ME: A Novel (e-book) (used book) | Tomoyuki Hoshino | bookbook.eu

Description

Mr. Hoshino s superb talent allows for a development of the richly imaginative details that is completely natural, without any hint of forced contrivances . . . There is a clear distinction to be seen here between ME and the sort of television drama or potboiler fiction already available that take up telephone fraud as a social topic. Nor does the novel allow itself to slip into simplistic allegory. The weight of reality it creates reflects the substantiality of the author s prowess. [Chapters 3 and 4] surpass even Kobo Abe, Japan s great forerunner in the power of literary thought. The author has leaped to a higher level."
--Kenzaburo Oe, Nobel Prizewinning author of The Silent Cry, from the afterword
"Tomoyuki Hoshino s ME is a daring literary triumph, unlike any book you re likely to read this year or any other. Inventive, absurd, and thrilling, Hoshino draws upon the work of a wide array of literary masters--Abe, Camus, Vonnegut, and Chandler--to create a character and world that s wholly unique. A thoughtful, somewhat surreal exploration of the darkest self-reflexive tendencies of this modern moment. I strongly recommend it."
--Joe Meno, author of Marvel and a Wonder
"There is more than a little of a great episode ofBlack Mirrorin Tomoyuki Hoshino s funny, frighteningME. ButMEis considerably more than a clever premise, and as I moved deeper into mental and physical dislocation alongside its hero, I felt my own sense of reality being pulled apart. Hoshino s sharp, understated prose, in Charles De Wolf s excellent translation, is what makes this incredible journey possible. The whole is both pleasurable and profound.
--Laird Hunt, author ofThe Evening Road
This novel centers on the It s me telephone scamoften targeting the elderlythat has escalated in Japan in recent years. Typically, the caller identifies himself only by saying, Hey, it s me, and goes on to claim in great distress that he s been in an accident or lost some money with which he was entrusted at work, etc., and needs funds wired to his account right away.
ME s narrator is a nondescript young Tokyoite named Hitoshi Nagano who, on a whim, takes home a cell phone that a young man named Daiki Hiyama accidentally put on Hitoshi s tray at McDonald s. Hitoshi uses the phone to call Daiki s mother, pretending he is Daiki, and convinces her to wire him 900,000 yen.
Three days later, Hitoshi returns home from work to discover Daiki s mother there in his apartment, and she seems to truly believe Hitoshi is her son. Even more bizarre, Hitoshi discovers his own parents now treat him as a stranger; they, too, have a me living with them as Hitoshi. At a loss for what else to do, Hitoshi begins living as Daiki, and no one seems to bat an eye.
In a brilliant probing of identity, and employing a highly original style that subverts standard narrative forms, Tomoyuki Hoshino elevates what might have been a commonplace crime story to an occasion for philosophical reflection. In the process, he offers profound insights into the state of contemporary Japanese society.