihiko-morimi-translated-by-emily-balistrieri-in-booklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-tatami-galaxy-by-tomihiko-morimi-translated-by-emily-balistrieri-in-booklist\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi, translated by Emily Balistrieri [in Booklist]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Reminiscent of\u00a0Groundhog Day<\/em>-like repetition, each chapter duplicates the same opening paragraphs, ending with the same \u201cgross love language\u201d (but watch for that perspective shift).<\/p>\n

The intriguing premise is that an unnamed university junior in Kyoto reveals how he \u201caccomplished absolutely nothing\u201d in his first two years. Every time, he\u2019s a \u201cfresh-as-a-daisy-man\u201d \u2013 a \u201cnew student walking through campus [who] gets club flyers thrust upon them.\u201d Four flyers loom, \u201cthe Ablutions film club, a bizarre \u2018Disciples Wanted\u2019 notice, the Mellow softball club, and the underground organization Lucky Cat Chinese Food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each chapter is a do-over that begins and ends with the protagonist as the same disgruntled junior who\u2019s been abetted, misled, and ruined in varying situations by a recurring cast, including frenemy Ozu, upstairs \u201cMaster\u201d Higuchi, older student Jogasaki (and his stolen love doll, Kaori), dental hygienist Hanuki, and sorta-love interest Akashi. His galaxy is his four-and-a-half-mat tatami room, which is both his escape and his prison.<\/p>\n

A self-labeled \u201cMorimi geek,\u201d translator Emily Balistrieri (he\/him, publishing under his birthname) meticulously deciphers the protagonist\u2019s \u201c\u2018rotten\u2019 university student voice\u201d for English readers.<\/p>\n

YA\/S – special interest<\/b>:\u00a0Teen anime aficionados will greatly appreciate the prose original that inspired the award-winning celluloid series of the same title.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: “Fiction,” Booklist<\/em>, October 15, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Published<\/strong>: 2008 (Japan), 2022 (United States)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reminiscent of\u00a0Groundhog Day-like repetition, each chapter duplicates the same opening paragraphs, ending with the same \u201cgross love language\u201d (but watch for that perspective shift). The intriguing premise is that an unnamed university junior in Kyoto reveals how he \u201caccomplished absolutely nothing\u201d in his first two…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,76,6535,66],"tags":[84,6608,6668,58,10642,11,51,10644,10643],"class_list":["post-50081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-japanese","category-repost","category-translation","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-coming-of-age","tag-emily-balistrieri","tag-friendship","tag-identity","tag-tatami-galaxy","tag-tomihiko-morimi"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi, translated by Emily Balistrieri [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\/the-tatami-galaxy-by-tomihiko-morimi-translated-by-emily-balistrieri-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi, translated by Emily Balistrieri [in Booklist] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reminiscent of\u00a0Groundhog Day-like repetition, each chapter duplicates the same opening paragraphs, ending with the same \u201cgross love language\u201d (but watch for that perspective shift). The intriguing premise is that an unnamed university junior in Kyoto reveals how he \u201caccomplished absolutely nothing\u201d in his first two...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-tatami-galaxy-by-tomihiko-morimi-translated-by-emily-balistrieri-in-booklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-15T17:12:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-14T16:32:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/10\/Tatami-Gallery-Morimi-Tomohiko-BookDragon-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"906\" \/>\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":"The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi, translated by Emily Balistrieri [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\/the-tatami-galaxy-by-tomihiko-morimi-translated-by-emily-balistrieri-in-booklist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi, translated by Emily Balistrieri [in Booklist] - BookDragon","og_description":"Reminiscent of\u00a0Groundhog Day-like repetition, each chapter duplicates the same opening paragraphs, ending with the same \u201cgross love language\u201d (but watch for that perspective shift). 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