Yūko Tsushima (1947–2016)

Koko siempre ha vivido en el presente. Afronta cada día sin mirar atrás. Pese a las presiones de su familia, se fue a vivir a un piso con su novio. Ha criado ella sola a una niña de once años mientras sobrevive dando clases particulares de piano. Mientras tanto, la sospecha de un nuevo embarazo despierta en su interior viejos anhelos, culpas eternas y esperanzas ocultas. Yuko Tsushima pone a prueba las convenciones sobre la independencia y la memoria, y nos ofrece un asfixiante baile de máscaras donde familiares, amigos y amantes se empeñan en tener la última palabra sobre cómo deberían vivir la vida las mujeres.

Yuko Tsushima, la aclamada autora de Territorio de luz, se sumerge en los abismos del subconsciente en una novela que, 40 años después, conserva la vigencia de un clásico moderno.… (mais)

“No matter how she pushed herself, she couldn’t manage anything apart from the round trip, toting Akira, between home and the nursery and on to the restaurant. A day, a week, a month had gone by like sand sifting past her body, odorless and tasteless.”

Yuko Tushima’s works happened to find me as I started my journey into motherhood. Though I am very fortunate to not have experienced the abuse her protagonist was forced to endure, I was floored by how accurately Tsushima detailed the grueling lifestyle changes and dissonant feelings of unconditional love and stress that I myself experienced as a new mom. Reading each page felt like I was entering something deeply personal to the author and yet also universally relatable to many mothers around the globe.

Another thing I appreciated was how the protagonist was so realistically human. She was naïve and reckless at times, but I loved how Tsushima wrote her with so much empathy and without judgment. Her depiction of the marginalization of single women in Japan is heart-wrenching.

I enjoyed this novel as much as I enjoyed her other work, Territory of Light. I highly recommend both to mothers and single parents who want to feel heard.… (mais)

I was hypnotized by this book from the very beginning. I don't read many books about mothers -- is that strange? This was constantly tipping back and forth between scenes where I read, set at a comfortable distance from the narrator and her feelings, to scenes where I identified SO INTENSELY that I was awash with sympathetic guilt, exhaustion, anxiety, or quiet awe.

At the beginning of the novel, she separates from her husband and moves into an apartment with her two-year-old daughter. Over the next year and a half, she attempts to make a life for herself and her daughter, while untangling them both from her husband, and figuring out how to be a good parent to a toddler while she herself is struggling. The lack of support she has coupled with the judgements she faces from all sides, and her own judgements of herself leave her frequently feeling a bit untethered and adrift -- a stress a child can't help but pick up on. The ways she both accepts and rebels against responsibility for every aspect of her daughter's behavior -- that slides from apathy if not defensive rage to guilt and panic -- cannot help but be relatable to many mothers, whether or not the specific circumstances causing those reactions are familiar.

This was such an impulse purchase for me -- I had seen the cover image over and over on Instagram, but don't think I had even read any of the reviews. I am very glad to have discovered this one. A quiet, deeply empathetic novel.… (mais)