A co-authored thriller set in OSLO
Short novel set in SAITAMA (Japan)
4th March 2025
May You Have Delicious Meals by Junko Takase, short novel set in Saitama (Japan)
Translated by Morgan Giles
What a curious little book this is. A trio of office workers act out the Drama Triangle by forming liaisons, and two bitch about the third. Nitani is the male co-worker who relies on pot noodles for sustenance, he teams up with an older woman Oshio to lambast the fragile nature of Ashikawa, who often swerves work due to her fragile emotional health but does bring in lots of home cooking. At some level Nitani is dating Ashikawa but her determination to get him onto a more healthy (let’s say more varied) diet proves a real turn off to him. He just doesn’t understand the notion of savouring food, craving, as he does, his pot noodles for every meal.
There is no real storyline, just vignettes of office life, highlighting the daily drudgery and the grinding politics. The food is almost a smokescreen for the bullying nature of the two venal characters who take every opportunity to take down their work colleague. Of course there are dynamics like this in offices around the world (sadly), but I just don’t want to read about such negative constructs. It can feel like quite a mean little novel, somewhat redeemed by descriptions of food. It does end on a deeper note but by that time I had lost the will to live….
It is ultimately a down beat read and nothing really happens. Food and bullying are at the heart of this novel and I can’t quite think why, really, anyone would choose to read it. It is highlighted as ‘funny’ (not to my mind); and the statement on the back cover ‘All the people are alive’ is a real stretch (I felt they were two dimensional bots who choose to harangue their colleague).
The translation is ok but feels at times very American with a lot of “gonnas” – as in, he is gonna to do this, that and the other.
I think the clue to the content is in the grim and rather two dimensional cover. Not one for me.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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