Last evening there was a symposium around Yoko Tawada's new book at the U of Tokyo. The participants were Yoko the author, Motoyuki Shibata, and Masatsugu Ono. The session was organized by Kan Nozaki. Shibata the little giant was as usual very impressive and witty. Ono, himself a novelist, was so refreshing I laughed out aloud a couple of times. Nozaki's moderation was simply impeccable.
Tawada's new novel is called AMERICA: hido no tairiku. The subtitle has a typically Tawada-ish double entendre: "a ruthless continent" and "a continent without roads." It's a continuation of a sort of her previous Yogisha no Yakoressha. Ono brilliantly analyzed the two books to which I had little to add.
After the session I went with some friends to the bistro on campus. The service was terrible, the food acceptable. There I ran into Karen Yamashita who came for a lecture by a UCLA professor. We took the same line going home.
