Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan
Translated by Jesse Kirkwood
That little phrase on the rather gorgeous front cover of this book, ‘Winner of the Akutagawa Prize’ caught my eye, instantly meaning that this novella wouldn’t be following the current trend for twee, that prize being Japan’s premier literature award.
It didn’t disappoint! In fact, this novella will likely feature in my year-end best of list.
It is set in Japan of the near future, where criminals are given ‘radical sympathy’. The acclaimed architect, Sara Machina, won the competition to design Sympathy Tower, Tokyo, a new kind of prison, where the inmates will be incarcerated in luxury, christened ‘Homo Miserabilis’ by the concept’s deviser. However, right from the start, she is racked with doubt. She’s not sure she can believe in the concept behind the building.
Every inch of my body was repelled by the incursion of the Sympathy Tower. Ah, I thought, now I know what this reminds me of. It reminds me of rape. (p3)
She was raped at school, and her attacker, her boyfriend at the time, got away with it.
She is holed up in a hotel to come up with a plan, where her much younger boyfriend, Takt, comes to visit, but despite being a fashion design devotee, he’s not helping and she finds herself consulting an AI chatbot. She’s particularly concerned with the proposed name. As an intellectual used to the formal Japanese kanji characters, she is not happy with the more colloquial katabana which phonetically spell words. Sympathy Tower Tokyo just looks wrong in katabana, unbalanced, too long. Sara wrestles with this dichotomy in the language at the start of the book, and it’s hard to describe adequately, yet it was fascinating.
… the Japanese people are trying to abandon their own language. (p6)
However, it’s while she and Takt were talking that he prompted a solution to the naming problem that freed Sara’s block. Takt added a rhyming syllable ‘to’ meaning city, after Tokyo which made the kanji balance – ‘Tōkyō-to Dōjō-tō’ – Tokyo city sympathy tower – far fewer ‘kitschy Trump Tower vibes.’ Sara is also anxious to make her hero Zaha Hadid, who designed the national stadium which will be a neighbour to the tower proud. The tower must work with the stadium.
The story of Sara and the tower is told in several sections with Takt taking up the narrative in places. It also includes a new introduction to the book which introduced the concept of homo miserabilis by its author, and a visit inside the tower by a radical American journalist – where his guide is none other than Takt, now working there.
I’m very aware that I probably haven’t done justice to the 134 pages of this thoughtful and thought-provoking novella, which was beautifully written: a meditation on language, architecture, and the prisons we build for ourselves. 8u9
Source: Own copy. Vintage flapped paperback, 2025. BUY at Waterstones or Amazon UK via my affiliate links.
Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee
Translated by Sandy Joosun Lee
Now this Korean bestseller is, like its rainbow cover, really twee, but it has redeeming qualities.
Firstly, the author is (like me) a materials scientist so I was predisposed to like her.
Secondly, the set-up is a bit different to the coffee-shop, bookshop type twee novels. Imagine a department store that only sells one product, but all different kinds of it – dreams.
We follow Penny, a new hire at the Dallergut Dream Department Store. On her first day, she’s sent to explore the five floors of the store, each selling a different type of dream, to decide where she’d like to work. She sees that Weather, the lady who runs Reception seems to need help, and the owner, Mr Dallergut is only too happy for her to work there.
Thereon in, we get a series of short stories set in the store, looking at different aspects of dreams. We meet the managers of the different floors, we meet the dream designers, including Nicholas who specialises in dreams for children at Christmas!
Throughout, there is a commentary on the value and healing power of dreams, even nightmares, from ‘my first crush’ to ‘precog’ dreams with déjà vu, swimming with whales, and thank you dreams to give the gift of memories from those dying. Freud it ain’t but Penny and Mr Dallergut discuss the psychology of dreaming thoroughly. Also Mr Dallergut is unlike any other dream-seller, he has ethics and won’t sell dreams to those who aren’t ready or right for them.
There is also much fun to be had – Penny goes with Mr Dallergut to the dreammakers conference – where there is discussion over no-shows who book dreams and don’t collect, but also the increasing number of all-nighter events… take the World Cup – if it’s in Europe, everyone in Asia will stay up all night to watch it – opportunities lost.
This in an unashamedly feelgood book that I rather enjoyed as my 23rd of #20BOS26. Apparently it’ll be a ‘duology’ – will I read the second part? Possibly. Meanwhile I shall leave you with Lindisfarne’s Meet Me On the Corner … ‘Hey Mister Dreamseller….’
Source: Own copy. Wildfire flapped paperback, 259 pages. BUY at Waterstones or Amazon UK via my affiliate links.
