巷説百物語

Great but not an easy read

(review date: Feb 2013)

Wow, this was a difficult read. I must have been working through it on and off for a year. It was even harder than 姑獲鳥の夏 because as well as the author's kanji-heavy and complex prose style it has a lot of Edo-period vocabulary and dialect-heavy dialogue.

Unlike 姑獲鳥の夏, this is a set of short stories featuring varying subsets of the same cast of characters. (There are seven stories in this volume and at least four further books in the series after this.) A 百物語 is a traditional collection of Japanese ghost stories, and this is Kyougaku's take on that idea. The general shape of each story is similar: a strange situation related to or in a similar theme to a classic Edo-period yokai legend, which is then resolved with the bad guys getting their come-uppance. The stories aren't intended to be solve-the-puzzle type mysteries, so much as atmosphere and entertainment. The stories are much more straightforward than 姑獲鳥の夏 in narrative style and complexity, which makes sense given the combination of the short story format and the way these are basically a take on ghost stories.

I did like the book (or I would have given up on trying to read it...) but I definitely wanted to read something much easier once I'd finished it :-)