After reviewing All Of Us Strangers by Taichi Yamada, I was eager to read his third novel published as Toko no koe wo sagashite. It is also a ghost story, with images that linger and make you question.
It has been eight years since Tsuneo returned to Japan from Portland, Oregon, longing for everything to be normal. Now 29, he works and lives in a government complex in Tokyo, an immigration officer tasked with deporting illegal workers. The irony is that when he was in Oregon, he himself was undocumented, working menial jobs under the table. Returning meant taking this civil job and working as a team player for stability. His Director-General has set up an arranged marriage with a woman he does not love, but will marry.
During an early morning raid, a man escapes and hides in a nearby cemetery. Tsuneo catches him but is unable to arrest him - as a powerful feeling cripples him to the spot, a sensuous feeling of ecstasy he cannot fight. He recovers but cannot tell anyone of the experience, or the feeling of despondancy overtaking him later that night, a heavy wave of grief holding him down. And then he hears the distant female voice: "Who are you?"
He didn't hear the voice, he felt the words within: "Tell me who you are?"
A conversation begins with the disembodied voice, calling out blindly in sadness, and he was the one who answered. Was it someone from another world?
They talk of his engagement, and the voice knows love is not involved. At the solemn gifting ceremony, the voice makes him act ridiculous in front of the family, threatening the marriage plans. It is obvious the woman's voice is not his imagination, knowing things he does not, and he longs to meet in person. First she wants to know what happened in Portland years ago, and he tells her the story. That could meet in person seems highly unlikely, and yet. Is she even a real person - it doesn't seem so, and yet.
They plan to meet.
Tsuneo was a troubled youth, barely passing school, but as the protagonist of this novel, I disliked him. He certainly displays an empty heart. What happened in Portland in my mind was inexcuseable from the start, and the resolution was a heavy disappointment. A personal feeling, but just because he is the lead of the novel, I don't have to like him. I am sure Tsuneo is not delusional, yet perhaps there is something broken in him to be the one who responds to her plaintive cry. It leaves the reader questioning.
This is an entertaining read. As ghostly stories go, it is well within Henry James territory. On the surface, not as spooky as I hoped for, and yet, it has a haunting quality.
Widely available in print, eBook and audio.
My other review of Taichi Yamada:
1986 (translated 2006) / Tradeback / 208 pages
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