The Woman Next Door (Tonari no onna)

Original publication: Tonari no onna, Bungeishunju Ltd., Japan, 1981. Lonely people trapped in webs of their own design, seeking hope, love, forgiveness, validation... Five stories reveal the innermost hopes & fears of ordinary women, & men, facing the demands of others & of themselves in cool marriage & cold betrayal, exploring new avenues through new encounters.Mukōda, renowned for her piercing depictions of loneliness, family, & inner turmoil, examines the roles of women & the 'man of the house,' whether husband, father, or even daughter. Her work explores the pain lurking in unmet expectations of family & love, & the resilience of women & men in finding purpose where none is forthcoming.°°°Life’s usually tough, albeit it with the occasional bright spot – the only problem is that it’s sometimes hard to tell whether the light is coming from the end of the tunnel or from a speeding train... an entertaining & thought-provoking collection from a writer with an eye for the duller side of life, & ... it all reads enjoyably, too. —Tony's Reading List°°°Mukōda Kuniko (向田 邦子, November 28, 1929–August 22, 1981) was born in Tokyo. After graduating Jissen Women's Educational Institute, she began work at film publicity company Ondori Company in 1952. She quit in 1960 to write for the screen & radio, winning the 1980 Naoki Prize for her short stories "Hanano Namae", "Kawauso" & "Inugoya." She died unexpectedly in an aircraft disaster.A. Reid Monroe-Sheridan is a corporate lawyer & Associate Professor at Keio University Law School in Tokyo. He has previously taught courses at the University of Tokyo Graduate Schools for Law & Politics & Hitotsubashi Univ. Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy. He holds a B.A. in Japanese literature from Carleton College & a J.D. from Harvard Law School & is a graduate of the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies based in Yokohama. The thirteen stories in this collection focus on ordinary characters from daily life- the working husband and the loyal wife who sadly and silently endures. Inevitably, they unravel to reveal human obsessions, flaws, and fears. And like the very best Japanese fiction, they are filled with sharp details and subtle, revealing changes of hue and texture.

Author Biography: Known for her many teleplays and winner of the Naoki Prize for Fiction, Kuniko Mukoda was emerging as one of Japan's most popular writers when she died in a plane crash in 1981.; Translator Tomone Matsumoto is co-editor of the Showa Anthology of Japanese short stories.

Stone Bridge Press is a leading English-language publisher of Japanese literature in translation. Our ROCK SPRING COLLECTION OF JAPANESE LITERATURE features absorbing and important translations of classical and contemporary Japanese fiction and poetry. We believe that literature is a window into culture and society, and an expression of what is most peculiarly, and universally, human.

This collection includes: The Name of the Flower, Small Change, I Doubt It, The Otter, Manhattan, Beef Shoulder, The Doghouse, The Fake Egg, Triangular Chop, Mr. Carp, Ears, Half-Moon, and The Window.

Over a dozen unsettling and eccentric stories chart the distances between men and women and between people and their memories of the past. Mixing startling visual details and plot twists with subtle changes of hue and texture, these tales of ordinary Japanese families offer vivid portraits of secret unhappiness and betrayal of men trapped by obsession and insecurity, of women finding strength and sorrow in their ability to silently endure. - a wife's devoted effort to make her husband more refined is met by a vulgar betrayal - a fish mysteriously appears in a kitchen one afternoon, and no one but the philandering husband knows why - a young wife-to-be revels in the attention she gets from her fiance's assistant, until she finds out what he's really after - a man takes a day off work and discovers strange memories int he closets and drawers at home - a father worries that his daughter, like his own mother, may be incapable of controlling her sexuality A satisfying blend of literary style and sharp observations on modern domestic life, this collection introduces the late Kuniko Mukoda as a sensitive writer with a calculating, mischievous intelligence. Mukoda's wonderful stories vividly present the strengths and sorrows of modern Japanese women.--Gail Tsukiyama "Superbly rendered into English."--Publishers Weekly