Weasels in the Attic

I mean what is there to say, the book was 70 pages long. Separated into three parts, we follow a man and his wife and their interactions with a long time friend of the man, Saiki, and his new wife, Yoko. Saiki likes keeping fish, and his wife is young. Our main character's wife wants children but they haven't been able to conceive. Both couples spend some time together.

Is that a spoiler? Because that's the entire book. I have struggled in the past with translated Japanese literature, I always feel like there is something lost in translation, but I really enjoyed the author's other book, The Hole, but more for its surreal whimsy. This didn't have any of that. It wasn't bad, it wasn't good. It just was.

Originally published individually between 2012-2014, these three short stories titled "Death in the Family," "The Last of the Weasels," and "Yukiko" feature a couple struggling to have a child. This struggle is figured and explored in three strange dinner parties with friends and acquaintances. As with Oyamada's other stories, animals have great significance for the humans , but in these the there are more metaphors than actual transformations. As always, you can never guess where Oyamada's storytelling is taking you.