The Laws Of Evening: Stories (2004) - Plot & Excerpts
A renewal of spirit, as delicate and pained as green shoots pushing through concrete up to sunlight. "Seed" = 4/10. A woman moves with her husband to conquered China and dreams of the desert beyond the prison camp, while dreading the death marches that must inevitably pass her house. A nice set up by planting "seeds" for the final story. "Since My House Burned Down" = 3/10. The first post-WWII story. Since my house burned down / I now own a better view / of the rising moon. An old woman from a noble family watches wearily as the new, Westernized generation destroys her sense of security. Unmemorable. "Shibusa" = 8/10. The first story to really move me. A young woman loses her son and husband to bombings, only to meet an old family friend by chance years later in the alley behind her house. "Aftermath" = "Kami" = "Rationing" = "The Laws of Evening" ="Egg-Face" = "The Way Love Works" ="Circling the Hondo" = "Mirror Studies" =
A series of short stories, for the most part set in post-war Japan as an ancient culture is left trying to re-establish customs and traditions which are rapidly being usurped by Western, particularly American influences during the occupation. Each story is well written, if not finely crafted and Waters seems to have a real strength in describing elements of the landscape, particularly anything relating to water. Is this some sort of super power attributable to her surname? Maybe. It did make me wonder if she felt some sort of personal affinity with her namesake. Many of the stories are sad, touching or regretful. An almost universal theme of the mourning of change is woven into each story, be it the change in health, change in pace of life or change in tradition. It's the sort of book which reminds you that you can only really appreciate your progress through life, if you can mourn a little of what is left behind.
What do You think about The Laws Of Evening: Stories (2004)?
this book came up when i searched for books similar to wild swans, which i had read a whiles back. i thought that the title and the summary inferred that it would be short romantic stories about post war japan, but it just ended up to be a sad twisted version of aesop’s fabels with incoherent asian similies. i liked it in the beginning, when there was still hope for sex to emerge inthe book, but after a while, i skimmed, and quickly finished the book when it was apparent that it would keep telling the same stories over with different names and settings. Nice try, but no.
—Nicole
